Beer Styles
Beers of the World Featuring: the beloved "Lambic"
In this series of articles I will give you a crash course in rich and varied beers that dot the world. If you have not noticed, craft beer beers start to develop big. The beer used to be the cousin of "ugly" world alcohol. Quite well everyone drank their fair share, but only a handful of beer drinkers die ever really paid too much respect. Finally the beer begins to be appreciated for its rich history and diversity, and the care and time devoted to building a quality brew.
In general this series will give a short summary of the history, features and popular brands, is likely to find in stores. You could even throw in the odd homemade recipe, so keep an eye!
The first beer I'd like to introduce you is a unique style known as "Lambic"
Although no one is quite sure how or exactly when this style of beer is produced, Lembeek City (is likely that the name is) actively participated in the brewing industry, at least since 1400. It is in this region Belgium, we can derive the largest part of the history and production of this particular unique variety of beer.
One of the things that make this type beer so unique is how it happened. The earliest forms of any style of beer is usually made of yeast particles in the air, as when no one knew the cause of the beer to ferment. However, observed that if left in their outdoor beer for some time made a magical force to begin desired process. However, since then, science has determined that this substance floating in the wind like yeast, brewers have used this knowledge to initiate more about each new batch with the use of a yeast culture. Lambics otherwise never have made the most recent, a more controlled method of preparing beer. From Lambic breweries allow wild yeast strains to inhabit the beer makes the distinctive winy, sour taste and smell earthy. There is a variation Lambics was huge between different date, and even among different bottles.
Another characteristic is that Lambics are traditionally made with large amounts of Hops years. The reason for this is said to be that old Belgian brewers understood that hops were a good preservative, but otherwise did not want to influence the flavor of your beer too dramatically as usually the result of the addition of a large number of hops. This is where the aging process comes Elderly hops are much less effective in the delivery of its natural flavor to beer, but still have the ability to transmit its keeping qualities.
A common practice used by manufacturers of Lambic beer is to mix the finished product of beer varieties to produce fruit beers. By far the best styles mixture are popular lambic Kriek cherry "and" frambozen raspberry. " Blended Lambic is actually where the bulk of the Lambic made by producers large leaves. It is still possible to buy traditional unblended lambic in Belgium, and I know there are some North American store bought varieties that are produced. There is no turning back, however, the best way to get your hands on quality Lambic is to prepare yourself at home!
Lambic unblended Producers:
Cantillon
Frank Boon
Lambic Blended / Fruit Beer Producers:
Samuel Adams Cranberry Lambic
Cherry Beer lakefront
Mason Weapons Damson Beer
I hope you enjoyed the first article in this series.
Matt Tremblay
About the Author
Matt Tremblay is the author of “The Home Brewing Success Blueprint”
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