June 12, 2004 -- LambicLand/LambikLand by Tim Webb, Chris Pollard and Joris Pattyn

₤6.95/€9.95 from www.booksaboutbeer.com

The inscription from Tim Webb on the inside of my copy of LambicLand/LambikLand reads as follows: "Steve, I defy you to write a more ridiculous book!"

Although I've known Tim Webb for only a few years, I do know him well enough to understand the sentiment behind the sentence. Good humoured and easy-going in person, Tim is absolutely serious about his writing, as well he should be, and so the idea that his latest effort is 'ridiculous' no doubt refers more to the very, very limited market appeal of LambicLand/LambikLand rather than its content. That and the fact that he chose to launch his own publishing house with a book that will likely not see the inside of many bookstores.

So it's up to us to prove him wrong, because LambicLand/LambikLand is not only an fervent ode to one of the world's greatest beer styles, and a thoroughly enjoyable read, it is also a vital sourcebook for anyone with any intent at all of travelling in Belgium. Additionally, owing to lambic's now somewhat tenuous position in bureaucratic Belgium, it is the kind of book that should have adherents of the Slow Food movement lining up to buy a copy.

For those unfamiliar with lambic, it is a remarkable beer style which, at its best, bears greater resemblance to fine Champagne than what most of us would immediately recognize as beer. (In fact, on a recent visit to Paris, I was delighted to find a display of Cantillon lambics in the middle of the expansive Champagne section of a huge wine store on rue des Malesherbes.) In a dramatically simplified nutshell, lambic is a type of wheat beer brewed only in an specific Belgian region called the Payottenland, which is fermented by wild, airborne yeasts and aged in wooden barrels. Lambics of one to three years old are blended into a beer called gueuze, while other barrels are refermented with whole fruit after roughly a year of aging to become krieks (cherry), framboises (raspberry) and other fruit beers. In their traditional form, the resulting beers are tart, dry and spectacularly complex. (For more on lambic, please see: http://www.worldofbeer.com/features/feature-200304.html)

The bilingual LambicLand/LambikLand, written in English and Flemish, is a guide to the world of these wonderful beers, and a very useful guide it is. It begins much as I have above, with a description of the process by which a lambic is made, and moves on to identify and describe all of the modern and traditional lambic brewers and blenders. As useful as this latter section is, it is also the only point in the book which I find somewhat lacking, as each brewer/blender is given a scant paragraph or two rather than the more detailed synopsis I think a book like this requires. (The much-respected Cantillon is the only brewer accorded a well-developed essay, which takes up three pages towards the back of the book.)

The next section is the book's most vital: A thorough guide to the lambic cafes of the Payottenland. Even an experienced Belgian traveller like myself will find new treasures in this portion of LambicLand/LambikLand, such as the Watermolen, a gourmet restaurant I am now aching to visit, and the Herberg Moriau, which I am certain I have passed at least once but never entered. Thanks to this book, I'll rectify that omission next trip over.

Although I will grant that at 65 pages LambicLand/LambikLand is not a particularly daunting tome, I read the book cover to cover the very first day I had it, and then went back for more. By the end of the afternoon, I was ready to book passage to Brussels in a second, and I'm betting you will be, too.

Search The Real Beer Library For More Articles Related To: lambic

Feedback?

We're very interested in your news, notes, comments and questions, so please feel free to contact SBWoB by clicking on the link below. Or you can add your comments when you sign up for the World of Beer Update, a mid-month e-mail newsletter that brings even more of the world of beer to your computer.

Send Feedback To: beaumont@worldofbeer.com