Lambic
Lambics are spontaneously fermented beers native to the Senne Vally of Belgium which are made from barley malt and unmalted wheat (30-40%) and aged hops. They form the base of a number of lambic products including unblended lambic, gueuze, and fruit lambics including kriek and framboise.
Contents
Production Methods
to do Mashing, boiling and cooling
Fermentation
Blenders v brewers
Types
Unblended
A spontaneously fermented unblended ale that is indigenous to the Senne Valley of Belgium. Lambics traditionally use a large percentage of unmalted wheat and turbid mashing, a labor-intensive mashing process to retain a high level of dextrins which are unfermentable to normal brewing yeast. The flavor is dominated with a unique tartness and brettanomyces character from the wild yeast and bacteria that inoculate the brew. These microbes are sourced from both the ambient environment when the beer is open cooled and from the barrels in which lambics typically ferment.
Average alcohol by volume (abv) range: 5.0-8.0%
G(u)euze
Gueuze (also written geuze) is a blend of lambics, traditionally 1 year old, 2 year old and 3 year old which undergoes bottle conditioning to become a highly carbonated product.
Fruit
In the case of Fruit Lambics, whole fruits are traditionally added after spontaneous fermentation has started. Kriek (cherries) and Frambroise (raspberries) are the most common fruit lambic, although other fruit lambics can be found including Quetsche (plum), Peche (peach) and Cassis (black currant) among others. Once the fruit is added, the beer is subjected to additional maturation before bottling. Malt and hop characters are generally low to allow the fruit to to come forward. Alcohol content tends to be around 5-6%, although certain fruits such as grapes may raise the abv.
A number of non-traditional sweetened fruit lambics can be found. These may sometimes be identified by especially low abv (<3%). Breweries producing sweetened lambics frequently use fruit / sugar syrups rather than whole fruits.
Average alcohol by volume (abv) range: 4.0-8.0%
See Also
Additional Articles on MTF Wiki
External Resources
- "Flemish Red Brown Beers", Presentation by Rudi Ghequire at CBC 2012. (Contains differences with Lambic)
- lambic.info