thumb|right|200px|traditional wooden lambic barrels; the l on the barrel indicates the brewery. thumb|right|200px|industrial barrels of lambic lambic is a type of beer traditionally brewed in the pajottenland region of belgium (southwest of brussels) and in brussels itself at the cantillon brewery and museum. lambic is now mainly consumed after refermentation, resulting in derived beers such as gueuze or kriek lambic.jackson, michael (1991). michael jackson's great beers of belgium unlike conventional beers, which are fermented by carefully cultivated strains of brewer's yeasts, lambic is produced by spontaneous fermentation: it is exposed to the wild yeasts and bacteria that are said to be native to the zenne valley, in which brussels lies. it is this unusual process which gives the beer its distinctive flavour: dry, vinous, and cidery, usually with a sour aftertaste. == brewing == thumb|right|200px|aged dried hops today the beer is generally brewed from a grist containing approximately 60-70% barley malt and 30-40% unmalted wheat. lambic wort is still cooled overnight in the traditional manner, in shallow, flat metal pans called coolships (koelschip). here it is left exposed to the open air so microorganisms may "accidentally" inoculate the wort. while this cooling method of open air exposure is a critical feature of the style, the key yeasts and bacteria that perform the fermentation are now understood to reside within the breweries (usually timber) fermenting vessels.spitaels, freek, et al. "the microbial diversity of traditional spontaneously fermented lambic beer." plos one 9.4 (2014): e95384. over eighty microorganisms have been identified in lambic beer, the most significant being saccharomyces cerevisiae, saccharomyces pastorianus and brettanomyces bruxellensis. the process is generally only possible between october and may as in the summer months there are too many unfavourable organisms in the air that could spoil the beer. since at least the 11th century and probably earlier, hops have been used in beer for their natural preservative qualities as well as for the pleasant bitterness, flavor, and aroma they impart. today it is the latter that is the reason for their inclusion in almost all beer styles other than lambic. since the method of inoculation and long fermentation time of lambic beers increases the risk of spoilage, lambic brewers still use large numbers of hops for their antibacterial properties. traditionally lambic of the early 19th century was a highly hopped beer using 8-9 g/l of locally grown aalst or poperinge hops
Beer_and_breweries_in_Belgium Beer_styles