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Fermentation Atlas

Alcoholic drinks from Pajottenland and Zenne

Lambic (spontaneous coolship beer)

still, very sour lambic; basis of gueuze, kriek, faro. Made in 6 steps over 12 months – 3 years. The longest step, maturation, takes 12 months – 3 years (Spitaels F. et al. 2014). Enterobacteriaceae and Saccharomyces cerevisiae do most of the fermenting.

Key numbers
Main step12 months – 3 yearsReported[spitaels2014]Maturation
Temperature100 °CTypicalTurbid mash and long boil with aged hops
DocumentedAlcoholic drinks12 months – 3 yearsMore alcoholic drinksMore from Belgium

Recipe

No fixed amounts recordedWhat goes in. No source gives amounts for this ferment.
60–70 % barley malt
30–40 % unmalted wheat
aged (stale) hops
Starter: spontaneous (airborne microbes via coolship; resident barrel flora)

Total time across the recorded steps: 12 months – 3 years

Start
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100 °C

What changes: A turbid mash is boiled for hours with aged hops

Step 1 of 6
Turbid mash and long boil with aged hops
Time
3 h
Measured
Temperature
100 °C
Typical
Salt
None given
Acidity
Not documented
Which microbes the steps name, step by step
Saccharomyces cerevisiae
S. pastorianus
Pediococcus damnosus
Dekkera rettanomyces
Dekkera bruxellensis

Output: hopped wort.

Flavour
aged hops give preservation, little bitterness ('old hop' aroma, WP)
Texture
Not documented
Colour
Not documented

Microbes at work in this step

freshly boiled wort (about 90 °C) is sterile

Method

Measured measured in a studySet fixed by a specification or tested recipeReported one source reports itTypical a general value, not sourced for this fermentUnconfirmed not yet checked against a source

Variants

  • GueuzeBlend of 1-, 2- and 3-year lambic; the young beer re-ferments in the bottle and makes it sparkle. In aged gueuze the yeasts stay alive for up to 17 years, but bacteria die after about 5; the authors advise drinking it within 10 years.
  • Kriek / framboise / fruit lambiclambic refermented on sour cherries / raspberries etc. (WP)
  • Farolambic sweetened (historically brown sugar); modern versions pasteurised (WP)
  • Marsweak second-runnings lambic, no longer made (WP)
  • Industrial lambic (West Flanders)No early Enterobacteriaceae phase and more kinds of acetic acid bacteria; the core yeasts and Pediococcus probably come from the cask wood.

History and sources

Every number is labelled with how it is known. How this atlas is made

Pajottenland style traced to the 13th c.; >300 producers in 1900 (WP).

  1. [spitaels2014] Spitaels F. et al. 2014, The microbial diversity of traditional spontaneously fermented lambic beer, PLOS ONE 9:e95384paper
  2. [wp-lambic] Wikipedia, Lambic (outline only)wiki
  3. [spitaels2015a] Spitaels F. et al. 2015, The microbial diversity of an industrially produced lambic beer shares members of a traditionally produced one and reveals a core microbiota for lambic beer fermentation, Food Microbiology 49:23–32paper
  4. [spitaels2015b] Spitaels F. et al. 2015, Microbiota and metabolites of aged bottled gueuze beers converge to the same composition, Food Microbiology 47:1–11paper