Changes

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 labeled labelled as "lambic". While using the label "lambic" is an easy way for homebrewers to communicate what style that they've brewed some sort of sour beer they have brewed, such labels are often harshly criticized criticised by traditionalists in the sour brewing and fans of lambic communities. Ironically, another sign of this potential misuse of the term "lambic" by homebrewers is that when a homebrewer makes a 100% spontaneously fermented beer, they usually will not call it a "lambic" so as to avoid confusion 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 when achieving success with these traditional methods. Other homebrewers 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" not only carries a cultural tradition but a specific process as well, so when brewers use the word "lambic" 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. Is a homebrewed "lambic" brewed 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 understanding each other and communication, the word "lambic" has almost lost its meaning in the brewing competition world because process matters a lot less for brewing competitions than it does for brewing and drinking culture.  That all said, labeling homebrew as "lambic" has little consequence other than potentially forming a habit that some sour beer producers (and fellow homebrewers) might find disagreeable. We encourage all homebrewers to educate themselves about the production of Belgian lambic beers, as well as the arguments for and against labeling homebrew as "lambic" and deciding for themselves which philosophy to endorse. The word "lambic" might have a totally different meaning to a tradiionally minded brewer, while the term "lambic" might have a more generic "brewing competition" meaning to others, and so for the simple sake of communication, clarification should be considered for any in-depth process related discussion.