Serve in a tulip at 8-12 °C
What it tastes like
Lambic comes from the Senne valley around Brussels and the Pajottenland to its west. The wort, roughly 60 per cent barley malt and 40 per cent unmalted wheat, is boiled with hops that have been aged for a year or more, until their bitterness has faded but their preservative power remains. It then cools overnight in a wide, shallow coolship open to the air, and whatever yeast and bacteria drift in start the fermentation. The beer goes into oak and is left for one to three years.
Young lambic on its own is still and sharp. Gueuze is the blend: one, two and three year old lambics mixed and bottled, so the sugars left in the young beer referment and give a fine, Champagne-like sparkle. Expect lemon, green apple and a dry, almost chalky sourness, with the leather, hay and farmyard notes of Brettanomyces underneath. Bitterness barely registers. A good gueuze tastes old and fresh at the same time, which is the reason blenders bother.
Style profile
- Look
- Golden to deep gold, sometimes lightly hazy. Gueuze pours with a lively white head that fades fast; straight lambic is nearly flat.
- Aroma and flavour
- Lemon, sour apple, rhubarb and hay, with Brettanomyces adding leather, barnyard and a faint smoky funk. Malt is a quiet wheat note in the background, and the aged hops give almost no bitterness.
- Mouthfeel
- Light and very dry. Gueuze is highly carbonated with a crisp, mouth-watering acidity; young lambic is still and puckering.
- Ingredients
- Pilsner malt with about 40 per cent unmalted wheat, aged low-alpha hops, and a mixed population of wild yeast and bacteria, including Brettanomyces, Pediococcus and Lactobacillus, picked up from the air and the oak.
In India
We do not know of an Indian brewery making true lambic, and it would be hard to do. Spontaneous fermentation relies on cool nights and years in oak, and a Mumbai or Chennai summer offers neither. What reaches India comes in imported bottles at imported prices. The good news is that gueuze is one of the hardiest beers to ship. It is acidic, bottle-conditioned and built to age, so a bottle that has sat in a warm godown suffers far less than an IPA would. Chill it lightly and open it for a long Sunday lunch.
At the Indian table
Food pairings contributed by Anuradha Rao
- Goan prawn balchaoThe vinegar and chilli in the balchao meet an equally sour beer, and the carbonation scrubs the oil off your palate between bites.
- Paneer tikka with mint chutneyCharred paneer is rich and mild, and the beer's lemony sourness works the way a squeeze of lime does on the plate.
- Mishti doiThe tang of the set curd lines up with the tang of the gueuze, while the doi's caramel sweetness softens the beer's edge.
Brewed in India
We have not found an Indian brewery making lambic or gueuze. Look for imported Belgian bottles at specialist liquor stores in the larger cities.
Want the long read? Lambic and gueuze