MdV: Merchant du Vin beer e-newsletter – Thursday Dec. 16, 2004: Belgian Craft Brewers and Real Lambic

Ayinger Celebrator Doppelbock resonates with rich, deep, malt complexity. It is available year-round in bottles, but in the winter you can get it on draft! http://www.merchantduvin.com/pages/5_breweries/celebrator.html

When Samuel Smith's Winter Welcome Ale first came to the United States, fifteen years ago, it was the first taste of a classic "winter warmer" for many Americans. Still the benchmark, Winter Welcome is at your local beer spot now & getting lots of raves in the press. More:

http://www.merchantduvin.com/pages/1_about/Samuel_Smith_Winter_Welcome.gif

Doyletown, PA; Anchorage, AK; Arlington, VA; Eugene, OR . . . tastings, festivals, beer coverage in the press . . . it is a great time for fine beer! Full event listing at:

http://www.merchantduvin.com/pages/1_about/news.html

Beer Chat from the Beer Court Jester: Belgian Craft Brewers and Real Lambic

In Belgium’s Senne (or Zenne) River Valley, near Brussels, a remarkable and amazing style of beer has been brewed for over 400 years: lambic. Those robust, partying peasants in Pieter Brueghel the Elder’s paintings “The Barn Dance,” and “Farmer’s Wedding,” are pouring what is thought by historians to be lambic. That was sometime around 1560 AD.

The name “lambic” probably comes from a village in the region, Lembeek. Lambic ales, like all beers, are made from water, barley malt, hops, and yeast. Lambic brewers also use a minimum of 30% unmalted wheat in the recipe (by law); the hops they add in large quantities are aged for two years or more. Some lambics have fruit added during secondary fermentation.

But fruit, unmalted wheat, and aged hops are not the most unusual aspect of lambic production: that would be the process known as spontaneous fermentation. Unheard of elsewhere in modern brewing, the brewers of lambic add no yeast: they allow natural, airborne local yeasts – established and living on the walls and roof of the brewery, and floating in the air – to ferment the beer.

It would be like leaving a glass of milk out on the counter . . . and getting spontaneous yogurt.

The lambic brewing process begins with milling the grain, and follows with mashing, runoff, sparging, and a lengthy boil in the brewkettle, where hops are added. Lambic brewers use aged hops because they want the preservative action of hops, and tannins for structure, without much hop bitterness. After brewing, the liquid (wort) is transferred to wide, shallow vessels called “coolships” and louvers in the brewery walls are opened up . . . and the breeze from outside blows in to cool the wort, carrying wild native yeasts with it.

The natural balance of yeast and other microorganisms in this region are what lead to the complex flavors in lambic. There are multiple species of yeast and bacteria that work together to ferment lambic: some researchers point to over 80 strains. As the fermentation process advances over days and weeks the alcohol level in the beer and the pH change, so different strains of yeast come into their own at different times during the fermentation. Lambics are often aged in wooden casks or on oak chips, which in turn contribute flavors ranging from nuanced to extreme.

What do they taste like? Earthy, tart, sharp, deep, sauvage, unusual, sour, wild, complex, subtle, compelling, dry . . . . to those who love them, there is nothing like them.

Styles: Straight lambic can sometimes be found in Brussels, usually served right from a cask, but it is not seen often. A style of lambic sweetened with candy sugar, faro, is also made but rarely seen outside Belgium. Lambics available in the US generally are either gueuze or fruit lambics.

Gueuze: In a manner similar to champagne makers, lambic brewers will often blend different batches of different ages. (And some, Hanssens for example, are blenders: they buy batches brewed by other lambic brewers, blend them to taste, then bottle them). A youthful, extra-sprightly batch of lambic is blended with a deep, complex batch that may have been aged for two or three years in oak; they are then bottle-conditioned. The resulting beer, gueuze, (“goo-za”) may not appeal to every beer drinker, but Lindemans Cuvee Rene, Cantillon, Boon, Hanssens, and Drie Fonteinen are considered the most satisfying, artisanal, unworldly beverage on the earth to the relatively small number of die-hard fans.

Fruit lambics: Brewing historians think that fruit probably pre-dates hops as a flavoring ingredient in beer. For many decades, cherries have sometimes been added to lambic near the end of fermentation. The sugar in the cherries leads to a secondary fermentation, and the wonderful fruit flavors are a perfect foil for the sharp acidity of a lambic. Lambic fermented with cherries is called “kriek,” and other fruits are used as well: raspberries (called framboise), peaches (peche), and black currants (cassis). In fruit lambics, the brewer determines the level of sweetness in the finished product: the most popular lambics in the US, Lindemans, are made in a sweeter style, with forward fruit and balancing lambic tartness in the background; other lambic producers ferment the fruit completely dry and produce a product with fruit as the accent flavor. In either case, there is no better balance to fruit flavor than the sharp, tart flavors found in lambics, and Lindemans Framboise – best-selling lambic in the US – is strong proof of that.

The lambic style has been attempted with some great success by American homebrewers and by Melbourn Bros. Brewery in Lincolnshire, England, which produces spontaneously-fermented strawberry, apricot, and cherry ales. (Because “lambic” means a beer from a specific small region of Belgium, Melbourn calls its beers “spontaneously fermented” and does not use the term “lambic.” The (US) Brewers Association uses the term “lambic-style” for beers brewed outside the lambic region, and American homebrewers often say “p-lambic,” short for “pseudo-lambic,” when they speak of their homebrewed versions.) It is a difficult style to produce anywhere: whereas Melbourn has been fortunate to get wild yeast established at their brewery, homebrewers have to pitch multiple strains of different yeast over the whole period of fermentation and monitor carefully, to try to recreate what happens naturally in the breweries of the Senne River Valley of Belgium.

If you are already a lambic fan, you know. If you haven’t tried one, start with a Lindemans Framboise: the pure raspberry nose will floor you, and when you taste it your eyebrows will shoot up. The complex depth supports the pure raspberry flavor; this is an amazing beverage! You may say what many tasters say when they first try it: “This is beer?”

Yes, it’s beer. In fact it may be the most unusual, artisanal, traditional, magic style of beer in the world today.

Merchant du Vin, America’s Premier Specialty Beer Importer Since 1978

www.merchantduvin.com