Last night’s Linderman’s Apple Lambic was magnificent.

First off, let me say I typically don’t have a blast with sweet beers, and I shy away from fruity beers.  Thus said, in approaching this beer, I had in mind that it would be “OK.”  In fact, my wife took a sip before me and said, “Uh oh…it’s sweet.”

But this was a most balanced and refreshing beer, and knowing the science and history behind it helps understand why.  It is perhaps, one of the more unique beer we’ve tried, and definitely was hand crafted.

The fruity flavor, Pomme–from the Latin Pomum for apple–was not overwhelmingly sweet like most fruity beers I’ve tasted.  I attribute this to the delicate nurturing of natural sour flavors in the beer.  No hops needed here to compliment the sweetness!  The Apple flavor was deliciously natural.  It actually tasted like an apple, not like a green Jolly Rancher, which I had been half expecting.

The beer had a fine dry quality, making the intense flavor quite palatable.  It wasn’t as dry as champagne, but it had that characteristic.   The color was beautiful.  Darker than I had anticipated, and relatively cloudy.  Despite this, it felt thin, probably due to the dryness, in my mouth.  I noticed that after the minimal head had dissipated, the bubbly film was unique.  It’s hard to explain, but it was very un-uniform.  there seemed to be two different films on the surface.  Maybe this was due to the bottle conditioning.

All said, I thought this beer was fantastic:  A “buy it again” beer.  I cannot wait to sip this light Belgium beverage on a hot evening this summer!

Nate’s Rating:

Overall Satisfaction: ★★★★☆ 


Rating For Style: ★★★★½