Lambic and Wild Ale

Two of the most anticipated events at Cantillon are its open public brewing session and Quintessence. At Quintessence, Cantillon’s year round beers and limited releases are paired with food. For its April 24 2010 Quintessence the brewer paired its beers with artisan cheeses from Jacquy Cange. The beer / cheese pairings are sampled at tasting counters throughout the brewery. As such, Quintessence also doubles as a self-guided walk through the brewery.

One of the most fascinating aspects of Quintessence is that it presents the visitor with the unique opportunity to sample and compare all the Cantillon releases in one extended session, something that would be prohibitively expensive and not practical considering the number of different beers Cantillon produces. The event also offers an opportunity to compare different vintages of Geuze, young lambic, faro and limited releases.  At Quintessence 2010, Cantillon served no fewer than 14 different lambics. With the exception of Cantillon’s apricot lambic, Fou’ Foune, and Lou Pepe Geuze, all year-round beers were present. The cheese pairings were tasteful and well chosen — the information sheet even included the fat content of the cheeses!

I am familiar with all of Cantillon’s year-round beers and some of their limited Cuvées. There is no Cantillon that I have not enjoyed but this day enabled me to do a personal comparison and ranking. On top of my list were its 3 year old unblended lambic, Grand Cru Bruocsella, the 2002 vintage Geuze (what a difference from the 2009 version!), Lou Pepe Kriek, Saint-Lamvinus (lambic with red grapes), and Iris. All the fruit lambics were relatively young and had great aroma and taste, which may reflect Cantillon’s recommendation that these lambics should not be aged. Cantillon also served a lambic that was cold hopped with Hallertau hops called Cuvée St-Gilloise. This beer had a much more pronounced bitterness but I preferred the more subtle Iris.  Much to my surprise, my favorite beer of the day was  not one of their regular beers but Zwanze 2009 (click here for a review of Zwanze 2008), a lambic flavored with elderberry flowers (vlierbloemen). I always enjoy green/herbal characteristics in wine and beer, so smelling and tasting this in a Cantillon beer was awesome.

I have nothing but praise for the staff of Cantillon. Information sheets about all the beers and cheeses were available in Dutch, English, and French and the people at the stations were patient and informative — nothing seemed rushed. A great event by a great brewery that deeply cares about traditional lambic.

Since 2008 traditional lambic brewery Cantillon has been producing lambics with unusual ingredients and releasing them under the name “Zwanze.” The word zwanze comes from the Flemish / Brussels expression “zwanzen” which roughly translates into “fooling around”, “being silly”, “talking nonsense.” The Zwanze series further reinforces Cantillon’s reputation as a brewery that reconciles tradition and experimentation.  The 2008 Zwanze is a blend of 2 year old lambics with rhubarb (!). To my knowledge, this is the first traditional lambic with a vegetable as its main addition.

The, by Cantillon’s standards  rather plain, label reads (translated from Dutch):

An industrial lambic with artificial aroma’s, that we know. A traditional lambic with fresh fruits, that is a rarity. A lambic with vegetables, that is true “zwanzen.” And zwanzen, that is what we know how to do at Cantillon…non peut-etre!

Ingredients: water, wheat, malt, hop, rhubarb (300 g/L) 5% alc.

The following notes were made in April 2010, a year after this bottle was purchased at Chez Moeder Lambic in Brussels.

Appearance: Blond. Orange. Fairly clear. Modest head, dissipates quickly.

Aroma: Brett. Honey. Vegetable smell. Parents say they recognize the “rabarber”.

Taste: Recognizable Cantillon style. Sour. Pickles. Seldery. Cold vegetable soup. Tangerine. Rather long, bone dry, and bitter finish. A quick check against the young rhubarb from my parents’ garden (!) indicates similarities indeed.

Mouthfeel: Light body. Significant carbonation for a Cantillon beer.

Drinkability: I found this less drinkable than Geuze or fruit lambics.

This combination of tartness and vegetable taste may not appeal to everyone. An interesting aspect of this beer is that it may be the only Cantillon beer that has a rather pronounced bitter note (at least in the bottle I drank) without the use of fresh hops. Adding vegetables to a lambic may be one solution for those brewers who do not want to “sin” with fresh hops but want a bitter note  in their lambics. A truly unique experiment. Its green, vegetal character makes this the Cabernet Franc of lambic beers.

Not all the Zwanze experiments may prove rewarding but if the 2009 Zwanze (brewed with elder flowers) is any indication there is a good chance that Cantillon will discover a great year-round beer at some point.

My only quibble. If this is supposed to be an ongoing annual tradition, can we have a better label?

Jeff Sparrow’s Wild Brews: Beer Beyond the Influence of Brewer’s Yeast is a major contribution to the literature on lambic beer. In this book the author does not only discuss traditional lambic but Flanders red ale, Flanders brown ale, and contemporary (American) wild ale as well. If anything, this book is testament that spontaneous fermentation and brewing with other yeasts then Saccharomyces is not dead.

After being introduced by New Belgium’s Peter Bouckaert, the book starts off with the obligatory account of how the author became interested in the beers he  loves to write about. In this case the author is traveling in in Europe, ends up in Chez Moeder Lambic in Elsene, Belgium, orders a lambic “with some odd tropical fruit” and is told by the bartender to try Cantillon Rose de Gambrinus instead. This experience, and a later experience with a vintage bottle of Liefmans Goudenband (old recipe) set the stage for an enduring interest in the wild brews of Belgium.

The recovery of traditional lambic and the movement to brew wild ales in other parts of the world raises the obvious question if lambic can be brewed anywhere else than Brussels and the Payottenland. Brewer Frank Boon reportedly said “you can’t” but Cantillon’s Jean-Pierre Van Roy  believes that spontaneously fermented beer can be brewed  in other places in the world. These answers are not mutually exclusive. If lambic beers are defined as spontaneously fermented beers that are brewed in Belgium’s Payottenland, it is evident that lambics cannot be brewed in any other part of the world. If the defining character of lambic is true spontaneous fermentation, all bets are off. And if lambic is defined solely by its flavor profile, the character of lambics can be approached by controlled fermentation with non-traditional yeasts and bacteria. In his book 1990 “Lambic”,  Jean-Xavier Guinard argues persuasively that the temptation to ride on the popularity of lambics should be resisted and that this label only needs to be used for the traditional brews of the Payottenland. On the other hand, when brewers in other parts of the world employ the authentic traditional techniques such non-Belgium lambics could help to save the tradition from extinction.

Sparrow devotes some effort to distinguish between Flanders red ales (sour ales), Flanders brown ales  (oud bruin) and lambics. In the case of lambics such distinctions are clear but the attempt to distinguish red ales from brown ales looks more challenging.  One cannot just tweak a little with another beer style and get a lambic but the dividing line between the Flanders ales can appear quite arbitrary, although one could mention that the the presence of Acetobacter sp.  contributes to the more pronounced presence of acidic acid in the reds. But reading his account of the Flanders sour ales, it seems that these beers are more vulnerable to disappear than lambics. This is ironic because modern examples of such beers are produced in ways that would be considered taking lazy shortcuts by traditional lambic standards. This raises the question of how the production of a traditional Flanders sour ale be distinguished from a traditional lambic, a topic that is discussed at various points in the book.

The history of wild brews is covered in some detail, including a brief discussion of the American Wild Ale style. Sparrow expands on the history of lambic brewing given in Guinard. As the author states, “lambic can lay claim to being the oldest existing beer style in the world”, its first written documentation going back to around 1320. The most infamous lambic variant must be faro, “the beer which is drunk twice”, a characterization that dates from the time that waste-polluted Senne River water was used to brew this sweet lambic. Discussing the practice of blending and diluting lambics, the author notes that some hint  “that the founder of the Belle-Vue lambic brewery-pub in Brussels was not well respected and produced his lambic with help from beer discarded from other breweries and  returned from cafes.”

Although most lambics that are consumed today are gueuze and fruit lambics, one hundred years ago 90% to 95% of lambics were sold straight. Lambic brewers Cantillon and De Cam have bottled unblended aged lambic, but it is not likely that this style will catch on beyond locals, a small group of lambic connoisseurs and perhaps some adventurous wine drinkers any time soon. Sparrow mentions that traditional lambic brewers consider  the differences between lambic and wine and between Gueuze and Champagne very small. Quite remarkably, the author also mentions that in Eastern Brabant the traditional white (wit) beers were produced by spontaneous fermentation as well. Fruit and herbs were often used in the production to balance the sourness of the beer. The addition of herbs has remained a staple of Belgian white beers such as Hoegaarden but the tradition of spontaneous fermentation has been abandoned.

The third chapter about drinking wild beer has lot of information (including a number of maps) about most of the major existing producers of traditional lambics and wild ales and  makes the book quite useful as a reference. There are also interesting tidbits of information about the evolution of some brewers, which often means the transition from a traditional product to something with more mass appeal (such as the reduction of aged beer in Rodenbach Classic to make it sweeter). This chapter really shines in its description of the traditional lambic brewers; their formation, history and brewing approach. Sparrow’s description of 3 Fonteinen’s unorthodox “temperature controlled” barrel stores has taken a completely different meaning since the 2009 disaster that cost the brewery most of its years product and contributed to DeBelder’s decision to stop brewing and return to blending. The United States is also discussed and includes some interesting information on smaller experiments with wild ales around the country. Also featured, of course, is Russian River, the California brewery that has done a lot to promote sour ales in the United States and who can give many Belgium brewers a run for their money.

The technical treatment of lambic brewing covers much of the same ground as Jean-Xavier Guinard’s 1990 book on the topic but adds a lot of interesting details, photos (including microscopy images) and tables.  In the case of Sparrow’s book there is, of course, also the technical treatment of the production of Flanders reds and browns. Most impressive, and somewhat of a neglected topic in Guinard’s book, is the extensive discussion of the characteristics, selection and maintenance of barrels, an element of traditional lambic brewing that requires a lot of expertise, which further adds to the mystique of lambic brewing. In his discussion of barrel choice, the author mentions the ability of some lambic connoisseurs to detect the original use of a “new” barrel in a blend.  Breweries such as Belle-Vue, Cantillon, and Oud Beersel also use chestnut barrels in addition to oak.

The technical and procedural treatment of lambic is completed with a chapter about blending, and that of Gueuze blending in particular. As the author notes: “Gueuze blending is an art. The traditional gueuze blender expresses himself using a liquid media the same way a painter uses paint and canvas.”

Wild Brews is great book for  lovers of traditional lambic.  Highly recommended.

Cantillon is among the most traditional of lambic breweries but that has not deterred this family-owned brewery from offering a wide range of different beers.  One of the most unique and innovative year round beers is Iris. Iris stands out from the other Cantillon beers because it only uses malted barley instead of the traditional combination of malted barley and unmalted wheat.  The use of 50% fresh hops is another major difference from traditional lambic. The result is a real spontaneously fermented beer that is not a lambic (a true rarity).

Cantillon’s Cuvee des Champions is a special cuvée that is dry hopped in the cask for three weeks using Styrian Goldings hops. It is a blend of different lambics, but, unlike traditional Geuze, only two year old lambics are used, producing the characteristic soft pallet of the Cantillon Lou Pepe series.

As can be seen in the photo on the right, the elimination of wheat from Iris produces a darker color than traditional lambics. This difference was also reflected in the taste; Iris had a “heavier” ale-like caramel flavor. Although fresh hops were utilized in both beers, the smell and taste of hops was a lot more pronounced in Iris, which appears to reflect the fact that  in Cuvee des Champions the use of fresh hops was confined to dry hopping.  As a matter of fact, the use of fresh hops was hard to detect in Cuvee des Champions (perhaps this difference would have been clearer if this beer was compared to a traditional Geuze). Iris also had a stronger “barnyard” brettanomyces smell, a heavier mouthfeel, more  tartness, more astringency, and a longer finish than Cuvee des Champions, which was noticeably milder with less carbonation and more prominent citrus notes. Both beers are well executed, leaving the choice between the two styles a matter of personal preference. Cantillon’s Iris is a fine example of what spontaneous fermentation can achieve in other beer styles. 

The Belgian beer blog Hier Stroomt het Bier! has an extensive photo report on the birth of a new Gueuze blender from Bierghes in the French speaking part of Belgium (Walloons). Brewer Pierre Tilquin, who has learned the skills of traditional lambic brewing at 3 Fonteinen and Cantillon, expects to release his first Gueuze in mid-2011.  Lambics are obtained from Boon, Lindemans, Girardin, and Cantillon (the first time this brewer is making its lambic available for blending) and will be aged in used Crozes-Hermitage of Cornas barrels.

One of the most interesting innovations at Cantillon are the Lou Pepe lambics. Unlike the traditional gueuze, which is made by blending lambics of various ages, the Lou Pepe beers are made by blending 2 year old mellow lambics from wine barrels.  This method produces a wonderful “gueuze” that is distinguished by its  smooth and elegant character.

There is no young beer to start fermentation so the Lou Pepe beers are  fermented through the addition of a sweet liquor. This fermentation method opens up the possibility of creating distinct fruit lambics with a higher proportion of fruit (300 grams instead of 200 grams per liter). Since this is Cantillon, the fruit is completely fermented (Trimbach-style) producing an intense fruity lambic that has more emphasis on the acidity and fruit than the Brett. These beers should be consumed at a relatively young age to experience the expressive fruit notes.

It is rare to find lambic on tap in the United States. It is even rarer to find traditional lambic on tap. And is it extremely rare to find Cantillon Lou Pepe Framboise on tap. Therefore, it was extremely encouraging that Belmont Station in Portland tapped a keg of this beer during its annual celebration of sour beers called “Puckerfest.”

Another debut at Belmont Station was New Belgium’s “Le Terroir.” Le Terroir turned out to be a pleasant surprise.  Presenting itself with a golden-orange lambic-like color, the beer fused grapefruit and lemon with hops. This medium bodied, moderately carbonated beer had a fascinating tart taste of grapefruit and tangerine, more reminiscent of a traditional lambic than a Flemish Red. Great drinkability. Less obscure is New Belgium’s “La Folie,” a Flemish Red that gives most Belgium beers of this style a run for their money. Dark red and brownish with an aroma of brown sugar, vinegar and wood, La Folie has a soft taste and light tannins; the sweeter brother of Le Terrroir. If Le Terroir announces the end of summer, La Folie rings in the beginning of autumn.

It is impossible to beat Cantillon so Belmont Station should be praised for tapping another great beer of their impressive line-up; Saint Lamvinus, a lambic made with merlot and cabernet-franc grapes. Sporting a cherry  red color, this beer has the classic Cantillon signature aroma of brett and focused acidity but more vinous. Like all great lambics, mouthfeel is on the lighter side and carbonation is moderate with a slightly astringent aftertaste. It cannot get any better than this.

The real surprise of the event, however, was Le Terroir, the best New Belgium creation I have tasted to date. This is yet another example of the magic that is possible when wild yeast and hops meet.

Professional obligations prevented me from sampling some of the other beers on tap. As much as I like the idea of supporting the local “sour” beers, as a general rule, most of them are just too sweet and “boozy” for my liking and no amount of innovation or complexity can make up for that. For a thoughtful review of some of the beers that were on tap, see Beervana.

The prospect of sampling new sour and wild ales gave me some pause to reflect. I think that most craft beer drinkers enjoy the idea of a brewer trying “something different” and releasing all kinds of seasonal and experimental brews, but I find myself more drawn to the idea of brewing one basic style and mastering it. This may explain my preference for brewers with a distinct house style like Deschutes (brewer of the magnificent Green Lakes amber ale) and Sierra Nevada. And what else do most traditional lambic brewers do than create gueuze and kriek? When any special releases are made available to the general public, these are typically hand selected vintages or lazy lambics (Loerik, Doesjel). Like a good wine, the wonder of lambic is the subtle variability that is associated with the brewing process. Things happen but one does not “push the sound around” as the American minimalist composer Morton Feldman once put it.

Less is more.

Let us look at some similarities between lambic beer and wine. First of all, there is presentation. Lambic beers are often sold in 750 ml champagne bottles with distinctive labels. For example, Cantillon bottles feature beautiful labels with artwork produced by local artists or family members. Then there is the ritual of serving lambic. In ideal circumstances, a cool (but not chilled) bottle of aged geuze is retrieved from the cellar, presented and poured from a wicker basket. Some lambic beers are best suited to serve in wine glasses (unblended lambic, grape lambic) or in champagne flûtes

Second of all, experienced wine drinkers often like lambic beers. Unlike many beer drinkers, who often go through progressive stages of sampling sour beers before getting an appreciation of traditional lambic, wine drinkers have been observed to take an instant liking to brews like Cantillon. Cantillon’s Jean-Pierre van Roy has drawn attention to the fact that the Cantillon Gueuze museum in Brussels is often visited by wine aficionados.

Finally, there is, of course, the production of lambic itself with its use of barrels, aging, and blending. Some lambics are aged in wine or cognac barrels and are released to the market as special Cuvées or as a Grand Cru. There is a rich history of blending lambic with grapes. Cantillon produces two fruit lambics from grapes: Vigneronne (lambic with muscat grapes) and Saint Lamvinus (lambic with merlot and cabernet franc).

This raises an obvious question: what can a lambic connoisseur drink when no lambic beers are within reach? Let’s say you are in a restaurant with your friends and the menu contains a tiny list of beers that only features Lindemans Kriek. You do not want to be a spoiler so you look at the wine list. Now, it first should be noted that liking lambic does not necessarily predict what other alcoholic bevarages one likes. So it should be clear that there is a strong element of personal preference involved in this review. I will not focus on other beer styles (obvious choices for the lambic drinker are Flemish reds and some of the wilder saisons) and confine myself to wine.

Red or white wine? I don’t think it is possible to rule out either of them. One could argue that the lack of tannins in (most) whites more closely resemble the preference of  old oak (or chestnut) barrels by lambic brewers. On the other hand, one could argue that the greater complexity and aging potential of red wines should resonate better with lambic drinkers. Since the idea that white wines are necessarily less complex or lack aging potential is a myth I do not think this view can be sustained. Because the wines that are often praised by writers on lambic are whites, and I prefer whites myself, I shall mostly confine myself to white wines and leave the reds to another inspired lambic drinker.

One relatively obscure type of wine that is occasionally discussed in the context of lambic (notably in Jean-Xavier Guinard’s book “Lambic”) is vin jaune, or “yellow wine.” Vin jaune is a very unique type of white wine made in the Jura region of Eastern France and made from the Savagnin grape. But unlike other regions that produce wines from this grape, in the Jura the resulting wine is matured in old barrels for at least five years. During this period a thin film of yeast (the voile) forms on top of the wine and prevents the wine from further oxidation. The wine is bottled in characteristic 62 cl small bottles and have great aging potential.

The similarities between lambic and vin jaune are more to be found in its production than in taste, with aged unblended lambic coming closest. In terms of aroma, Vin Jaune is more similar to dry sherry than other wines. If one likes sherry there is a good chance that one likes vin jaune (and vice versa). One interesting aspect that lambic and vin jaune have in common is that both alcoholic beverages are sometimes returned to the store by buyers who did not know what to expect and feared that they purchased a product gone bad. Like straight lambic, vin jaune can be enjoyed at cellar temperature with cheese and nuts. Another similarity is price; expect to pay a lot for vin jaune, even if you are used to buying good wines. Not a vin jaune, but a good introduction to these types of oxidized wines is Chateau d’Arlay’s Cotes du Jura Blanc, which is a blend of Chardonnay and Savagnin grapes matured in old oak barrels.

Although the riesling grape is praised by wine writers for its high acidity, minerality, and elegance, most (American) wine drinkers associate riesling with desert wines of high residual sugar. As a consequence, some of the best dry rieslings in the world can be obtained for prices that would be unheard of for more popular white grapes and reds.

Maison Trimbach is to riesling wines what Cantillon is to lambic. This Alsace winery has been around since 1626 and is renowned for its dry and laser-sharp rieslings. Like Cantillon, the Trimbach family has a strong commitment to their style of  (white) wine making and do not shy away from expressing their philosophy in the strongest terms, as  illustrated by the following quote from Hubert Trimbach:

We are Protestants. Our wines have the Protestant style — vigour, firmness, a beautiful acidity, lovely freshness. Purity and cleanness, that’s Trimbach. No wood: I hate wood! Purity and cleanness, always. Parker has taken us in the wrong direction. He has a sweet tooth. The Americans have corrupted the taste of wine drinkers. These wines are long in cask, they do malolactic, they sit on their sediments, they get so fat that only Americans can drink them.

There are other similarities. The only exception the Trimbach family allows to their rule of making bone dry wines are the late harvest Vendanges Tardives and “noble rot” wines which, like Faro lambic, can be enjoyed as desert beverages  Like a good lambic, Trimbach dry rieslings benefit from aging. Their rare Clos Sainte Hune Riesling is considered one of the best dry Rieslings in the world.

Cantillon uses Italian muscat grapes for its “white wine lambic” Vigneronne. Muscat wines are typically sweet but, as can be expected, the Trimbach winery makes a very dry version. And just like Cantillon produces one year-round beer that is not a lambic, Iris, Trimbach produces one red, Pinot Noir, that lacks the oppressive woodiness that characterizes many reds.

This is just a brief, and subjective, review of wine styles that may appeal to lambic drinkers. Other recommendations come to mind such as the Brett “infected” and oxidized wines from Chateau Musar in Lebanon and the Savennieres wines from the Loire Valley in France. Going beyond wine, lambic drinker may want to try the unpasteurized (organic) ciders from the Dupont Family in France or the Isastegi estate in the Basque country of Spain.

Almost all lambic beers that are sold to consumers are either lambic with added fruit, or a blend of young and old lambics (geuze). But perhaps the oldest style of lambic is just the unblended version of the beer, which can be consumed while it is still young or after many years of fermentation. Young lambic (or fox lambic)  cannot be bottled because the  ongoing carbon dioxide generation of the remaining sugars would shatter the bottle. It can be consumed, however, from a cask at the brewery or on draft at neighboring cafes in the Brussels area in Belgium. Some American cafes  like Philadelphia’s Monk’s Cafe have served young lambic.

Young lambic is a cloudy, flat,  sour, and dry product and is  served when 6 months to one year of age, although theoretically a young lambic can be sampled at a very young age. These very young lambics are still in the early stages of fermentation and  without many of the characteristics of a mature lambic. Perhaps an even rarer style that has found its way to select consumers are unblended versions of fruit lambic. Uncarbonated or slightly carbonated versions of Cantillon’s Saint Lamvinus and Kriek have been reported.

At the other end of the spectrum are unblended aged lambics, or “vieux lambic.” Unlike young lambics, such aged unblended lambics can be bottled because generation of carbon dioxide has run its course, leaving a dry, sharp, sour and still beer.  This style of lambic is the furthest removed from what most people consider a beer and has more similarities with a bone dry wine, and the Vin Jaune wines from the Jura region in France in particular. As demand is not high for aged “straight lambic,” only a few lambic producers have offered bottled unblended lambic. Cantillon offers a three year aged straight lambic under the name Grand Cru Bruocsella. Geuze blender De Cam has bottled a 5 year old lambic called “De Cam Oude Lambiek,” supposedly as a consequence of persistent demand from some Japanese (!) consumers.

Perhaps the increasing popularity of traditional Belgian lambic beers will generate more demand for bottling of aged unblended lambics from other lambic producers. And with the increasing interest in real wild fermentation in the United States, aged unblended wild ales may become a possibility as well.

The beer blog Beervana published some interesting details on Portland, Maine, brewery Allagash and their quest to brew a lambic-style beer. What is truly fascinating is that Allagash does not just inoculate the wort with wild yeasts from the Zenne Valley in Belgium, but is experimenting with real local spontaneous fermentation:

There’s nothing sacrosanct about the Zenne Valley–wild yeasts should ferment beer anywhere, theoretically..But would Maine wild yeasts produce a tasty lambic? They did some research and discovered that except for the hottest months in the summer and the coldest months in the winter, it turns out that Portland, Maine’s weather matches up quite closely with Brussels’.

The brewer even made a substantial investment to build and install a real cool ship (“koelschip”) and consulted the traditional Brussels lambic brewery Cantillon. This seems to be shaping up to become the closest an American brewer has ever gotten to traditional lambic brewing.

Read the complete report on Beervana.