New to Lambics. Suggestions?

Lindemans is garbage if that is the only option then wait till you are near a bottle shop with better options....

 

Get gueze tilquin if you can one my all time favortie beers for sure...... not much for the fruit blended stuff or like others said lindemans last I had I gave to the girlfriend who only drinks winecoolers if that says anything.....

 

Cuvee Rene is not garbage; it's actually a tasty and affordable gueuze. All the sweetened stuff from them (and the rest of their ilk) is indeed not worth the bottles its put in, though.

 

You could also give Hanssens or Jacobins a try

 

Cuvee Rene Oude Gueuze is most certainly not garbage, as is the Oude Kriek from what I've heard. Yes, the fruited are very sweet, but they serve a purpose. The Lindemans hate is a bit much. A lot of people forget that they provide other blenders with wort (such as Tilquin) and were important to the survival of lambic beer as the popularity dropped and it almost went extinct.

I'd also suggest Timmerman's Limited Edition Oude Gueuze and Oude Kriek, both are good. Hanssen's Oude Gueuze and Oude Kriek are good as well.

 

A few added notes here:

- Frozen fruit can be used in oude/vielle kriek (and any fruited lambic). It's not preferred, but it is acceptable.
- Oude/vielle gueuze should not be sugared during conditioning. That's why young lambic is blended in.

- There are also raspberry/cherry blends (3F Hommage) and Tilquin's Quetsch and Namjr (both plum) are also quite good as is De Cam's Lambiek Special (Blackberry/gooseberry/sour cherry mix). I also think that variations on the older druiven (grape) lambic manufactured by Cantillon as St. Lamvinus (merlot) and Vignerrone (muscat) are quite good.
- There are also non-fruited flavored lambics like green walnut (Lindemans), sakura cherry blossom (OWA using De Troch lambic), and various dry hopped (Iris, St. Gilloise) or barrel aged (50N 4E (cognac), Zenne y Frontera (sherry)) among others.

Do keep in mind that there are brewer/blenders (Cantillon, 3F and Girardin) and blenders only (Tilquin). 3F uses lambic other than their own in their blends due to production scale.

Also, Girardin makes filtered (white label) and sweetened (framboise) beers.

Liefmans is not lambic. Never was.

Timmermans does manufacture proper oude gueuze (and oude kriek) as does De Troch (oude gueuze). De Cam is an excellent blender as as are Oud Beersel and Hannsens.

Lindemans traditional styles (gueuze and kriek) are both under the cuvee rene (as in rene lindeman) line.

And, while not in the Pajottenland/Zenne valley, van Hknsebrouck also makes a line of traditonal gueuze and kriek (Fond Tradition). There are als some experimantal producers (OWA, BIIR, Bokkereyder, h.ertie, Vanberg and De Wulf) too

And do not forget Boon. Without Frank Boon, traditional lambic and gueuze may well have passed to extinct styles. The oude gueuze and kriek are worth trying along with marriage parfait (plus...you can actually get them).

That's some basic stuff.

 

Another vote here for Cuve Renee, was my first lambic as well and I've had several bottles since.

 

Overall they(lindemans) are garbage and their are many better options.. they make around one blend that is decent and a bunch of garbage... and there was not lambic popularity in the U.S untill recently.. popularity in belgium, france, nederland, ect has been going strong for a very long time...

 

I'm with the op on this. I've been interested in getting into Belgians for a while, but trying to figure out what you are actually getting sounds like landing a damn space shuttle. I'll stick with my hop flavored American beer for the time being.

 

Sounds good! Out here in AZ my wife makes fresh tortillas and wraps them around scrambled eggs, green chilies, chorizo fresh from the local carniceria, and a little fresh Cotilla cheese mixed in. I usually chase it with a good coffee stout but I think I will try your method next time! Cheers!

 

Not really. Lambic has only recently seen resurgence worldwide. Genuine (e.g. unsweetened) lambic was all but dead in the 70's and 80's.

 

Oud biersel oud kreik is pretty easy to find and a nice starter into real belgian fruited lambic

 

False. They are naturally sweetened. For example:

That may not be what you like, but there's no need to carelessly cast aspersions.

 

If you can find someone with allagash cuvée de industrial (came out not long ago) it'll give you the gist of what I think is an incredible lambic at a much lower price point. I know it saw distribution.

The black label girardin is also really, really good.

@readyski also mentioned hanssens. They're easy to find and a little cheaper.

 

Cuvee d'industrial is a very nice beer, but it is not lambic.

 

That was a small period 30 to 40 years ago, and they were still produced in the area described although in smaller quantities..

 

De Cam has some really nice Lambic beers too !

 

Juice is not the only sweetener. Before 2012 they were sweetened with Acesulfame K. After that point they use Stevia. So while stevia is technicaly natural making your statement true, the last poster was not incorrect either.

 

Yes and no. Ill admit that "artifical" was the wrong worg but the are seetened according to non traditional lambic methods using Stevia.