BELGIUM: Lambic beer the champagne of beers for some looks set to be rescued from near oblivion

Record ID: 277463

  • Title: BELGIUM: Lambic beer the champagne of beers for some looks set to be rescued from near oblivion
  • Date: 3rd December 2009
  • Summary: VAN ROY OBSERVING GLASS OF LAMBIC BEER GLASS OF LAMBIC BEER VAN ROY TESTING LAMBIC BEER (SOUNDBITE) (English) JEAN VAN ROY, HEAD OF CANTILLON BREWERY, SAYING: ''Breweries control the fermentation of the beers today and takes some weeks, two or three months maximum to produce the beers. Here to produce a Lambic, we don't control the fermentation so we never produced exact
  • Embargoed: 18th December 2009 12:00
  • Keywords:
  • Location: Belgium
  • Country: Belgium
  • Topics: Industry,Lifestyle
  • Reuters ID: LVA3VTD3UQW3D8ON2BGFNF9ZT3M9
  • Story Text: Because of its complex brewing process relying on what is known as 'spontaneous fermentation', every vintage of lambic beer is unique.
    A five month brewing window, three years in storage and a sour end product with a farmyard bouquet.
    The Good Beer Guide Belgium says it looked like breweries would stop making the beer. But today, a renewed interest in traditional brewing and blending looks set to guarantee its survival.
    Beer can be divided into three basic forms: bottom-fermented lager and top-fermented ale, both of which have cultivated yeast introduced, and a third form, spontaneous fermentation, using only wild yeasts in the air.
    Lambic beer is produced in this third way.
    The umbrella group for brewers and blenders Horal says it is the oldest surviving brewed beer in the world.
    Jean Van Roy, head of the Cantillon brewery in Brussels, has been glued to the weather forecasts since late October. Spontaneously fermented lambic beer is not a 365-day a year product, but can only be made when the night temperature drops to around 5 degrees Celsius (41 Fahrenheit) or below.
    That is because the boiled wheat and barley juice known as wort must sit overnight in a large copper vessel to cool and absorb airborne yeasts that waft in through vents. Van Roy's brewery, which doubles as a museum welcoming about 30,000 visitors per year, boasts equipment dating back to the 19th century and spiders as natural pesticides.
    "Lambic beer is alive. Every year, the taste is different," says one of the visitors, from Japan, Masako Shimohata.
    The authenticity of the beer attracts a lot of people every year, like Satonu Shimotata.
    And, probably thanks to Masako and Satonu the word has spread. Cantillon exports some 55 percent of its beers.
    North American, Scandinavian, Japanese and increasingly Italian drinkers are buying up gueuze. Bottles on sale for some 5 euros (7.49 US dollars) in a Belgian brewery could fetch at least 50 US dollars in a Manhattan bar.
    "Lambic beer is unique. You have to come here to drink it. There are many beers in Belgium but this one is unique and you have to come to Brussels to drink it. It's unique," says Shimotata Most beers are consumed within weeks of production, but gueuze, the most commonly drunk form of lambic beer, has sat in barrels for an average of two years and then in a bottle for as much as a year before being sold.
    Pure lambic, essentially flat, can be consumed as it is, but is generally drunk as gueuze, a sparkling blend of lambics of different ages that ferment again in the bottle, or as kriek, gueuze with sour cherries. Other fruit can also be added.
    The very dry and sour taste is a shock to anyone used to standard lager or ale.
    ''Breweries control the fermentation of the beers today and takes some weeks, two or three months maximum to produce the beers. Here to produce a Lambic, we don't control the fermentation so we never produced exactly the same beer. Each batch, each brew can be different and we will take between two and a half and three years to produce beer because it's a very complex fermentation and also a very slow fermentation," says van Roy.
    The Good Beer Guide Belgium's author believes the only reason Lambic beers are not celebrated with the same enthusiasm as some wines is because most people have not heard of it.
    Van Roy says you can actually compare the production process to wine making.
    ''The Lambic is to compare with wine also because we conserve the beer during two years in the wooden casks and naturally wood will give some wine flavours, wine taste to the beer," he says.
    European law decrees that the terms lambic, gueuze and kriek can only be used for acid beer made by spontaneous fermentation with specific airborne yeasts. However, unlike champagne, it need not be made in a specific region -- in lambic's case the traditional area in the Senne valley in and southwest of Brussels.
    An umbrella group was formed in 2004, to secure the artisanal industry's future.
    Lambic brewers' problem is that it is far more expensive to make than average beers and they have struggled to push through price hikes at bars mostly controlled by big breweries.
    Unlike Trappist ales, you will struggle to find a gueuze or kriek in a Belgian bar, with the exception of the Belle-Vue and Mort Subite brands of brewing giants Anheuser-Busch InBev <ABI.BR> and Heineken <HEIN.BR>.
    But a growing interest in organic produce, including organic wines and traditional ciders, has helped. And of course the increased use of the internet means that more people can find out about it more easily.
    The Good Beer Belgium guide believes the lambic brewers and blenders are at a crossroads, facing a decision of whether to survive as folksy craft beer producers or to establish themselves as makers of a growing premium product.
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