Belgian lambic beer is often called the champagne of the beer world

Snapshots of scenes from Flemish painter Brueghal
work.  Enjoying a mug of lambic beer. 

Caution! Approaching lambic beer ahead.  For those whose expectations have not been primed, the first taste of a traditional Belgium-style lambic beer is a powerful shock.  Lambic beer is a carefully managed fermentation that results in a beer, pungently yet cheerfully sour and reminiscent of a good champagne. 
     Of all the beers in the world, it surely rates as one of the most intriguing, mysterious and erotic styles of beer ever made.  It’s character is a reflection of beers typical hundreds of years ago.
     Why is it unique?  How is it made?  Airborne wild yeasts and bacteria unique to a 15-square-mile area southwest of Brussels, Belgium, fall into freshly brewed wort (unfermented beer).  Slow, patient and managed fermentation slowly transforms the sweet concoction to a complexly flavored and uniquely sour wheat beer.
     Lambic breweries are temples where “dirt” is evident and spiders are worshipped. Spiders?  Spiders entrap fruit flies and other critters carrying vinegar bacteria, which if introduced into the fermentation upset the natural balance of micro flora already in the fermenting beer. 
     Thirty to 40 percent unmalted wheat is cooked, then combined and mashed with malted barley at temperatures which convert much of the starch to fermentable sugar. “Stale” and oxidized hops aged for years at room temperatures are used sparingly. Traditionally, fermentation takes place in religiously cherished wooden vessels though today some brewers will manage “wild” fermentation in stainless steel tanks with reasonable success.
     There are several stylistic variations of lambic.   Traditional lambics are dry, light bodied and completely attenuated.  They exhibit no residual sweetness either from malt, sugar or artificial sweeteners. Sweet non traditional versions may be created through addition of sugars or artificial sweeteners. 
     Characteristic horsey, goaty, leathery and phenolic characters evolved from Brettanomyces   yeast are often present at moderate levels. They’re often very low in carbonation, peculiarly aromatic and strangely addictive.  Versions of this beer made outside of the Brussels area of Belgium cannot be true lambics. These versions are said to be "lambic-style" and may be made to resemble many of the beers original character.

A list of lambic breweries will be featured in another post
Next:  A tasting of a classic lambic

Did you know you can subscribe to the Beer Examiner?  Click on Subscribe below

You can follow me on twitter at charliepapazian.