page_title: Beer in Belgium
section_title: Lambic beers (including gueuze and fruit lambics)
hierarchical_section_title: Beer in Belgium / Belgian beer types / Lambic beers (including gueuze and fruit lambics)
caption_attribution_description: Bottles of oude kriek; from left to right: 1. Mort Subite (Kobbegem) 2. De Cam (Gooik) 3. Hanssens Artisanaal (Dworp) 4. Boon (Lembeek) 5. Oud Beersel (Beersel) 6. Girardin (Sint-Ulriks-Kapelle)
context_page_description: Beer in Belgium varies from pale lager to amber ales, lambic beers, Flemish red ales, sour brown ales, strong ales and stouts. In 2016, there were approximately 224 active breweries in Belgium, including international companies, such as AB InBev, and traditional breweries including Trappist monasteries. On average, Belgians drink 84 liters of beer each year, down from around 200 each year in 1900. Most beers are bought or served in bottles, rather than cans, and almost every beer has its own branded, sometimes uniquely shaped, glass. In 2016, UNESCO inscribed Belgian beer culture on their list of the intangible cultural heritage of humanity.
context_section_description: Lambic is a wheat beer brewed in the Pajottenland region of Belgium (southwest of Brussels) by spontaneous fermentation. Most modern beers are fermented by carefully cultivated strains of brewer's yeasts; Lambic's fermentation, however, is produced by exposure to the wild yeasts and bacteria that are said to be native to the Zenne valley, in which Brussels lies. The beer then undergoes a long aging period ranging from three to six months (considered "young") to two or three years for mature. It is this unusual process which gives the beer its distinctive flavour: dry, vinous, and cidery, with a slightly sour aftertaste.
  From Lambic four kinds of beer are produced: Lambic, Gueuze, Fruit Lambic, and Faro.
  The first of these, Lambic, is the unblended basic brew (young) or the refermented basic brew (old). Lambic is a draught beer which is rarely bottled, and thus only available in its area of production and a few cafes in and around Brussels.
  The youngest of the Lambic brews, Faro, which is lambic just after the first fermentation is sometimes served with sugar or caramel added to make it palatable for consumption.
  Gueuze blends old and young brews to stimulate a final fermentation, sometimes from three consecutive years (cfr sherry-method). Gueuze is the finished product, the beer that is commercialised. Top quality Geuze is bottled in large bottles (75cl) with a champagne-like cork, that require delicate handling, and controlled environmental conditions much like wine.
  Fruit beers are made by adding fruit or fruit concentrate to Lambic or a mixture of Lambic brews before the final refermenting stage. The most common type is Kriek, made with sour cherries.
caption: Bottles of oude kriek; from left to right: 1. Brouwerij Mort Subite [nl; fr] (Kobbegem) 2. De Cam (Gooik) 3. Hanssens Artisanaal (Dworp) 4. Boon (Lembeek) 5. Oud Beersel (Beersel) 6. Girardin (Sint-Ulriks-Kapelle)
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