Paul Cantillon's Great Grandson: Lambic 101

While on (working) vacation in Brussels, we had the privilege of speaking with Jean Van Roy, the head brewer and progeny of the Cantillon Brewery. Jean's family has been blending and brewing lambic beer for many generations. His beer is considered by many to be THE authentic lambic.

A boy and his gueuze.

And what is this "lambic" beer? Most who have tried it -- at least the more well known version of it called gueuze -- know it as a very sour, acidic, lively carbonated, somewhat sulfery concoction that one either loves or hates. (We LOVE it!!!)

Try to steal the Cantillon recipe -- get scratched!

Jean gave us a brilliantly simple explanation of the mysterious, ancient, spontaneously fermented beverage called lambic. Even if you think that you know a thing or two about this rare style of beer, I'm pretty sure that you will learn something new from Jean's brief but informative interview. 

A business meeting, with the (operational) potbelly stove in the foreground.

Romantic Saturday morning at the Cantillon Brewery!

Cantillon Amphoras

Our 8 day trip to northern France and Brussels began auspiciously with a visit to the Cantillon Brewery, where brewer Jean Van Roy showed us an exciting brewing experiment that he's undertaken. He's fermenting and conditioning about 2,400 liters of lambic in custom made amphoras.

Amphora of lambic.

Jean got the idea from a wine maker friend of his in Sicily. He said that the wine he experienced which had been aged in the ceramic vessels was dramatically different from wine aged in wood barrels, and that he instantly wondered what his beer would be like if aged the same way.

While beer used to be fermented and stored in such vessels a few thousand years ago, we've not heard of any brewery using such ancient vessels in modern times. For Jean, it's a pure experiment, with no idea about what the end result will be. Hear the whole story of Cantillon's bold exBEERiment in this week's podcast. There are lots more great photos of the amphoras on Cantillon's Facebook page.

B.R. and Jean Van Roy.

Gueuze.