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Noticeably, homebrewers tend to have a habit of calling any homebrewed blond sour beer a "lambic". This might stem from a lack of education about Belgian lambic and why many people respect the wishes of Belgian lambic brewers to not use the label of "lambic" for beer brewed outside of Belgium, as well as the BJCP Guidelines. However, the BJCP makes no claim that protected appellations should not be respected, and clearly states that the style guidelines are strictly for competition purposes only. In fact, for the sake of competition, every beer style should have the word "-style" appended to it, but that would be rather redundant from a competition guideline point of view (see section .iv of the [http://bjcp.org/docs/2015_Guidelines_Beer.pdf 2015 BJCP Guidelines]).
As with the naming of commercial beers as "lambic", there are many opinions on whether or not homebrewed sour beer should or should not be labelled as "lambic". While using the label "lambic" is an easy way for homebrewers to communicate that they've brewed some sort of sour beer, such labels are often harshly criticised by traditionalists in the sour brewing community and connoisseurs of lambic. Ironically, another sign of this potential misuse of the term "lambic" by homebrewers is that when a homebrewer makes a [[Spontaneous_Fermentation|100% spontaneously fermented beer]], they usually will not call it a "lambic" to avoid confusing it being confused with the typical sour brewing process which involves pitching lab cultures. Successfully homebrewing a 100% spontaneously fermented sour beer is not an easy feat, and great pride is taken by homebrewers who achieve success with 100% spontaneous fermentation. Other homebrewers still choose to call their 100% spontaneously fermented beers "lambic" because they were brewed using the exact same process as the Belgian lambic brewers.
For many traditional brewers, the term "lambic" or even "lambic style" not only carries a cultural tradition but a specific process as well, so when brewers use the word "lambic" or "lambic style" to describe their beers that are not brewed using the lambic process, a simple miscommunication is bound to occur between the traditionalist and the more competition-minded brewer. This liberal use of the term raises simple process questions such as is a homebrewed "lambic" fermented with a mixed culture product from a yeast lab, spontaneous fermentation, a mixture of wild and lab yeasts, kettle soured then pitched with ''Brettanomyces'', or brewed in a bucket or an oak barrel? For the sake of discussing specific brewing processes, the word "lambic" has almost lost its meaning in the brewing competition world. Process matters a lot less in brewing competitions than it does for brewing and drinking culture. This is an increasingly important point when discussing brewing process considering that the term "lambic style" has been encouraged in many homebrewing circles instead of "lambic", especially for brewing competitions. Therefore, when discussing brewing process of a particular beer, the use of the word "lambic" is at the very least confusing and vague unless more specific brewing process information is provided.