So at Beyond the Pale's 2nd anniversary they had a small cask of sour blend. The brewer indicated that it was a blend of purchased lambics (1, 2 and I think 3 yr but could be wrong on that one) that they are experimenting and playing around with and that we should expect more interesting things, especially once they move to their new location. Curious if a) anyone else is doing this kind of thing (I would have thought it would be prohibitively expensive to ship lambic for blending purposes across the Atlantic) and b) anyone else try it?
A while ago (maybe 6-12 months), I was talking with Al and he indicated that they were going to make their own 'lambic', that over the next few years they were going to brew and age on site. When I asked him about storage space, yeast/bacteria cultures and the time invovled, he just smiled and shook his head.
Sawdust, Indie, Amsterdam and GLB had a plan to brew and blend their own lambic/gueuze over 3 years, called "Niambic". For year one they trucked out the wort to Good Earth Winery for an open fermentation and later put it in barrels. However, I was told logistics between the 4 breweries was next to impossible for year 2 and is equally as unlikely for year 3. No idea what they are going to do with that one year. I've also been told that Oast is doing a lambic, but I haven't heard anything about blending as a gueuze.
These days I can't imagine it's THAT hard to bust out some lambic and/or buy it and blend from places as close as the U.S. Quite a few breweries are doing their own and it's a bit odd that people still think that this special yeast from the Senne Valley is the only way to make lambic. Quality on the other hand, is a different story. On the note of quality, Schoune makes lambic. It's not the best. I also know that Quebec is not in Ontario, but still..
Schoune was closed by health officials a couple years ago. Armand from Drie Fountain told us this when we visited him last fall. "Anyone can make vinegar but it takes talent to brew a good sour"
As far as I know Schoune is still open. It was Breughel that was closed by health officials last year.
Thanks you are correct, there was one Quebec brewery that proudly announced their mistake as lambic years ago. Can't remember who it was.
