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.

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%

Fruit

In the case of Fruit Lambics, whole fruits are traditionally added after spontaneous fermentation has started. Kriek (cherries), Frambroise (raspberries), P�che (peach) and Cassis (black currant) are common fruits, all producing subtle to intense fruit characters respectively. 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 consume the palate. Alcohol content tends to be low.

Some breweries opt to use fruit / sugar syrups vs. whole fruits, producing very nontraditional sweet versions of the style.

Average alcohol by volume (abv) range: 3.0-8.0%

See Also

Additional Articles on MTF Wiki

• Spontaneous Fermentation
• Gueuze
• Gueuze and Lambic Character
• Cantillon
• 3 Fonteinen
• De Cam

External Resources

• "Flemish Red Brown Beers", Presentation by Rudi Ghequire at CBC 2012. (Contains differences with Lambic)
• lambic.info