Faro... Where to start?

Lindemans makes one that is in most stores

 

Your spot on, they are essentially gueuzes with additional sugar added so the resulting beer is a mix of sweet, sour and funk.

Lindemanns is the only one I have ever seen on a shelf. It is pretty damn tasty.

 

http://beeradvocate.com/beer/style/15

 

There are some great recommendations in this post, though the whole thread is also interesting:
http://beeradvocate.com/community/threads/faro.30843/#post-849667

 

It is an old style. I remember the song by John Renbourne, "Faro Annie"- great song. Maybe a predecessor to modern shandies.

 

You started with sours? Bravo!

And that Abbaye St. Bon Chien is great. Had a 2007 last weekend.

 

The common one I see around is Lindemans. I found a bottle of Girardin Faro once but didn't buy it. It wasn't there the next time I went and I am kicking myself for that one.

 

In my opinion, faro is a waste of perfectly fine lambic. Haven't had one I've liked.

 

Faro is unblended lambic sweetened with candy sugar. Traditionally it was jus made by taking some tapped unblended lambic and adding candy sugar prior to drinking until desired taste, brown sugar is an accepted alternative. It originated due to the fact that lambic was the cheapest beer thus people drank but some people didn’t like the sour taste & thus tried masking it.

Real faro can be only on draft & it is not exported I believe. You can recreate the experience by purchasing a Cantillon Bruocsella 1900 Grand Cru and adding some sugar to it & see if you like it. This is pretty much what you will get if you visit the brewery, the only difference is that at the brewery they use lambic younger & of the lowest quality in order to do this.

Bottled “faro” is made by either fermenting out some of the sugar so that I can be bottled or by adding artificial sweeteners.

The only truly great bottled faro is 3 Fonteinen Straffe Winter which is a truly impressive beer, actually similar to the faro that 3F serves at their restaurant but it is pretty hard to get buy. A better alternative is De Cam Faro which made by fermenting out the sugar, it is less sweet than regular faro, its sweet & sour combo appeals to a lot of people.

Girardin Faro is not a bad option either, it tastes a bit chemical in my opinion taste-wise.
Timmermans Brusselicious Faro is bottled these days as well, bit rare & taste like apple juice with chemical sweeteners, I sort of like but doesn’t taste terribly faro-like to me.
Lindemans Faro is horribly sweet even by faro standards, tastes like liquid sugar, somewhat enjoyable but also clearly insane.
Girardin Dominicus is a blend of their pilsner, lambic & sugar, not extremely sweet & pretty interesting.
Timmermans Tradition Faro Lambic is horribly chemical & vile in my opinion & not enjoyable unlike the Brusselicious.
Boon Faro tastes truly vile in my opinion.
Chapeau Faro is such a bizarre concoction, it has more in common with coca-cola than beer.

Overall if you are limited to bottles & you cannot get Straffe Winter, I would just advice getting some lambic & adding sugar to satisfy your curiosity. If you must get something else bottle, I would recommend Girardin or De Cam.

Not all faro is bad, most of it is, there is not that much faro out there, I have tried 15 faro’s, I believe that I am missing only 2 faro still. I have had all the faro's listed on BA.

 

This is the only one I've ever had: http://beeradvocate.com/beer/profile/190/6624

Despite it getting a low BA score I thought it was quite good.

 

This is the only Faro I've had and this was my reaction. Never felt the need to try another, but now I realize it might not have been representative. Thanks for the great, informative post

 

Lindeman's Faro is absolutely revolting. It tastes more like regular (as opposed to diet) soda than beer.

Seeing as how Lindeman's is the only one I've ever seen on shelves in the States, my advice is to avoid the style completely unless you make a visit to Belgium.

 

I know this is off-topic, but I love that 2011 vintage. Such a great beer.

 

Faro is a style worth knowing, if for no other reason, as historically the way most people probably drank most of their beer. Putting a different spin on some of 77black_ships's (very worthwhile) points, it was the cheap, everyday beer -- but that is most beer, and like with so many things about food and drink, that's the wellspring of Belgian beer culture. There's something so awesomely old school to see the Ordre du Faro flying the colors at Brussels holidays and public events. Think of it as the answer to English mild, rarely seen but critical heritage. Thinking further in that vein, to dismiss it would be like an extreme hophead shrugging off a basic bitter. An Eric Clapton who wouldn't want to at least hear a little Robert Johnson. *Snap* whew, went a little too far, there.

Sweet is obviously a matter of taste, but its has its place. The deeply caramelized flavors sometimes hit me like a dark roux in a stew, adding complexity and depth, and making for good food pairings (*the* best thing with fois gras, save the Sauturnes for dessert). If you never want a sweet flavor in a beer, fine, of course some would say the same of sour, not that equate the two but you get the point. I don't see why it can't be bottled -- if made with a lighter and weaker lambic it won't ferment out, and sure, it's lower ABV thus shelf life, but so was most other beer, and how many other styles do we now get bottled against tradition?

Separate, question on the Dominicus -- I have a 75cl bottle with a few years of age on it, which I didn't intend to do, but, well (after all my defense of the honor of faro, above), you can't exactly force it on people. Anything to be gained for letting it hang around like this? (I won't phrase it as 'When's the right time to drink it?' because I can already hear some of you lot yelling 'Never!')

 

I would just open the Dominicus, had one a touch old, oxidation is def. going to be there I recon but there will be something to enjoy.

I do agree with your point, faro has bit of a bad track record since it has been historically the choice of drink of those who disliked unblended lambic. Now there is a big soft spot for me. Lambic has had a very long history, has changed a lot in the course of history. I recon faro is a pretty recent thing, prob. no older than a hunger years. Dating back to the time when a lot of lambic went down in quality to pure crap sometimes. Originally it seemed to have involved spices as well occasionally. Much like mild which has changed a lot, 8 % ABV mild’s used to exist for instance. I like mild.

For the record 3F Faro is incredible, love it.

I like to more imagine people doing clay pitchers of unblended lambic, yes please sir.

 

I don't care for Lindemann's faro, but I do enjoy Boon and Girardin.

 

Boon Faro is soda-like as well so if you disliked the one, I would not recommend getting the other one.
Boon Faro doesn’t taste like Boon Framboise nor do any of the other faro’s. Yes it is soda-like.
De Cam Faro has sourness & “beer” profile.

Important there are actually 2 Boon Framboise’s. The beer in 375 ml. & 75 cl. bottles, small & big ones are different. Small bottles have a sweetened beer. Big ones don’t, it is still very fruity but has a light sourness. I am willing to bet you tried a small bottle.

Real Framboise is fruity but in a natural way with distinct sourness, funk & other lambic elements. It is anything but soda-like. There are not that many real framboise’s around, Cantillon Rosé de Gambrinus & De Cam Framboise are probably the easiest ones to get.

Hanssens Experimental Raspberry is exported as well to the states I believe, it is an incredible beer but very, very sour & can be very challenging.

Girardin & Oud Beersel also make more common Framboise’s but those are sweet, I prefer the Oud Beersel out of the two which quite nice.

You have to keep in mind that sweetened lambic is very unrepresentative of the real stuff. Using that as a reference point is like using a Bud Light as a reference point for how a RIS tastes like. I realize that it is extremely confusing for anyone new to the style because all the sweetened ones are marketed as the “real” deal.