How to pour
a lambiek in
Rinse the glass with cold water and shake it out without drying it. A grease-free surface is especially useful with lambiek because you have no head to conceal cloudy sediment: you see the beer exactly as it is.
Hold the glass at an angle and let the lambiek run gently down the side. It contains barely any carbonation, so you don't need to hold anything back; the angle simply keeps things calm and prevents you from stirring up the sediment.
Set the glass upright and continue pouring until it's about two-thirds full. At most, a thin rim of foam will form, and it will disappear within a few seconds. That's how lambiek is supposed to be and isn't a sign that anything is wrong with the beer or the glass.
Leave the last centimeter with the yeast sediment in the bottle, unless you specifically want the cloudiness. Swirl the glass once and smell first: the sour, woody aroma comes through before the flavor.
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The story
Lambiek comes from a small area: the Pajottenland and the Zenne Valley, southwest of Brussels. The brewer boils his mash of barley malt with a substantial proportion of unmalted wheat, uses old hops that have already lost their bitterness and now serve only as a preservative, and then pumps it into a coolship beneath the roof tiles. There it cools overnight in the open air, while wild yeasts and lactic acid bacteria from the air enter naturally. Everything then goes into oak barrels, where it remains for one to three years. Only then is it lambiek.
The right glass
In its native region, lambiek is drunk from a simple tumbler: a straight-sided glass without a stem, not too large, from which you simply drink a glass of beer. That specific Brussels model is not in our range, but a straight-sided beer tumbler comes close and does exactly the same job. Since there is no head, the glass does not need to be large; thirty to thirty-five centilitres is enough for a 37.5 cl bottle poured in two servings. If you prefer a stemmed glass, take a look at the Belgian beer glasses.
Schott Zwiesel For You Beer Tumbler 30 cl (4 pieces)
Arcoroc Martigues Beer Glass 33 cl (6 pieces)
Both sets together € 46,90.
The right tools
For a lambiek, besides the glass, you really only need a bottle opener. If you want to turn it into faro, measure out the candy syrup with a jigger and stir it in with a bar spoon. These are the bar tools we use ourselves; you can find everything in our bar tools & cocktail sets.
Glassware set (our choice 01) + 2 bar tools together € 48,85.
Which spirit goes with it?
Lambic itself takes center stage; these are the bottles that can sit alongside it on the table. With a dry, sour beer, genever from the same part of Europe is the most natural choice. Well-known bottles include Bokma and Vieux. On each drink page, you can read the alcohol percentage, what it tastes like, which cocktails it works in and which glass you need.
Variations & twists
Lambic is rarely the final destination. Blend young and old lambic and let the mixture ferment again in the bottle, and you get gueuze, with carbonation that lambic itself lacks. If you leave lambic on sour cherries for months, it becomes kriek; with raspberries, it is called framboise. And if you add candi sugar, you get faro, the sweet variety that used to be the inexpensive everyday version. Want to read more? View all drinks and brands.
Serving tip
Do not serve it ice-cold: between eight and twelve degrees, the woody and sour notes emerge; below that, little remains of them. Take the bottle out of the refrigerator half an hour before serving. Aged cheese or sourdough bread pairs well with it, because they can stand up to the acidity.
Good to know
What exactly does spontaneous fermentation mean?
The brewer does not add yeast. The boiled wort goes warm into a coolship, a wide, shallow vessel beneath the roof, and cools there overnight in the open air. During those hours, wild yeasts and lactic acid bacteria from the outdoor air enter the beer and start the fermentation. That is why the area around the brewery is part of the recipe.
Why does a lambic brewer use old hops?
Because it does not use hops for bitterness. Hops that have been stored for a few years have lost their aroma and most of their bitterness, but retain their preservative effect. That is exactly what you want in a beer that spends years in a cask and in which the sourness should determine the flavor.
Why is there no head?
Because lambic from the cask contains virtually no carbonation. Fermentation began years ago, and the beer was not fermented again in the bottle afterward, as gueuze is. You therefore end up with a flat beer, at most with a thin rim of foam that immediately subsides.
Where does lambic come from?
From the Pajottenland and the Senne Valley, the area southwest of Brussels. Spontaneously fermented beer is also made outside this region, but the name lambic belongs to this corner of Belgium.
How much alcohol is in lambic?
Usually somewhere between five and six percent. It varies by cask and year, because with spontaneous fermentation not everything is fixed as it is with ordinary brewing yeast.
Frequently asked questions
Which glass do you use for lambic?
In the region itself, a simple tumbler: a straight-sided glass without a stem, holding about thirty centiliters. That exact model is not in our range, but a straight beer tumbler or straight beer glass of the same size comes close. Since there is no head, you do not need to leave room for foam.
What is the difference between lambic and gueuze?
Lambic is the base beer: spontaneously fermented, aged for years in oak casks, and with virtually no carbonation. Gueuze is a blend of young and old lambic that ferments again in the bottle and gains carbonation there. Lambic is therefore the starting point, and gueuze the finished product.
How cold should you serve lambic?
Between eight and twelve degrees. Colder than that suppresses the woody and sour notes, leaving you with mostly sourness; warmer than twelve degrees quickly becomes sticky.
How much alcohol is in lambic?
Usually between five and six percent, depending on the cask and the year. Lambic is not a light beer, even though it goes down dry.
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