Belgian Beer Week (Part I)

A few weeks back one of our favorite craft beer spots that we frequent way to much, The Beer Junction, had 'Belgian Beer week'.  They featured over 20 draft lines dedicated to Belgian Beer or Belgian style/influenced beers.  They also waved all corkage fees on their extensive Bottle list of all Belgian style beers so you could enjoy them at the bar.  We spent most of the week tasting and enjoying many different kinds of Belgian beers.

What are Belgian Beers?  I'll start with a brief description/history.  There are over 180 breweries in the small country of Belgium, some brewing beer for hundreds of years.  The history of Beers in Belgium originates from Abbey’s brewing beer as a fundraiser to help out their churches.  Today there are referred to as Trappist breweries.  In order to be a Trappist brewery the brewery must be in a monastery, the monks must play a role in producing the beer, and the profits from the sale must be used to support the monastery or charity/social programs outside the monastery.  There are only 10 true Trappist Breweries in the world, six of them residing in Belgium: Achel, Chimay, Orval, Rochefort, Westmalle, and the very famous Westvleteren who brews what is commonly referred to as “The Best Beer in the World” Westvleteren 12.

There are many other breweries brewing in Belgium and the beers  cover a huge spectrum of flavor profiles from light and fruity to complex, bold beers brewed with candi sugar.  Some common Belgian beers styles are: Blonde, Flemish Red, Dubbel, Belgian IPA, Lambic, Oud Bruin, Saison, Stout, Strong Ale, Tripel, Golden Strong, Wit, and Winter Beers.  Most of these can also be broken down into further categories, for instance Lambics can be classified as a Gueuze, a Faro, or even a Fruit Lambic such as a Kriek, Peche, or Framboise. 

In this post I’ll describe different Lambics, starting with the Fruit Lambic, which is a typical spontaneously fermented beer that has had fruit added.  Typical fruits added are cherries (Kriek), raspberries (Framboise), peaches (Peche), or black Currants (Cassis).  Brewers originally added the fruit in a second fermentation to make the beer more palatable to a wider audience.  A young fruit lambic will be quite fruity and sweeter, while an aged fruit lambic will be more acidic with the fruit flavors dissipating in the background.  We tried a few tasty Fruit Lambics including Lindemans: Peche & Apple (Pomme), and Van Honsebrouck St Louis Peche.

Another type of Lambic is a Faro, which is a Blended Lambic with the addition of candi sugar.  The candi sugar adds a sweetness to the Lambic cutting out most of the acidity while also adding flavor hints of molasses, making this type of Lambic more palatable.  We enjoyed Lindeman’s Faro out of the bottle.

The other type of lambic is an unblended Lambic.  This beer can be very tart and acidic, especially while young as no base beer has been blended in to mellow out the wild yeast and bacteria that spontaneously fermented the original beer.  A typical unblended Lambic won’t be drank until at least 3 years to ensure some of the bacteria has mellowed out a bit, leaving complexity and a smooth tartness.

The last beer I’ll talk about in the Lambic family is a Gueuze, which is a blend of different aged Lambics both old and new.  The beer is typically blended with a 1, 2, and 3 year old Lambic then bottled and laid to rest for about 2-3 years while bottle conditioning (carbonating).  This process of blending and letting the beer rest leads to a dryer, fruitier, and sometimes more intense Lambic.  The sourness can range from pretty intense in a younger Gueuze to subtle in a well aged, say 20 year old gueuze.  We had two different Gueuze’s and one blend during the week.  Lindemen’s Gueuze Cuvee Rene and Cantiollon’s Classic Gueuze were both quite tasty, with the favorite being on the Cantillon.  We also tried Dilewyns Vicaris Tripel-Gueuze, which was a blend of a Tripel and a Gueuze.

Hopefully this gave some insight into the Belgian beers and more specifically the Lambic style.  Next time your out at your local beer store try out a Lambic style beer.  I even got my mom to enjoy them, as their fruity characters are more wine like, and she doesn’t like beer!