Differences between Lambics, Wilds and Sours?

Location of production, type of bacteria/yeast used, etc.

 

And remember, not all Wilds are sour!!!

 

And some Wilds are not wild! (Lil' Sumthin Wild).

 

definitely the truth! was on a big sour kick over the summer, and was so pumped for Sierra Nevade/RR Brux cuz i saw the American Wild Ale. Totally thought it was gonna be a sour. Bought two bottles. While I didn't think it was bad beer, I was definitely let down a bit, haha.

 

Lambic: made from lamb
American Wild Ale: ale grown from wild ale seeds
Sour: blend of the above

 

Lambic is sour. Wild ale can be sour. Something about lambic being made in Belgium using spontaneous fermentation.

 

Lambics: A Belgian style of beer that undergoes spontaneous fermentation.
American Wild Ales: Beers typically made by American breweries inoculated with a wild yeast strain, and often bacteria.
Sours: A catch all phrase that does not mean much. Usually people use it when describing any style of Lambic, American Wild Ale, Gueuze, Flanders Oud Bruin, Flanders Red, or any other beer that might be "sour."

 

Lambic is "technically" to be from the Senne Valley, around Lambeek, in Belgium. The wort is made using fairly standard techniques, then it is traditionally pumped into the attic of the brew house into shallow pans, open to the air, and the louvered windows are opened, and the local flora and fauna are invited in. Nowadays, more spontaneously fermented beers are often called lambics (or lambic style), but as I'm sure you can imagine by the technique, I'm not going to get the same result here in the Upper Midwest as they do in Lambeek. The critter profile is always geographically unique.

Other similar beers are considered Wild ales. Often they are not necessarily pumped into coolships, but allowed to spontaneously ferment in a variety of ways. (Trust me, there are plenty of ways to infect a beer you've brewed...) The method I most often hear of is the wort being allowed to cool (even allowed to go through a controlled primary fermentation, and then put into oak. The oak barrels used are often used as the de facto yeast culture and used over and over to give the brewery specifc wild ale profile. My personal favorite using that method is Jolly Pumpkin, FWIW.

Sour Ales are beers that have sour characteristics from the use of (most often) lactobacillus, but also acetobacter and bretannomyces. They are sour, but not necessarily funky.

The fundamental differences are that Lambic is technically an appellation (not so firmly enforced), but it also alludes to a technique. Wild Ale can be made anywhere and in a whole bunch of different ways. They are similar in one important way - they are spontaneously fermented using a broad indigenous spectrum of wild yeasts and bacteria.

Sour Ales can be every bit as sour, but they are brewed and inoculated with controlled cultures of brewer's yeast and various souring bacteria.

To geek out even more, most Lambics are blends of young and old lambics, and are technically called a Gueze (you almost never hear it). Straight unblended lambic can often be, shall we say, an acquired taste...

 

Lembeek but big tick on the rest of it!

 

And most pure lambics themselves are still if I recall. Had a glass pulled from a cask at the Cantillon brewery that was 14 months old. They were not sure yet if it would be blended at the 2 or 3 year mark to make Gueuze. Was still, faintly tart and if angels peed, I am sure it would taste that good. Just sayin. (Sorry for the huge quote, I can never manage to isolate a part to quote without screwing it up.)

 

Thanks for the lesson. I did not know thats how true Lambics were made. Pretty disgusting actually (although I am certainly going to continue drinking them).

 

Awesome info in here.

Can someone touch upon how, this going from what I've heard/read before so I might be wrong/misinformed, that many breweries that do lambics do not brew their own base brews, but get the brew from other breweries, then do their things with them?

 

An alternative to fermenting in open vats is using a strain of brettanomyces yeast and/or lactobacillus. I'm about to make a cherry Berliner Weisse in a (probably vain) attempt to come up with something similar to New Glarus Wisconsin Red Belgian. It will use lactobacillus to give it the tartness.

 

3F started brewing their own wort at the turn of the century but still ferments wort from breweries like Lindemans and Girardin. Cantillon makes all their own lambic. Tilquin and DeCam are strictly thought of as blenders.

 

I thought Brux was a huge let down. There was a lot of hype but once people tried it its been sitting on shelves

 

"sour ales" are not a recognized beer style and, therefore, should not be capitalized.

 

May not technically be a category, but you know they should. Is this English class anyways?!?!

 

A friend of mine was in Belgium and visited the Cantillon brewery. When he was up in the Coolship room, he looked around at the dust and bugs and stuff up there, and swore he wouldn't drink it again. Then he got back downstairs to the tasting session. Yeah, that vow lasted a long time.

 

I'm not saying it is good or bad. I actually enjoyed it and layed two down to see how it matures. I'm just saying I think a lot of people went into that beer with a preconceived notion of what they thought the beer should/would taste like and that is the reason it gets the bad press it does.