Cantillon Iris 75cl

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In stock Alcohol Packaging 29.95
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Yes 6% 75cl
Cantillon Iris 75cl
  • Taste:
  • The aroma is funky with medium intense but kind of smooth funk, wood, light oxidative notes, sherry, ethyl acetate, leather, sweet floral honey, sweet elderflower and elderflower syrup. Medium body with a soft carbonation, a medium to medium-heavy acidity, a light to medium tartness and a medium bitterness. The flavor starts with acidic funk, very light acetic notes, citric notes, bitter wood, bitter herbs, tart wood, old wood, dry sherry and leather. Finishes dry with a long lasting herbal hop bitterness. Overall with a good complexity, a bit harsh on the acidity, bitter and woody.

  • Type:
  • Spontaneous fermentation, refermented in the bottle by adding liquor.
  • Color:
  • Dark gold coloured
  • Ideal temperature:
  • 12°C to 16°C => 54°F to 61°F
  • Ingredients:
  • Barley malt, pale ale type, 50% more than one year old hops, 50% fresh hops and water.
  • More info

Iris

The Cantillon brewery is closely linked to Brussels, a city which has the iris as its symbol. As the name indicates, the "marsh iris" is a plant growing in humid areas. The historical center of Brussels is built on swamps where this flower used to grow abundantly.

Iris

Artist : Julie Van Roy, 1998

In 1998, the Brussels Museum of the Gueuze celebrated its 20th anniversary. The Cantillon brewery decided to make a new spontaneous fermentation beer for this occasion, named after this symbolic flower.

It is a completely original beer which, contrary to the other products of the Brewery, is not brewed with 35% of wheat. The Iris, which is only made with malt of the pale ale type (giving a more amber colour to the beer) conserves the typical flavour of the spontaneous fermentation, the complex aromas and the vinous taste.

The hopping is different too. Lambic is made with 100% dried hops, for the Iris we use 50% of dried hops and 50% of fresh hops. The latter cause a superb acidity, the former, due to their tannins, enable to conserve the beer while preserving all its qualities.

After two years in the barrel, the Iris undergoes a second fresh hopping two weeks before the bottling. A linen bag, filled with hops, is soaked in the beer for two weeks. This technique, called "cold hopping", gives the beer a more intense savour and makes the smell and the taste more bitter.

Iris is brewed only once every season and all the beers come from the same brewing. This is why the beer is dated. The second fermentation is obtained by adding liquor.

Although it is a spontaneous fermentation beer, the Iris is very different from the Lambic. The amber colour and the bitter and slightly caramelized taste make it a complex beer.



Article number: FBBA008