by Brian Vandenbroek

Created on: November 09, 2009   Last Updated: November 10, 2009

If you've never experienced it before, lambic is one of the world's more unique styles of beer. It's unique partly because of the amount of unmalted wheat (at least 30%) used to make this beer. What else helps make this beer unique is its wild fermentation. Other ales and lagers are fermented with the same strain of yeast under scientifically controlled conditions. Lambic, on the other hand, is fermented with wild strains of yeast allowed to drift into the beer through open windows. As if that weren't enough to distinguish it, lambic is hopped with old hops that have lost their bittering power.

Again unlike other beers, lambic is still femented in wooden casks, each standing over nine feet tall at either end. Depending on the final product, lambic will rest in these casks for anywhere from four months to several years. On its own, young lambic will be honey colored, low in carbonation and fairly acidic. At the same time, lambic can be complex as well with aromas of must, leather and horse blanket. But lambic changes in character as it ages, bringing us to its main styles: gueuze, faro, and fruit lambic.

Gueuze, at its most basic is a mixture of young lambic and old lambic that's been allowed to age and mature for a few years. Now picture this for a moment. Old lambic, after years of maturation, has completely fermented all its available sugars. Young lambic still retains some of its sugar and will continue fermenting, giving the beer an almost champagne like carbonation. Add to that the fact that each cask of lambic will attain its own character and you've got a task not unlike the blending of wine or Scotch whiskey. Traditional gueuze will have a crisp, dry finish, although more commercial examples will have sugar added to sweeten the beer a bit. Beyond that, its character will depend very much on the producer.

Faro has in large part emerged as a concession to more commercial tastes. Like gueuze, faro starts off as a blended beer, commonly a blend of lambic and another freshly brewed beer that may or may not be another lambic. To this is added caramel sugars to sweeten the beer. Traditionally, the sugar is added before serving, resulting in a beer with lambic's complexity and a sweetened finish. Faro can be hard to find outside of Belgium. To date I have yet to find a bottle to try for myself.

Fruit lambic is exactly what you might think it is. It's traditional lambic beer with fruit added during fermentation. These days you can get lambic with many different

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