Fruit Lambics come in two veins. They can either be sweet or sourish. Many people prefer to go with the more sweet versions because they are far more palatable to them. Let’s face it, they are delicious. It’s been a while since we’ve reviewed a lambic, so I’m going to post several reviews in the coming weeks. If memory serves me correctly, Pomme by Lindeman’s was probably the last post (here is a link to our article about lambics in order to define what we are talking about). I purchased this beer for $6.99 at Kahn’s in Indianapolis. As usual, the sweeter version of lambic is pretty low in alcohol; this one was 3.5% ABV.
The Pour: Chapeau definitely had some raspberry colors to it, but they seemed like natural tones. It’s not quite as pink as Lindeman’s Framboise. I would say that this beer was earthy brown with red touches. There was little head retention to the beer, and it was slowly active in its carbonation.
The Nose: An intensely tart raspberry aroma dominated the nose of Chapeau. There was a distinct perception of sweetness because of the fruits and residual sugars in the beer. It was hard to sense the wheat in the beer because of the fruit’s domination.
The Taste: A sourish and tart quality could immediately be perceived on the palate. A definite amount of sweetness was perceptible on the mouth, yet it wasn’t cloying. It was less sweet and slightly more sour than the Lindeman’s. Given that lambics use stale hops, there was nothing notable on the hop end of the beer. Of course, there was plenty of raspberry to be had on the palate.
Overall, this is a wonderful version of a fruited lambic. I would venture to say that this is my favorite sweet version of the style. It is certainly worth picking up, even if a 12 ounce bottle is $6.99.
Mike’s Rating:
Overall Satisfaction: 
Among other Sweeter lambics:
$7 for a lambic is a pretty fair deal. Most of them are in that range, and some are MUCH higher. I was looking at a Cantillion the other day at $35 for a 750 ml! I’ll probably give this one a shot at some point, but I definitely prefer the funky, smelly, sour lambics to the sweet versions. The last one I had was an Upland Strawberry Lambic, and the whole house stunk within five minutes of popping that cork!
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I too saw a $30+ bottle of vintage lambic.
i wonder how upland accomplishes lambic without the wild yeasts?
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I saw that Cantillion that you are talking about Howard. I had the Blueberry Lambic form Upland not too long ago. I thought is was just ok.
Nate,
I’m sure they harvest or get some that has been harvested along the way. When they get Bretts they have to have a source.
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It’s my understanding that American-made lambics are made in sealed fermentation tanks or barrels, using yeast from a lab. I’ve read up some on how to homebrew lambics, and the guy was leaving his bucket open in the kitchen for a little while, then pitching lab samples of yeast along with the dregs from other commercial lambics. He was then tossing in a piece of oak from previous batches that hadn’t been sanitized, so all of the bacteria from that was mixing in too.
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That’s what I was trying to get at Howard. They have lab yeast that has been harvested at some point (probably by the yeast companies and from the region where lambics are made). For the home brewer, I know that a lot of people harvest from bottles of Lambic that they’ve bought for consumption. They harvest the yeast, feed it some sugar (to get it to multiply), and pitch the dormant yeast cells. The guy with the open bucket is risking souring from lactic acid conversion and wild yeast…who knows what you’ll get.
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I figured they cultured the yeasts…it’s my understanding that airborne bacteria is also a coveted ingredient to a true belgian lambic. I am sure upland’s is great, I was just hinting as to whether it could truly be considered lambic.
Thoughts?
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on a different not…just looked into ordering bretts for my next homebrew.
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I guess technically you would have to call it a Lambic style, if you were a stickler on it being according to the region.
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