Lambic

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Lambic is a style of beer only brewed in the Payottenland region (southwest of Brussels in Belgium). Other lambic beers produced outside of Payottenland are known as Lambic-style.

Unlike conventional ales and lagers, which are brewed using carefully cultivated strains of brewer's yeasts, Lambic beer is produced through spontaneous fermentation: it is fermented by wild yeasts which are native to the Senne valley, in which Brussels lies. These wild yeasts give the beer its distinctive flavour: dry, vinous and cidery, with a slightly sour aftertaste. Up to 86 microorganisms in all have been identified in this process, the most significant ones being Brettanomyces bruxellensis and Brettanomyces lambicus.

In modern times, this medieval style of beer has been modified by some brewers by the addition of sugar, in order to appeal to a larger audience. The resultant beer is very different, being sweet instead of dry. Today, the most readily available lambic is often of the sweetened kind, as opposed to the rarer traditional lambic.

Lambic is brewed from approximately 70% barley malt and 30% unmalted wheat. When the wort has cooled, it is exposed to the open air and spontaneous fermentation takes place. This is only done between October and May; in the summer months, there are too many unfavourable bacteria in the air.

Aged dried hops are used, so the hop taste is not bitter. Originally, hops were used in beer as a preservative, but today hops are used as spices in almost all beers except lambic. Since the bacterial inoculation and long fermentation time creates a greater risk of making the beer go bad, lambics use a much larger amount of hops than a regular beer. In order to avoid making the beer extremely bitter, aged hops, which have lost their bitterness, are used. Consequently, lambics often have a strong old hop cheese-like aroma, in contrast to regular beer's resiny/herbal/earthy hop bitterness. The old hop taste better complements lambic's strong acetic and sometimes lactic acidity.

After the fermentation process starts, the lambic is siphoned into old oak or chestnut barrels from the Porto region of Portugal or the Jerez region of Spain. Some of the brewers prefer used wine barrels. The lambic is left to ferment and mature for one to two or even three years. It forms a flor of yeast that gives some protection from oxidisation, in a similar way to vin jaune and sherry; the barrels are not topped up.

Lambic beer is widely consumed in Brussels and environs, and is also frequently used for cooking in Belgian cuisine.

1 Types of lambic
2 Origins
3 Belgian lambic breweries
4 Belgian lambic blenders
5 References
6 External links

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Types of lambic

Lambic (pure)

Unblended lambic is a cloudy, uncarbonated, slightly sour beverage available on tap in only a few locations. One year old.

Gueuze lambic

A mixture of young (one-year) and old (two and three-year) lambics which has been bottled. It undergoes secondary fermentation (the so-called méthode champenoise), producing carbon dioxide, because the young lambics are not yet fully fermented. It keeps in the bottle; a good gueuze will be given a year to referment in the bottle, but can be kept for 10-20 years. An obscure German ale style, Gose, is not to be confused with gueuze.

Faro

A low-alcohol, slightly sweet table beer made from lambic to which "candi" sugar (crystalised and in some cases caramelised cane or beet sugar) has been added. Unblended three-year-old lambic. Usually draught, not bottled.

Fruit

Lambic with the addition of sour cherry (kriek), raspberry (framboise), peach (pêche), blackcurrant (cassis), grape (druif), or strawberry (aardbei), as either whole fruit or syrup. Other, rarer fruit lambic flavorings include banana, pineapple, apricot, plum, and lemon. Fruit lambics are usually bottled with secondary fermentation. Although fruit lambics are among the most famous Belgian fruit beers, the use of the names kriek, framboise/frambozen, cassis, etc. does not necessarily imply that the beer is made from lambic. The fruit beers produced by the Liefmans brewery, for example, actually use a sour brown ale rather than a lambic as a base.

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Origins

A theory regarding the origins of the names geuze and lambic as put forth by Hubert van Herreweghen (Flemish-Belgian author and gueuze connoisseur) translated by Horst Dornbusch:

"It was also during the Spanish occupation of Brabant that - at least according to one rather fanciful theory - the two Belgian signature brews of gueuze and lambic got their names. According to this tale, the well-provisioned Spanish soldiers used to march into battle with partitioned leather flask dangling from their belts. One half of such a flask was filled with water, the other, with wine. Because of its dual function, the flask was called el ambiguo (Spanish for "double meaning"). The poor local gueux, on the other hand, (gueux is French for "beggars" or "good-for-nothings"), who opposed the worldly Spaniards, merely carried a flask of indigenous sour beer on their marches. The Spanish apparently derided the unpartitioned and thus obviously inferior drinking vessel of the bedraggled locals as a ... gueuze el ambiguo or a gueuze-lambic."

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Belgian lambic breweries

Belle Vue owned by InBev (Sweetened - except Sélection Lambic)
Boon (Traditional)
Brasserie Cantillon (Traditional)
De Keersmaeker owned by Scottish & Newcastle, better known by its brand name Mort Subite (Sweetened - except Gueuze Fond)
De Troch who also produce the Chapeau lambics (Sweetened)
Drie Fonteinen (Traditional)
Girardin (Traditional)
Lindemans (Sweetened - except Cuvé Renée)
Oud Beersel (closed), now brewed by Frank Boon (Traditional)
Timmermans (Sweetened - except "Traditional" line)

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Belgian lambic blenders

De Cam a new gueuze blender (Traditional)
Hanssens (Traditional)
Van Honsebrouck who produce the St. Louis beers (Sweetened - except Gueuze Fond Tradition)

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