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Date: Tue, 30 May 1995 00:30:34 -0600
From: lambic-request at lance.colostate.edu (subscription requests only - do not post here)
To: lambic at lance.colostate.edu
Subject: Lambic Digest #612 (May 30, 1995)
Lambic Digest #612 Tue 30 May 1995
Forum on Lambic Beers (and other Belgian beer styles)
Mike Sharp, Digest Coordinator
Contents:
Cerevisia/Brauwelt (flissebaalje)
Re: Amsterdam Brewpub (Ton van Opstal)
Where the Wild Yeasts are! (Michael Sharp)
Brouwerij De Troch (Michael Sharp)
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----------------------------------------------------------------------
Date: Mon, 29 May 1995 11:45:15 EDT
From: flissebaalje at voeding.tno.nl
Subject: Cerevisia/Brauwelt
Almost simultanously, some very interesting articles were
published:
From:
CEREVISIA, Belgian Journal of Brewing and Biotechnology
20 (1995) 1
-PROPERTIES OF BELGIAN ACID BEERS AND THEIR MICROFLORA
H.Verachtert and A.Debourg
I) The production of geuze and related refreshing acid beers
by H.Verachtert and D.Iserentant.
-Laboratory of Industrial Microbiology and Biochemistry, De-
partment of food and Microbial Technology,
K.U.Leuven, Kardinaal Mercierlaan 92, 3001 Heverlee, Belgium.
page 37-42
II) Biochemical properties of Brettanomyces Yeasts
L.Van Nedervelde and A.Debourg
-Department of Brewing Sciences and fermentation Technology
Institut Meurice, Avenue E.Gryson 1,
B-1070 Brussels, Belgium
p.43-48
BELGIAN SPECIAL BEERS
Refermented beers; white and wheat beers; amber and dark
beers; spiced and hoppy beers
G.Derdelinckx, H.Neven, P.Arnott, I.Demeyer and F.Delvaux
page 67-77.
From:
BRAUWELT 19/20 (1995) P.938-941
Lambik, gueuze, kriek-spezialbiere aus Belgien
Dr.H.G.Schultze-Berndt, Berlin.
BRAUWELT 19/20 (1995) P.942-952
Belgische Lambic-Fruchtbiere
Prof.Dr.Anton Piendl, Weihenstephan
Both Brauwelt articles are in German, they might possibly also
appear in the English edition: Brauwelt International.
But, for instance, the tables in the second article are easy
to understand.
Theo D. Flissebaalje
Editor of PINT-nieuws, the magazin for beerlovers.
------------------------------
Date: Mon, 29 May 95 12:47:57 +0200
From: etmtvop at crosby.etm.ericsson.se (Ton van Opstal)
Subject: Re: Amsterdam Brewpub
Jim Busch writes in reply to another posting:
> <The other Amsterdam Brewpub,
> <Maximiliaan (6 Kloveniers Burgwal, one block east of the red
> <light district) compares with an average American Brewpub.
>
> Absolute swill. Fantastic little 5 BBl brewery, though.
> Maybe I was there on a bad week.
>
I disagree with the statement that the beers from "Amsterdams Brouwhuis
Maximiliaan" are absolute swill. I've been there often, and all beers I have
tasted were good. Almost all beers are based on German examples. Some beers
are not very outspoken, but it is not swill. There is only one beer based on
a Belgium example, Wit Beer. Therefore I shall not discuss the beers from
this brewery as they are obvious not related to the lambic digest.
Ton van Opstal
Dutch beer lover
------------------------------
Date: Mon, 29 May 95 10:10:38 PDT
From: Michael Sharp <msharp at Synopsys.COM>
Subject: Where the Wild Yeasts are!
A few days ago I was digging through my piles of brewing related papers
to find some grain analyses and I found a photocopy of the Homebrew U
III notes from Dr. Roger Mussche's talk on lambic. There is some
interesting information in the tables at the end of the talk as well
as a few intersting points in the body of the text.
I remember receiving this (though I honestly don't have a clue as to
who sent it ) and hearing rumor of a possible conference proceeding being
published. At that time I didn't want to compromise any attempt at
publishing the proceeding by posting the notes I had. Well, since the
proceedings haven't ever been published, and since loosing this
presentation doesn't do anyone any good, I've reproduced the photocopies
here as well as I could.
Before we get to the meat of the article, I'd like to put in a few good
words for Charlie Finkel of Merchant Du Vin (Importers of Lindemans as
well as a host of other beers), and Liberty Malt Supply Co. of
Seattle WA. Through their efforts to hold "Homebrew U", the homebrew
community is able to benefit from talks such as this. I would also
like to thank Dr. Mussche for his effort at presenting in English.
Though the notes may not flow well in some places, I commend him
and I must say that I doubt I could have done anywhere near as well if
I where to try to make such a presentation in French.
--Mike
Where the Wild Yeasts are!
By Dr. Roger Mussche
Belgium
1. Introduction
What means Wild Yeasts? My yeast is not wild, yours is wild.
6000-5000BC people were already brewing (fermented beverages) in the
Middle East with only the yeast of the house; they called it like the
place they lived at, e.g. Susa.
Wild fermentation is not so strange and done all over the world :
(see talbe 1), but unique for the Belgian type of wild fermentation is,
that only the wind is helping?
Even with our fruitbeers the wind and the fruits are the only
tools to innoculate our wort or young lambic.
2. Our History
Between Tigris and Eufrat Rivers, the first brew was made by the
Sumerians in 5500BC, with grinded cereals, herbs as aniseed, cinnamon
and brewers own mouth amylases (always done by women). In 1300BC in
Egypt, Ramses III took more than 10.000 stone cans of beer with him to
heaven. Only the Greeks and Romans were against real beer drinking
because of the unpredictable effect; they thought it was good for the
German barbarians, so that they would easily loose the wars.
Till 800 beermaking was a ladies job, and from the early middle
age (about 900) the real brewing as a commerical fact is starting. The
monks were the stimulators for quality beers by reinocculation by the
previous brew at more or less stable room temperatures; the top
fermented beers were born.
About 768 hop was introduced to Europe by the monks and in 1402
the first dark-lager was made by Mr. Naburg in Bavaria. About 1840 a
more pale lager was created in Pilsen. It happened by accident, because
the malt was bleached by the SO2 and CO from the brown charcoal. The
real pale lager was brewed in 1920 in Belgium at the Alken Brewery.
Besides the wild beers, known in Belgium as lambic since 1400,
there were also: top fermented beers, bottom fermented beers, red-sour
beers, white beers and so on. (Sheet 1 - Our History)
3. Lambic and Gueuze
Our spontaneously fermented lambic is made within a radius of 20km
around Brussels. The unique natural combination of Senne-valley
(river), small hills with a lot of cherry trees, and small farms with
own hops, cereals, wheat and wooden kegs with fermentation-liquids give
the region a micro-flora that is kept in the air and buildings of the
brewery-farms for more than 500 years.
The composition of the raw materials makes the beer a unique broth
(wort) for wild inocculation and fermentation.
By law we must use:
min. 30% unmalted wheat
70% malt (1/3 winter; 2/3 summer cereal)
wort-strength: 11-12 degrees plato
acidity of the lambic: min. 30mili. eq. NaOH
volatile acidity: min. 2 milli. eq. NaOH
spontaneous inocculation from open coolship is requisite
(Sheet 2: comparison of raw materials)
The brewing method of lambic is the turbid mash method with the
pecularity that the brewer intends to obtain a highly dextrinous wort,
more appropriate for sustaining a long fermentation by a mixed flora of
microorganisms and leading to the typical lambic flavor. (See Sheet 3 -
brewing method)
To avoid the bitter taste of hop in these acid beers, high doses
of aged hop are used during the long wort boiling period. After wort
boiling, it is cooled overnight in large shallow trays. During this
cooling period microorganisms are introduced (Table 2,3), cooled and
infected wort is then pumped into wooden casks of 700 liters. The
spontaneous fermentation then starts and may last for two years.
(See sheet 4 - evolution of micro flora)
The fermentation is introduced by the development of wort
enterobacteria. Their numbers in cooled wort may vary from brewery to
brewry, but largely exceed yeast counts. These fastly growing bacteria
obtain their maximal concentration (about 10^8 cells/ml) after one week;
but they persist only for about one month because of pH lowering and
ethanol production.
(Sheet 5 - Evolution of ethanol, pH and ethanol)
The wort enterobacteria are replaced by yeasts responsible for the
main or primary alcoholic fermentation. This main fermentation is
mainly done by the non-actidione-resistent yeasts (like Saccharomyces
species). The real attenuation increases to 50-60% and the pH falls to
about 4.0. Ethanol and normal by-products like esters are formed.
The yeast population is a succession of species with increasing
fermentative capacity.
Saccharomyces globosus, S. dairensis, S. uvarum, S. bayanus and S.
cerevisiae. The primary alcoholic fermentation takes 3-4 months.
The third phase in the lambic fermentation is a lactic acid
fermentation by Pediococcus Cerevisiae. The lactic acid increase to 5-6
g/l and the pH falls to pH 3.2. The pediococci dominate the flora from
the 3rd to the 8th month.
During or after the lactic acid fermentation, the secondary
alcoholic fermentation starts. This results in an increase of the real
attenuation to 80%. The concentration of the ethyllactate shows a
tenfold increase during this period. The yeast responsible (Sheet 6)
for this phase belongs mainly to the species Br. Bruxellensis and Br.
Lambicus.
(Sheet 6 - Evolution in ethylacetate and ethyl lactate).
After one year of fermentation, Brettanomyces spp and P.
cerevisiae remain in suspension, but drastic changes in composition are
no longer observed. The later part of the fermentation must be
considered as a maturation during which the characteristic "old lambic
flavour" develops.
Table 4: Comparison between Saccharomyces and Brettanomyces
yeasts. Pictures 1 and 2 of Saccharomyces and Brettanomyces cells.
4. Gueuze, or refermentation of Lambic in the bottles
From the lambic in the wooden casks the gueuze is brewed. Whereas
the lambic is always flat (no CO2), the gueuze is refermented in the
bottles - method Champenoise - to obtain a sparkling sour-astringent
beer. We blend 2/3 of a young lambic - full of yeasts - with 1/3 of
overyears lambic - full of dextrinase - for a right amount of yeasts and
available sugars or dextrines. Here is the reason for using the turbid
mash method: we need enough dextrines in the lambic for the production
of sugars as yeasts-substrate. The dextrinases are the hydrolysing
factors for the dextrines.
Two groups of microorganisms seem important: the actidione-
resistant yeasts (Brettanomyces) and the lactic acid bacteria, although
the yeasts die after about 10 months. The yeasts at a level of about
10^5 c.f.u./ml, developed during the first month as the counts on the
day of bottling were only around 10^2 c.f.u./ml.
[c.f.u. is an abbreviation for "colony forming units" -MDS]
Lactic acid bacteria at a level of around 10^6 c.f.u./ml remain
consistently present after 5 months. At the day of the bottling their
numbers were around 10^2/ml. Acetic acid bacteria disappeared after 3
to 4 months. At the day of the bottling their numbers were around
10^2/ml. Acetic acid bacteria disappeared after 3 to 4 months. Non-
actidione resistant yeasts were consistently present during the first 10
months. Their numbers were not much higher than at the time of bottling
(10^2/ml). Many of these yeasts were isolated and identified. None was
a Saccharomyces, but were of the genera Candida, Torulopsis, Hansenula,
Pichia and Cryptococcus. Unexpectedly, the Pediococci, which are the
most unconstantly growing organisms after isolation, remain the longest-
living organisms in the gueuze.
5. Fruit-beers on lambic base
Nowadays lambic-fruit beers are extremely popular. The first
fruit beer was made with sour-cherries. The cherries were growing around
Brussels - "typical village Schaarbeek". In the year 1930 different
farm breweries started cherry-kriek beer by adding 125kg crushed
cherries per 600hl young lambic in the casks. The fruit-fermentation
starts immediately in the casks because of the extra amount of sugar
from the fruit and the high Brettanomyces counts on the fruit.
The best results are with sour-wild cherries; the meat of the
cherries is very red-flavoured on a big stone. The fruit is added in
the cherries-season (July). Since a 20 years the cherries-beer is made
all over the year with single juice from crushed defrozen fruits. The
last method gives much more colored, flavoured (like almond) cherries
beer.
The beer with the fruits is well-balanced after another 6 months
fermentation in the casks but only with sour-dark-red cherries; with a
normal cherry-fruit the beer is light pink in color, and the taste-
flavour is eaten by the yeast. Here again the Brettanomyces yeast is
the most usefull. We obtain a refermented Kriek in the bottle by
blending 2/3 of a young cherries-beer with 1/3 of an overyears cherries-
beer.
Other fruit beers of lambic brewers are mainly made by addition of
the fresh juice to a young lambic. The problem with most of the fruits
is the weakness of the flavour and color against the yeast-metabolism.
Raspberries color and flavour is completely metabolished by the
Brettanomyces yeast. Therefore in an artisanal lambic brewery the fruit
beers are made by blending of lambic and fresh single juice before
bottling. The maturation takes place in the bottle without
fermentation.
6. Why are Lambic and Gueuze so unique?
The most important and distinguished factor for a good lambic-
gueuze is the flavour and the taste.
Table 5. Substantial composition of gueuze
The combination of an acid taste (pH3.3) with a very dry mouth-
feeling (from high tannin-content) makes the beer very drinkable.
The flavor is a combination of alcohols, esters, aldehydes and
some hop-terpenoids.
It is strange that a beer with more than 5000ppm acids, over the
500ppm esters and at least 50.000ppm alcohol is so popular and gives the
best base for a fruit beer... that's maybe the secret.
Table 1 Fermented foods (beverages) containing mixed and/or wild
cultures
[originally this was too wide to fit on the page. I removed columns of
"Aspect" and "Use" since they didn't lend much additional information.
-MDS]
Product/name Substrates Organisms References
BELGIUM
Lambic/Gueuze Barley/wheat Enterobacteria, Van Oevelen, Mussche,
yeasts, Pediococcus et.al. 1976, 1977
Acid Ales Barley,rice, Saccharomyces
corn Lactobacillus
CHINA
Soy sauce Soybeans/wheat Aspergillus, Young & Wood, 1976
Pediococcus,
Saccharomyces
EASTERN EUROPE
Kefir Milk Yeasts, Lactic
bacteria
Tea Fungus Tea Leaves, Acetobacter, yeasts Hesseltine, 1965
Sugar
INDIA
Sonti Rice Rhizopus, Yeasts Hesseltine, 1965
JAPAN
Sake Rice Aspergillus, Kodama & Yoshizawa
Saccharomyces,
Lactic acid bact.
MEXICO
Pulgue Agave Zymomonas, Yeasts,
Lactic acid bact.
SUDAN
Merissa Sorghum Saccharomyces,
Lactic acid bact.
U.S.A.
Bourbon Maize/Rice/ Lactobacillis delbrueckii,
Barley Saccharomyces
C.I.S.(U.S.S.R.)
Kwass Rye/Barley Yeasts, Hesseltine, 1965
Lactic acid bact.
West-Germany
Weissbier Wheat,Barley Saccharomyces,
Lactic acid bact.
South-Africa
Kaffir Sorghum,Maize Yeasts, Williamson, 1955
Lactic acid bact.
Table 2. Microorganisms Detected in Brewery Air (LAMBIC)
Yeasts Isolated from brewery air Total percentage
outside inside
Schizosaccharomyces 0 2 2.25
Kloeckera x (1) 0 3 3.37
Sacchromycodes 1 2 3.37
Sacchomyces (1) 8 18 29.21
Hansenula 0 1 1.12
Torulopsis 6 38 49.44
Candida 1 7 8.99
Brettanomyces (1) 1 1 2.25
------ ------
TOTAL: 17 72
(1) Mainly during lambic fermentation
Table 3. Degree of infection of lambic wort after 1 night cooling in
open trays
Microbiol. species In lambic wort In Ringer solution
after 1 night cooling after 1 night infection
Enterobacteria 1-50 CFU/ml 3 CFU/L
Acetic acid bacteria not present in 100ml not present in 1L
Lactic acid bacteria 1-10 CFU/L not found in 1L
Total yeasts 10-150 CFU/ml 40 CFU/L
Actidione-resistent 10-20 CFU/L 25 CFU/L
yeasts
Table 4. Comparison between Saccharomyces and Brettanomcyes yeasts
[I've changed the table layout so it can be reproduced here. The
information has not been altered -MDS]
Brettanomyces sp. Saccharomyces sp.
Ascospores - +
Acid from glucose + -
Actidione Resistent + -
Ferment: Glucose + +
Maltose + +
Raffinose - +1/3
Assimil: Glucose + +
Maltose + +
Raffinose - +
Nitrate + -
Table 5. Substantial composition of gueuze
[I've changed the table layout so it can be reproduced here. The
information has not been altered -MDS]
Traditional Gueuze Filtered Gueuze Lagers Ales
BrewA BrewB BrewC BrewA BrewB BrewC
Density d20 1.011 1.01 1.01 1.017 1.016 1.014
Tannins ppm 350 375 360 340 335 345 150 210
Ethanol g% 4.95 4.89 4.58 4.71 3.84 4.49
pH 3.34 3.25 3.45 3.2 3.45 3.35 4.2 4
Lactic acid ppm 3434 3000 5277 2071 3510 2107 70-200 70-200
Acetic acid ppm 656 680 1238 1177 580 538 60-140 60-140
Ethyl Acetate ppm 61 72 82 68 34 34 08-20 06-23
Ethyl Lactate ppm 384 437 419 107 188 118 0.1 0.1
1-amyl acetate ppm 0.5 0.6 0.1 1.6 3.1 2.1 1.2-28 0.7-3.3
2,3 Butanediol ppm 716 406 618 318 274 196 10-51 42-128
Remark: Filtered Gueuze:
- High content of 1-amylacetate means that the young lambic
is blended with some top-fermented beers before filtration
Traditional Gueuze:
- Typically very high in tannins from hops, ethyllactate,
2,3-butanediol
Sheet 1 - OUR HISTORY
6000-5500BC Fermented cereal to a kind of beer (sikaru),
in Mesopotamia later "shekar"
2500-1500BC Fermented cereals + dads to "tithum" = beer
in Egypt
800-1000 Beer at monasteries with hops, cereals, top
fermented yeast
1400 Dark lager beer by Naburg, Bavaria
(cooling with ice)
1400 Lambic-recipe
1500 Lambic-name
1840 Light dark lager beer in Pilsen (CSR) with
paler malt
Pasteur and Hansen found yeast cells in the fermentation
1890 Light dark lager beer in Bavaria
1893 Lambic in bottles - gueuze
1920 Light pale lager beer in Belgium (Alken)
with pale malt
1930 Kriek - cherry beer
1978 Framboos - respberry beer
1983 Perzik - peaches beer
Sheet 2 - Comparison between a lager pils brewery and a lambic brewery
Lager Lambic
a. Raw materials
Malt min 50% Malt
Adjuncts max 50% Unmalted wheat min 30%
as rice, corn,
starch
Fresh hop preparates Annuated hops
as whole hops,
pellets,
extracts
b. Brew-method
Decoctie-method Turbid mash method
Infusion-method
c. Boiling-copper
90 minutes 5-6 hours
d. Cooling
Aseptic - fast 8C Coolship open under the wind
e. Inocculation
Pure yeast amount From the brewery air
after propagation
f. Fermentation-maturation
+- 8C - 6 days 6 months and 24 months
+- 2C - 1 month
Sheet 3 - BREWING METHOD
Malt Wheat
Milling Milling 500L at 55C
100 kg | |
| | |
+-------------Mash at 45C--------------+
|
| <-------- addition H2O of 90C
|
Mash at 52C
|
Taking of <----------+
turbid mash |
| <-------- addition H2O of 90C
|
Mash at 65C
|
Taking of <----------+
turbid mash |
| <-------- addition H2O of 90C
|
Mash at 72C
|
Taking of <----------+
turbid mash |
| |
Heating to 85C ------->+
|
Filtration at 78C
|
| <-------- wash with H2O of 95C
| (in lauter tun)
|
5-6h boiling <-------- annuated hops 3kg/500L
|
Hop - sieve - filter in coolship
Cooling and air-inocculation
|
Fermentation in wooden barrels or
wood-coated tanks
Sheet 4 - Evolution of microbiol. populations during the lambic
fermentation
Sheet 5 - Evolution in attenuation, ethanol, and pH during lambic
fermentation
Sheet 6 - Evolution in concentration of ethyllactate and ethylacetate
during lambic fermentation
Sheet 7 - Microbiological profile of gueuze bottle fermentation
[sorry folks, I can't do these graphs in ASCII-graphics -MDS]
Sheet 8 - Belnding procedure for gueuze
Refermented in the bottle Filtered
(Brut, Fond, Artisanal)
Blend of 2 parts of young lambic
1 part of old lambic
| |
| +sugar
| filtrated
| +CO2
| |
Bottled Bottled
| |
Refermentation and |
maturation in the |
bottles |
| |
Sales Sales
Sheet 9 - Lambic-fruitbeers
with fruit with fresh single with concentrates
juice and flavours
(artisanal) (artisanal) (industrial)
young lambic young lambic young beer
(6 months old) (6 to 12 months old)
in casks in casks
+125kg +25 to 35% +aromas
sour-cherries single juice and concentrates
per 600L lambic | |
or | |
+275kg | |
raspberries | |
per 600L lambic | |
or | |
+250kg peaches | |
per 600L lambic | |
| | |
Fermantation | |
| | |
Bottling Filtration+ Filtration+
| bottling bottling
or refermentation | |
in bottle | |
| Bottling |
or filtration before maturation |
bottling | |
| | |
Sales Sales Sales
Remark: 1. and 2. are from real lambic breweries like Lindemans
[there are also 6 photomicrographs of various organisms, but I'm sure
not going to reproduce these in ASCII graphics -MDS]
------------------------------
Date: Mon, 29 May 95 21:09:37 PDT
From: Michael Sharp <msharp at Synopsys.COM>
Subject: Brouwerij De Troch
This is the second in my series of trip reports.
Here is to hoping that the typos are at a minimum...
-Mike
Brouwerij DeTroch
Northwest of Brussels, in very picturesque countryside, is
the small town of Wambeek. It is this town that has been
home to the DeTroch brewery for at least the last two hundred
years. Brouwerij De Troch is the producer of the Chapeau
line of lambics being imported to the U.S. by All Saints
Brands of Minneapolis.
A 19th century land-use plan of this region mentions a
brewery owned by Petronnella De Troch. Even older records
indicate that her father, Pieter De Troch, was running a
brewery on the same site in the late 18th Century.
Petronnella married Egidius De Troch and in 1898 their son
Louis took the family business over. Louis married J. De
Neve, and their son, also a Louis, inherited the brewery and
farm in 1936. The same Louis married M.L. Van den Moortel.
Their nephew Jos Raes and his wife M. Vanderhasselt took on
the family tradition in 1974 and have been running this rare
craft brewery ever since.
My wife and I where lucky enough to be able to arrange a
visit at Brouwerij De Troch during our honeymoon in April
1995. After driving past the brewery a few times we
eventually spotted the sign and pulled into the driveway.
This lead us into a small courtyard formed by a beautiful old
farm house and its associated out buildings.
We where met by Mr. Raes and invited into the office to begin
our visit. While in the office we discussed what direction
Mr. Raes felt the market was taking. It shouldn't surprise
anyone that the bulk of the lambic market is for sweetened
lambics. The brewery is currently producing 6000HL per year
of which the majority is sweetened to satisfy the desires of
this market. In addition, a small amount of gueuze and kriek
are available at the brewery in their unsweetened forms.
Brouwerij De Troch is currently supplying the European,
United States, and Japanese markets with their line of
Chapeau products. This very diverse line includes a gueuze,
faro, kriek, framboise, peche, fraise (strawberry), mirabelle
(plum), exotic (pineapple), and tropical (banana) lambic.
The last few fruit beers are unique to Brouwerij De Troch and
there is a story behind each. The fraise and mirabelle
lambic where originally produced for festivals; the
strawberry festival in Liege, and the plum festival somewhere
in France. The pineapple lambic was produced at the request
of an importer for the African country of Gabon. Now all of
these unique lambics are kept in production to differentiate
this brewery's products from the other lambic brewer's
products.
While touring the brewery we had the opportunity to discuss
the methods used by Brouwerij De Troch in making lambic.
Production starts as one would expect, with a turbid mash
[1,2] of malt and unmalted wheat. Four extractions from the
grain are made to yield enough wort to fill the kettles.
Here the wort is boiled for 4 to 5 hours to yield a finished
wort with a density of five Belgian degrees (a specific
gravity of 1.050). The wort is then allowed to cool in
shallow vats, or coolships, where it also picks up the
necessary organisms to begin its long fermentation. After
cooling, the wort is then run into a tub to allow the worts
from each coolship to blend into a consistent product. From
this tub the wort is then pumped into barrels of 600L
capacity where fermentation takes place.
The brick building and equipment used for wort production
dates to the opening of the brewery. This includes two coal
fired kettles of 2600L and 3500L respectively, as well as a
mash tun who's rakes are belt driven in a method that reminds
me of early industrial revolution technology. This equipment
gives the brewery a 12000HL/year capacity.
After a one year fermentation the young lambic is ready for
mixing with older lambics to form the Chapeau gueuze. In the
case of kriek, the young lambic is mixed with cherries and
allowed to work for another 5 months before bottling. After
bottling, both of these products are cellared at the brewery
for a further 7 to 8 months to allow proper conditioning.
For some of the more exotic fruit lambics like the mirabelle,
fruit syrup and fructose, a sugar, are blended with the young
lambic just prior to bottling and this mix is then force
carbonated during bottling. The syrup is similar to a fruit
puree from which some amount of water has been extracted.
Having the fruit in this form allows finer control over the
final flavor without having to worry about diluting the
lambic substantially. Since the syrup and fructose is still
quite fermentable when dilute, the bottles are pasteurized
immediately following filling. This pasteurization also
allows the character of the syrup to be preserved. If
pasteurization did not occur, the majority of the flavor and
aroma from the syrup would be stripped off by the
fermentation of the sugars in the syrup.
To be more precise about the process of working with fresh
single juices, Dr. Mussche [2] provides some basic
information. While I don't know if this exactly matches the
process at Brouwerij De Troch, it does provide some insight
into the process. To lambic of 6 to 12 months of age, 25 to
35% juice is added. This blend is then filtered, bottled and
force carbonated, and then pasteurized to stabilize the
product. The bottles may then be cellared to allow the
flavors of the lambic and the syrup to blend.
Now certainly some purists reading this must be objecting to
syrups, sweetening, and pasteurization. To those I would
point out that while it may not be to their personal taste,
this is where the largest market for lambic is. By producing
lambics for this market, breweries such as Brouwerij De Troch
are able to survive and also to continue producing much
smaller quantities of unsweetened gueuze and kriek for sale
at the brewery. While I got the impression that Mr. Raes
would prefer producing the more sour lambics, this is a
matter of economics.
Market trends and personal preferences aside, it is important
to note that no technology is being lost by producing
sweetened lambic. Both the sweetened lambics so popular in
the market now, as well as their more sour brothers, start
with the same base beer. Regardless of the product to be
produced, the starting beer is lambic. I am confident that
Mr. Raes is quite capable of producing excellent lambic of
both forms.
As a compliment to their already extensive line, perhaps we
can convince All Saints Brands to bring in a small quantity
of the unsweetened gueuze and kriek for sale as a specialty
connoisseur item? This would be invaluable to those trying
to understand the full breadth of the lambic style. Tasting
both versions side by side lends substantial insight into the
style as a whole.
I would like to thank Mr Raes for taking the time to talk to
me about his perception of the market, and his techniques for
making lambic. I can think of no better way to spend the day
than talking about lambics with a brewer of this style. I
would also like to acknowledge the help of his son as
interpreter when the need arose and to thank All Saints
Brands for helping to arrange our meeting.
Refs:
1. Sharp, Brasserie Cantillon trip report, Lambic Digest
#603, May 14, 1995
2. Mussche, Where the Wild Yeasts are!, Lambic Digest
#612, Mat 30, 1995 [as transcribed by M. Sharp from
Homebrew U III notes]
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End of Lambic Digest
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