Tag Archives: Straight Lambic

Vanberg and Dewulf lambic imports


Posted by Aschwin de Wolf

Tonight the founders of Vanberg and DeWulf, Don Feinberg & Wendy Littlefield, will be hosting a tasting of their artisanal Belgian beers at Belmont Station. I have been following Vanberg and DeWulf recent endeavors with interest because they have introduced no fewer than three new lambic products to the United States and innovating while doing so.

For starters, they have introduced the traditional lambic blender De Cam to the United States, which, to my knowledge, completes the project to have all major traditional lambic producers and blenders available in the United States. At least as exciting is that the first De Cam product available in the US is a bottled unblended lambic, De Cam’s Oude Lambiek. There is no lambic style that provides such a great insight into the “terroir” of a lambic brewer or blender than a straight lambic.

Their most innovative lambic product to date is undoubtedly Lambrucha, an accomplished low-alcohol blend of lambic and the fermented tea Kombucha (review here). One of the additional virtues of Lambrucha is that it involved De Troch. De Troch is a beautiful old Belgian lambic brewery but much of its capacity is used to brew sweetened lambics for the national market. Hopefully, Feinberg and Littlefield can induce de Troch to do more traditional products or get some of their straight lambic for the US market.

One of their more mysterious releases is LAMBICKX. During a recent event at Belmont Station, one of their representatives noted that this beer cannot be classified as a Gueuze. A look at the bottle reveals the reason for this. The label shows only one brew year (a 2009 brew year and a 2011 bottle year on my bottle), which indicates that this is a blend of two year old lambic, which would put this beer in the same league as Cantillon’s Lou Pepe releases. I tasted this beer over the holidays and I recall this blend having a smooth and relatively young character. This release has a very nice label, too.


Notes on Toer de Geuze 2011


Posted by Aschwin de Wolf

For the second time in a row I attended the biennial Toer de Geuze event in Belgium. During one day, all lambic brewers and geuze blenders that are part of HORAL (with the exception of Girardin) open their doors to the public. If you decide to do the tour by tour bus you cannot visit all locations and must make a selection. In 2009 I opted for the most traditional brewers and blenders with the exception of geuze blender De Cam. This year I skipped Hanssens (which is among my favorites) and visited De Cam. I also substituted De Troch for Mort Subite. A selection of photos that I took prior to and during the event can be seen here.

Like 2009, all buses were completely booked in advance — although there were some empty seats due to some people not being able to attend or arriving late. The major advantage of doing the tour by bus is that it permits one to sample the products of all the brewers and blenders without having to be concerned about drinking and driving. Since I had attended the Toer de Geuze before, I wondered how much there was to gain from attending two of them in a row. Having seen most of the breweries and blenders now, I am inclined to say that one gets most of the benefits from the first visit. But there were three things that stood out for me during the most recent edition.

First, it seemed quite a bit busier than the previous tour. This was later corroborated when I saw a news item on Belgian television noting this was the best attended Toer de Geuze to date (they estimated more than 10,000 visitors). As a matter of fact, the crowd at 3 Fonteinen was a little excessive in my opinion. Admittedly, in most cases there is not a whole lot the organizers and breweries can do about this and it simply reflects the growing popularity of traditional geuze — which is an exciting development. Since the event seems to confer meaningful benefits to the brewers and blenders involved, making this an annual event might provide some relief.

I have always been aware that many of the sweetened and faux fruit lambics still involve traditional techniques and equipment during the initial stages in order to conform with rules concerning use of the word lambic. But seeing the beautiful brewery, equipment and barrels at De Troch it really struck me how strange it is to see these breweries jumping through many of the same time-consuming hoops as the traditional breweries and then to manipulate (some might say ruin) the final product to make it confirm to contemporary taste. In their defense, many of these brewers would like to make a traditional product and the tour guide at De Troch indicated that the pendulum may be swinging in favor of tradition again.

The biggest surprise awaited me at Boon. Boon had scheduled to brew (or continue to brew) during the event and at one point I found myself staring into the boiling wort with a sublime view of an adjacent coolship. Regular readers of this blog know that I am not the biggest fan of Boon and I have been quite disappointed with most of their products. There is a lack of tartness plus a substantial bitterness (not to mention the often excessive carbonation) in most of their beers, including their two traditional geuzes, that does not resonate with me.  I was therefore not prepared for the excellent old (unblended) lambic that was served for free to the visitors. Some writers have alluded to the oxidized / sherry / Vin Jaune-like qualities of old lambic, but I do not recall having tasted a sample that captured those qualities so well as Boon’s. As far as I am concerned, Boon should just leave their lambic as-is and bottle it after 3, 4, or 5 years! More realistically, they could at least consider bottling some of their aged lambic for the consumer.

Not much later, I found myself  again admiring a Boon product when I (reluctantly) ordered a glass of their Mariage Parfait Kriek 2008. True to form, Boon’s attempt to make a state of the art Kriek did not depart from their low-tartness approach, but in this case it worked for me. After sampling a lot of different krieks during the previous weeks, I noticed a fascinating deep vinous quality to this kriek, more reminiscent of some of the wines I drink than beer.  After these truly unexpected surprises, I made the revolutionary decision to purchase two 375 ml bottles of this Boon release, which I hope to review in conjunction with 3 Fonteinen’s Schaerbeekse Kriek.

Later that day I was tempted to purchase the 5 (!) liter bag-in-a-box Oud Beersel young lambic but restrained myself from doing so by considering the logistical challenges of taking it with me back to the United States. One nice feature of this year’s event is that I had more time to visit the Pajottenland area. Highlights included seeing the old, now inactive, Eylenbosch brewery in Schepdaal (where I spotted a big Toer de Geuze sign) and having dinner at De Heeren van Liedekercke. This restaurant completely deserves its reputation as offering the best beer-based cooking in the Brussels region and they have, by far, the most impressive vintage lambic / geuze / kriek list that I have ever seen in my life (not too mention a breathtaking number of Orval vintages).


Bottled unblended lambic


Posted by Aschwin de Wolf

cantillon_bruocsellaAlmost 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.