The Lambic Summit 2010

On June 9, 2010, Frank Boon, Jean van Roy, and Armand Debelder came together for the first time ever in a public panel to discuss lambic. The event lasted approximately 3 hours. The videos below, provided by the The Shelton Brothers, cover a majority of the event.

Part 1

Dan Shelton introduces the Lambic Summit and talks about it coming together. He provides an overview of spontaneous fermentation, the payottenland, and lambic.

Part 2

Armand discusses meeting Michael Jackson. He introduces the 1999 Drie Fonteinen / De Cam Oude Geuze blend that is served. He then introduces himself and discusses growing up in a lambic brewery. He discusses history of the brewery, his start as a blender, and the future of being involved in lambic.

Part 3

Dan Shelton introduces Frank Boon and talks about how they met, their relationship including their early disagreements^[1], and Frank’s strong scientific study of lambic. Frank introduces the Boon brewery, discusses it’s history and brewing capacity and introduces the Boon Oude Geuze that they are currently drinking.

Part 4

Dan Shelton introduces the room to HORAL and it’s members. He discusses the difference between Geuze and Oude Geuze. He also discusses koelships and explains how Armand and similar blenders will take wort the day after the beer spends the night in a koelship and then age it in their own barrels. Shelton mentions that Armand is no longer taking lambic from Girardin.

Part 5

Jean provides a history of the Brewery Cantillon, the museum and it’s 40,000+ visitors annually, and explains what goes into creating gueuze. He explains the three things needed for quality lambic, quality ingredients, time, and patience.

Part 6

Dan discusses bottle fermentation and why brewing is done only during the colder months. Jean and Frank discuss fermentation process and the process the beer goes in between years one and three and the beer's role at various ages.