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Lambics are an interesting Belgian style of beer that are basically impossible to get in their base form. They belong to a weird group of beers often called wild ales, which are basically like sourdough beers (brewed with wild yeasts instead of specialized strains). Usually they are very dry and sour (sometimes even called sours). In any case, they are most commonly sold in two forms – fruit blended (kriek [cherry], framboise [raspberry], cassis [blackcurrant], etc.) and the confusing to pronounce gueuze. If you are in North America, gueuze will probably be pronounced “gooze," “gweeze,” or a variety of other oddities; the Belgian pronunciation of gueuze varies on region a bit, but its generally closest to “huhzuh” or “guhzuh.”
![[image loading]](http://i.imgur.com/JsqE3l.jpg)
This is Oude Beersel Oud Geuze Vieille [literally translates to Old Beersel Old Gueuze Old], obviously a gueuze (apologies for the dirty mousepad). It recently won the world beer awards best lambic/gueuze category; however, I would take their ratings with a large grain of salt (this is a really good gueuze though). Gueuzes are blends of one and two/three year old lambics and are sour and kind of vinegary. These don’t really have strong hop or malt characteristics or even interesting adjuncts instead getting their unique flavour almost entirely from the wild yeasts used in their fermentation. They also are insanely heady in my experience. Semi-relatedly, I was once at a beer restaurant with a buddy and ordered a gueuze which the waitress poured rather vigorously into a tulip glass, resulting in about 90% of the glass full of head. It turned out that the guy in charge of their cellar had pranked her by telling her that it would be difficult to build a proper head on a gueuze. Long story short – pour gently.
![[image loading]](http://i.imgur.com/ehJXSl.jpg)
This is a Lindeman’s fruit lambic, in this case a cassis [black currant] flavoured one. The fruit in a fruit lambic is generally added after primary fermentation to provide the sugars for a second fermentation step. Sometimes additional sugar is added to create a sweeter product. In the case of a fruit lambic, the sour lemony character typical of lambic remains, but is layered with the flavour of the added fruit (the fruit also colours the as you can tell). This lambic also had the most extreme lacing I’ve ever experienced (lacing is sort of head residue left on the side of glasses):
+ Show Spoiler [crazy lace] +
PS: Don’t super chill your beers, it dulls the flavour unnecessarily. Most craft beer should be served at around 10C (50F for imperial scum), which is warmer than your fridge by a good 5C or so. I personally drink a lot of beer at ~20C because I’m lazy, but aim for 10C.
 
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Heck yeah. Imperial scumbag reporting...
Having never had a substantial amount of beer (ok... once... but I don't particularly remember how it was except for better than american beer) I'm curious to see what the more obscure beers taste like.
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The photos are great. They look like you poured one beer, took a picture, chugged it really fast, then poured the second one about 2 minutes afterwards for the second photo 
5/5 Keep these coming.
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I tried the blueberry one when I visited Brussels, it was okish. The bananaflawored one was really great, I recommend you try that out!
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Excellent blogs. Informative, interesting, useful. Hopefully this will help my beer interest develop beyond that of a college frat boy. Keep 'em coming!!!
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Hey dude,
Nice post. I was introduced to Lambic beers when I was on a trip to Belgium visiting a Kiwi friend there. He warned me that I should expect it to taste like dirty socks soaked in water, and at first taste I think that was a pretty good description. The beer he introduced me to was a Morte Subite Gueuze.
However the taste has most definitely grown on me, and I'm quite fond of it now. So when heading to Belgian bars in London, I tend to have one if available, and generally try to disgust the people I'm with by getting them to taste it.
Definitely an acquired taste, but if you're into different tastes of beer you should try it!
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On May 15 2012 13:08 Cragus wrote:
If you are in North America, gueuze will probably be pronounced “gooze," “gweeze,” or a variety of other oddities; the Belgian pronunciation of gueuze varies on region a bit, but its generally closest to “huhzuh” or “guhzuh.”
Great replication of the Bruges area accent! :D Here it is called Geuze, but after googling it, it seems that Gueuze is used often as well indeed.
Personally I ain't a fan of either of the Lambic kinds. The Geuze is way to sour for my liking. Although I heard it loses alot of this sour edge once it ages. I haven't tasted older Geuze myself yet, but if you wait 5-10 years it should be a very different taste, might be a tip if you could get a bottle of that!
And I find the fruit lambic a bit to sweet, at least the commercial versions which still are a pretty popular drink in Belgium though but rather with a female public. I can enjoy one myself from time to time, but I just believe there are way better belgian beers which I prefer.
I think the fruit lambic should be served pretty cold though, so a fridge should be fine for those.
If you have the chance to try one of these out, definitely go for it! It is one of the oldest kinds of beer around and they have a great tradition behind them. Whether you love them or hate them, at least try them first.
And a great blog btw, very informative.
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This is an excellent idea for a blog series. I look forward to learning about other beer styles and reading your recommendations.
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Great blog. I really enjoyed reading it.
Personally I´m not a fan of beer with fruitflavours. To sweet for my taste and overdone in most cases so you can´t really taste the underlying beer notes.
And please DON´T try a banana flavoured beer. Somebody above suggested it but he must be ill or delirious or probably both. I have tried quite a few when working through the huge assortiment at my favorite Belgian beercafe. And almost everytime when I ordered a banana flavoured beer the bartender would look me in the eye and ask "are you sure? are you REALLY sure about that?"
Almost all of them tasted like those sugarcoated bananashaped candies. Which are great in their own right but not in my beer. Although eating nacho´s with hot sauce made them bearable.
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EPT![[image loading]](http://i.imgur.com/J70qCl.jpg)
