LAMBIC is the name of the oldest style of beer.

It defines the style of beer invented by women about 20,000 to 30,000 years ago. We are pretty sure women invented beer for 3 reasons:
1. in that era women did the work, the labor. Men had more fun things to do, like making war.
2. if we go now to the rain forests in pre-technical societies, women are still the brewers.
3. all good things come from women.

LAMBIC-style means spontaneous fermented beer.

In all other beers the brewer adds yeast to ferment the sugars into alcohol.

In LAMBIC the "wort" or sugar-rich liquid coming out of the brew-kettle is exposed for one to several days to the open air. The wort gets infected by the wild yeast (micro-organisms) flowing around in the air. Some places have more wild yeast than other places. Some times there is more wild yeast in the air than other times. The wild yeast differs from place to place.

Once the fermentation process is started, the wort is stored away in wooden casks for up to 3 years. This means that the fermentation and the aging goes on for that long.

FRUIT LAMBICS.
To have a consistent taste over the years in their LAMBICS, the brewers blend one year old, two year old and three year old Lambic together. This results in a beer called GUEUZE.

Now the brewers upgrade their LAMBICS further by adding fruit in the LAMBIC and storing it away for another 6 months. Since the old LAMBIC is very sour, the fruit completely dissolves in the beer, and the dormant yeasts get a boost by the sugars of the fruit, and fight among each other to ferment these sugars into alcohol. After the 6 months, the brewers bottle and keg:
* KRIEK LAMBIC = Lambic aged with cherries
* PECHE LAMBIC = Lambic aged with peaches
* FRAMBOISE LAMBIC = Lambic aged with raspberries
* CASSIS LAMBIC = Lambic aged with black currant

This end-product is a CHAMPAGNE like beverage, only better:
* it sparkles as Champagne
* it is sweeter as Champagne
* it has an outspoken fruity taste
* it is less expensive than Champagne
* it is lighter in alcohol than Champagne, only 4 to 5 % versus 12 %
In fact, LAMBIC replaces Champagne at wedding- and business receptions in Belgium.

LAMBIC-style of beer is comparable with the oldest techniques of making wine.

Both use the natural fermentation processes (wild yeast and other micro-organisms) to convert the sugars into alcohol. Most modern wine makers forgot the old fermentation processes, and are now also using other yeast to speed up the fermentation processes. Three years aging.

LAMBIC is different from any other beer for 2 more reasons:

1. it is a wheat beer. Up to 40 % of the grain used is unmalted wheat, the rest being barley malt. Most good beers are brewed from barley. Common American beers are brewed from rice and/or corn. The usage of rice and corn started in the Prohibition when American bootleggers couldn't use Barley for fear to be caught.

2. the used hops is dried and three years old. The hops has lost its bitterness. That's also one of the reasons that people, tasting Lambic, don't believe it is beer. They don't find the common bitterness of beer.

Humankind survived because of Alcoholic Beverages.

All other beverages like water, milk, juices ... had to be consumed at the source to be healthy. People got all kind of deadly diseases from drinking un-fresh non-alcoholic beverages. Even today, look at what happened with the unpasteurized fruit-juices, infected by E-coli.

Thanks to alcohol, people could store and transport beverages and keep it healthy for consumption. In all ancient mythologies, beer and later wine was considered gifts of the Gods. For several reasons:

* to have healthy beverages
* to have nice experiences (drunkenness, poetry, fun ...)
* to sustain pain
* to sustain misery

In what is now Iraq, we have found a library more than 7,000 years old, with 16 recipes to brew beer. Egypt was the first nation to actually export beer all over the Mediterranean Sea.

The Payottenland.

The only place in the Western World where LAMBIC is still brewed in an uninterrupted line since pre-history is in the PAYOTTENLAND, a small green region South West of Brussels. The name LAMBIC very probably comes from villages in that region, since 3 villages are called LEMBEEK or LOMBEEK.

The wild yeast in that region is unique in the world and seems to be the best to create the Belgian Lambics. The name of the wild-yeast = BRETTANOMYCES BRUXELLENSIS. That's why original Belgian Lambic can't be brewed any where else than in the PAYOTTENLAND.

What is the difference between Lambic and an American fruit-beer?
Fruit Lambic is different in 5 fundamental aspects with an American fruit-beer:

Cooling of the wort through a radiator type cooler.	Modern brew kettles

Gueuze is born in a bottle.

Gueuze is a blend of Lambic, bottled or kegged, and set to rest and referment in the container. That's why Belgians say that a Gueuze is not brewed. Lambic is brewed. Gueuze is not.

The blending of the Lambic to create Gueuze is an art form only mastered by a few people, who rely today on scientific tools, but mostly on their taste buds. It used to be that the Lambic was brewed and then sold to blenders, pub owners, who bought the 65 gallon oak casks, sometimes from different brewers, aged them for years in their cellars, and then blended it to Gueuze. One of the most famous blenders was the family Vossen, still owners of the "A La Mort Subite" pub in downtown Brussels. One of the last active independent blenders of Gueuze is the family Debelder,owners of the pub "De drie Fonteinen" in Beersel. Another such blender is Hanssesns in Dworp. Today, most Lambic is blended into Gueuze by the Lambic brewers self.

During the 3 year aging process of the Lambic in oak casks, 9 different wild yeast strings and several other micro-organisms take turns to create the most complex beer of the world. By blending different Lambics together, each from a different year, the master blender creates a unique beer. Different yeast strings are coming together to fight for the sugars left in the younger beer.