A spontaneously fermented wheat beer from the Senne valley southwest of Brussels, inoculated by ambient wild yeasts and bacteria and aged in oak barrels for months to years. Typically 5.0–7.0% ABV. A straight (unblended) lambic is intensely sour, funky, and dry — an acquired taste and the raw material from which Gueuze, Kriek, and other lambic-derived styles are blended.
In the glass
Origin
Lambic brewing is a continuous Belgian tradition centered on the Senne valley around Brussels and the villages of the Pajottenland to its southwest, where wild yeasts and bacteria in the air inoculate open, shallow cooling vessels after the wort is brewed. The technique predates the modern understanding of fermentation: long before Louis Pasteur and the breeding of pure yeast strains in the late 19th century, brewers worked without any knowledge of the microbes at play, and a degree of sourness was simply what beer tasted like. As brewing elsewhere became a controlled, consistent process, spontaneous fermentation survived as a specialty of Brussels and the surrounding region. The wort is left overnight in a coolship, where airborne microflora settle into it, then racked into oak casks for a fermentation that runs through a relay of organisms — first enteric bacteria and wild yeasts, then various Saccharomyces, then Pediococcus, and finally Brettanomyces — over a period that typically stretches one to three years. Hops are deliberately aged for several years before use so that their bitterness and aroma fade, leaving mainly the preservative qualities the brewer wants. Cantillon, founded in Anderlecht, Brussels, in 1900, was one of more than a hundred breweries operating in the city at the time and is now the last lambic brewery within Brussels itself; it remains family-run and open to visitors. In 1997 the European Union granted Traditional Speciality Guaranteed protection to lambic and gueuze, recognizing the traditional method and composition rather than tying the names to a fixed geographic boundary.
Notes
Straight, unblended lambic is rarely sold outside Belgium and is uncommon even there — traditionally it is poured flat from an earthenware pitcher into short tumblers at a handful of cafés around Brussels and in the producing villages. Most lambic reaches drinkers in another form: as gueuze (a sparkling blend of young and old lambic), as kriek (with cherries) or framboise (with raspberries), or as the sweetened, filtered commercial lambics that are softer and far less wild than the traditional bottle-conditioned versions. Faro, a once-common working-class version sweetened with candi sugar and historically lower in alcohol, has nearly vanished and survives only in a few sweet, gently lambic-flavored examples.
Defining examples
Cantillon Lambic (straight, rare)·3 Fonteinen Oude Lambic·Boon Oude Lambiek·Lindemans (young lambic before sweetening)·Timmermans (traditional)