Brewing via spontaneous fermentation...no yeast!

[cwiseman77]

SWMBO just came home with some beers for me, she claims that one of them is brewed without yeast but instead they expose it to the air which causes spontaneous fermentation. It's brewed in a certain area of Belgium with the right micro-organisms in the air. Beer is called lambic.

I'm sure a lot of you guys have heard of this before but I hadn't, thought it was fascinating and thought I'd share.

Any experience with this beer? Not tried it yet, suppina special reserve 6.6% King Goblin instead.... :whistle:

 

[Dave1970]

Lambic's are spontaneous ferment, they're supposed to have a sour taste, I came across a couple on holiday in France last summer, they were fine, but not the really different challenging brew I was expecting - maybe I didn't try the right one? The various yeasts responsible live in the wooden barrels and rafters of the breweries and survive there between brews so it's not just random yeast blowin' in the wind.

I did have a King Goblin last night - quite enjoyed that :drink:

 

[cwiseman77]

So it's almost as if they allow the beer to be infected? Yeah I rather like the King Goblin, good beer :drunk:

 

[evanvine]

So it's almost as if they allow the beer to be infected?

Yeast is an infection!

 

[alanywiseman.]

I always understood it to be that they were lucky to have the right yeasts naturally in the air. If you did the same here you would probably end up with something rather funky. The yeasts present in the air change region to region so that is why for example if you have a San Francisco sourdough starter it will change to something very different as the yeast in your region will start to out compete the yeast present in the starter.

 

[Loetz]

They can also sometimes taste like horse blankets!

I made a trip to the Cantillon brewery about 8 years ago and it blew my mind. I wish it was cheaper to get here.

Beware of bad lambics, some brewers have to add a lot of sugar to their beers and it turns out pretty disgusting. A while back, Sam Adams tried to build a special brewery just for lambics in America. I heard that they did something weird like import air from Belgium and pump it into their factory. In the end, it didn't really attenuate that well and the beer was pretty crappy. I think they push it in their christmas variety packs every winter. Blah. Bad beer memories. :sick:

Some good lambic brewers to try:
Cantillon
3 Fonteinen
Oud Beersel
Boon

Look out for the style 'Gueuze'. That is a blend of lambics of different ages, and I find it to be a bit tastier.

I'm also not a huge fan of Lindemans or Belle-Vue.

EDIT: I cant find anything on Google about Sam Adams importing air, so that guy that told me that might have himself just been full of imported air. Also, see this video about an interesting experiment with ambient microbes:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L3sijnoW5HU

 

[klaus]

Some time ago I was watching a video on brewing.tv (title escapes me...) - it was a portrait of a family run brewery in the US. One of the scenes was a huge steel fermenting vat (at least two metres across) which was open with a thick covering of kreusen, there was even a sort of overflow for excess foam.

 

[cwiseman77]

Think mine is called Faro....might have it tonight, will give u the verdict

 

[Swazi]

Faro is a sweetened blend of old lambic and a newer beer. Won't be nearly as funky as a straight unblended lambic. A good place to start for the uninitiated. I'm pretty sure anyone could start a spontaneous ferment anywhere in the world. Sure it will be harder in some places, and of course different but the potential for quality should be similar.

 

[Loetz]

Think mine is called Faro...

Faro

Historically, a low-alcohol, sweetened beer made from a blend of lambic and a much lighter, freshly brewed beer (called meertsbier, not necessarily a lambic) to which brown sugar (or sometimes caramel or molasses) was added.[3] Sometimes herbs were added as well. The use of the lighter beer (or even water) and of substandard lambic in the blend made this a cheap, light, sweet beer for everyday use. The 19th century French poet Charles Baudelaire commented on Faro's (to him) disagreeable aftertaste, "It's beer that you drink twice", believing that the Faro in Brussels was brewed from the waters of a river (the Senne or Zenne) that was also used as a sewer.[4]

The sugar was originally added shortly before serving, and therefore did not add carbonation or alcohol to the beverage (because the sugar did not have the time to ferment). Modern faro beer is still characterized by the use of brown sugar and lambic, but is not necessarily a light beer. The use of meertsbier has disappeared, and modern faro is not viewed as cheap or light. Modern faro is bottled, sweetened and pasteurized to prevent refermentation in the bottle. Examples are produced by Cantillon, Boon, Lindemans or Mort Subite.

 

[cwiseman77]

hmm...this should be interesting

 

[Loetz]

Some time ago I was watching a video on brewing.tv (title escapes me...) - it was a portrait of a family run brewery in the US. One of the scenes was a huge steel fermenting vat (at least two metres across) which was open with a thick covering of kreusen, there was even a sort of overflow for excess foam.

http://youtu.be/Xr-2n3J3IA0?t=3m20s

Just happened to stumble on to the video you were talking about. It's open fermentation, but they use yeast.