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This trend has not gone away entirely. In the 1940s and 1950s, the demand for sweetened lambic continued to grow as consumer tastes trended toward the sweeter side of things. During World War II, those brewers who were still able to brew were severely restricted in terms of the quality and quantity of their ingredients. In order to continue producing kriek, many brewers added extra flavorings and colorings to combat the lack of available fruits. With the success of cola and soft drinks, both small and large brewers alike followed this trend by bringing ''capsulekensgeuze'' to the market.<ref name=GeuzeKriek>Jef Van den Steen, [[Books#Geuze & Kriek: The Secret of Lambic Beer|Geuze & Kriek: The Secret of Lambic Beer]], 2012</ref> ''Capsulekensgeuze'' was generally comprised of a blend of lambic and top-fermented beer, was filtered, pasteurized, sweetened, pressurized with CO2 and bottled into 25cl bottles. [[Brasserie_Belle_Vue|Belle Vue]] and other lambic brewers also began to pasteurize their beers to prevent bottle conditioning and potential bottle explosions as a result of the residual sugars being left in the beers. Filtration also removed many of the bugs and created a cleaner beverage suited for the soda drinker market.
==Fruit shortagesShortages, juicesJuices, and sweetenersSweeteners==
Shortages in fruits traditionally found in Belgian lambics also played a part in the addition of fruit juice and extracts. After 1945, European agriculture was in dire straights, and many producers were left unable to grow or supply fruits. Postwar food rationing and a rise in sugar consumption in general also played an important role in the shift to sweeter beers. In the postwar era, much of the sweetened lambic was primarily the result of blending young lambic or other top fermenting beers that contained significant residual sweetness with more tart, aged lambic.<ref name=LambicLand>Tim Webb, Chris Pollard, Siobhan McGinn, [[Books#LambicLand: A Journey Round the Most Unusual Beers in the World|LambicLand: A Journey Round the Most Unusual Beers in the World]] </ref>
[[Brouwerij_Lindemans|Lindemans]], for example, began sweetening in 1972-1973 because of a shortage of Schaeerbeekse cherries.<ref name=GeuzeKriek>Jef Van den Steen, [[Books#Geuze & Kriek: The Secret of Lambic Beer|Geuze & Kriek: The Secret of Lambic Beer]], 2012</ref> Some lambics are even sweetened artificially with Aspartame or Saccharin,<ref name="Oxford">Garrett Oliver, [http://www.amazon.com/Oxford-Companion-Beer-Garrett-Oliver/dp/0195367138 The Oxford Companion to Beer], 2011</ref> listing 'sugar substitute' as an ingredient on their beer labels. As fruit lambic became more and more popular in the late 1980’s and 1990’s, fruit juices were used to further sweeten lambic.<ref name=LambicLand>Tim Webb, Chris Pollard, Siobhan McGinn, [[Books#LambicLand: A Journey Round the Most Unusual Beers in the World|LambicLand: A Journey Round the Most Unusual Beers in the World]] </ref> [[Brouwerij_De_Troch|De Troch]] uses this process today for their fruit lambics both to satisfy the market for a sweetened product and to introduce more exotic fruit flavors like [[Chapeau_Exotic|pineapple]] and [[Chapeau_Banane|banana]] into the beer that are not readily available in Belgium.
==What's In A a Name?==
Significant confusion over unsweetened and sweetened lambic products ensued, and some brewers note that sweetening lambic was squeezing out traditional lambic. Jean-Pierre Van Roy is quoted in [[Books#Wild_Brews:_Culture_and_Craftsmanship_in_the_Belgian_Tradition|''Wild Brews: Culture and Craftsmanship in the Belgian Tradition'']] as saying that “the sweet lambic, the sweet fruit beer, and the sweet gueuze don’t exist. It’s impossible. If it is very sweet there are three possibilities: It is not a lambic, it has aspartame added, or it is pasteurized. Lambic is a natural product.”<ref name=WildBrews>Jeff Sparrow, [[Books#Wild Brews: Culture and Craftsmanship in the Belgian Tradition|Wild Brews: Culture and Craftsmanship in the Belgian Tradition]], 2005</ref> However, history has shown that sweetening has played a significant role in the history, success, and survival, of lambic in general throughout the years. Indeed, Jean Van Roy has agreed on at least one occasion that his father was using saccharine to sweeten beers as a “means to basically save the brewery … because people wanted sweet things.”<ref name=summit9>Lambic Summit, part 9 (Shelton Brothers), Jean VanRoy, 2010</ref> Sweetening lambic was viewed as a normal part of the business.