Champagne of Belgian beer
In Belgium a handful of artisan farmhouse brewers and blenders in and around Brussels make the beer world%26#39;s most unique and ancient style of beer.
Although the recipe is similar to a standard wheat beer, roughly 30 percent wheat to 70 percent barley, lambic is the only modern-day brewing style where brewers don%26#39;t inoculate the wort (boiled malt extract) with cultured yeast strains.
Brewers in the sixteenth century knew only that if they left the hopped wort overnight in open-topped vessels and with the brewery windows wide open, by the morning the %26quot;miracle%26quot; of fermentation had begun.
We now know exactly what happens: Wild fruit yeasts from local apple and pear orchards float in on the breeze, land in shallow open vessels full of sweet malty wort and begin a spontaneous fermentation. A day later the brew is pumped into unlined oak casks where it will continue a sequence of fermentations for up to three years.
There are several sub-styles of lambic beer. In each case the traditional unsweetened variants are usually labelled %26quot;oude%26quot; (old), while modern, sweetened, versions are identified with the term %26quot;nouveau%26quot; (new).
In New Zealand sweetened beers from Belle Vue, Mort Subite and Timmerman%26#39;s are the most popular (and least costly), but traditional examples from Boon, and occasionally Cantillon, can also be found in Belgian beer cafes and the most beer-savvy shops.
Authentic gueuze is made by blending old and young lambics. As a rough rule the best results come from blending three-year-old lambic with some one-year-old.
Pouring the colour of onion skins, with no head, it smells and tastes earthy and slightly savoury, something like a cross between a toasty, nutty chardonnay and a bone-dry cider!
The tradition of adding locally grown soft fruit to casks of lambic goes back centuries. Raspberry (framboise) or cherry (kriek) lambics are the most traditional, cherry stones can impart delicious almondy/marzipan notes, but peach, blackcurrant, banana and even tea-flavoured variants can also be found.
An old fashioned style that%26#39;s enjoying something of a comeback, Faro is a young lambic that has been sweetened with brown crystallised cane sugar, caramel or molasses.
Pouring a couple of shades darker than a straight lambic or gueuze, this sweet and sour style sometimes offers suggestions of apricot.
Lambic wit beers spiced with coriander seed and Curacao orange peel (in the manner of Hoegaarden and other Belgian witbiers), tend to have a silky, lactic creaminess. The first hybrid lambic-based wheat beer, Timmerman%26#39;s Lambicus Wit, offers suggestions of toast and ginger along with a hint of the lambic%26#39;s wine-like acidity.
Despite their complexity, lambics particularly the oude versions are wonderfully refreshing and, when served chilled in a flute glass, make an excellent alternative to champagne as a welcoming drink at a barbecue or party.
Wonderfully food-friendly, they are, however, probably the ultimate challenge to those whose appreciation of beer is based exclusively on modern lagers.
You have been warned!
Cheers!
