Boon Gueuze, 6%
Brouwerij Boon, Lembeek, Belgium
In the Senne Valley region of Belgium, there's a town called Lembeek where wild yeasts blow around in the evening breezes. They drift in through the open windows of local breweries, landing in uncovered vats, magically transforming wheat grain, aged hops, and water into a beer that explodes with delightfully objectionable flavors. This spontaneously fermented ale is called Lambic, a nod to the area where the style originated, and is still predominantly produced.
Some lambic brews receive a flavor injection during fermentation – sweet raspberry, peach, apple, cherry, or banana. In the United States, fruited lambics see infinitely more mainstream visibility than their unfruited derivatives. And that's a damn shame. Without the fruit addition, lambics are tart and funky, with a ton of assertive character and complexity that leaves you stumbling over descriptors. Flavors so wrong that they're right.
This article appears in Jul 1-7, 2009.