Changes

While some larger producers are using stainless steel tanks, lambic is traditionally fermented and aged in wooden barrels and foudersfoeders. Lambic brewers and blenders prefer used barrels, which are often coming from red wine production, for fermenting and aging lambic. These barrels are preferred because most of the oak character has already been extracted from the barrel, and less character from the wood will come through in the final lambic. Barrels vary widely in size, including sizes such as 267 liter Tonnes, 550-650 liter Pipes, and 3,000 to 120,000+ liter FoudresFoedres. Each brewer has their preference for their ideal barrel size. These barrels are typically made from oak or chestnut.

Each individual barrel can have its own progression, even among well used barrels and different barrels from the brewing day, and some lambic brewers and blenders are experimenting with more distinctive barrels where the influence of the previous contents of the barrel are desired. Increasingly, lambic producers are releasing beers highlighting the unique role that different barrels or fouders foeders can have. This includes sourcing specific barrels or fouders foeders for their characteristicsas noted above, as well as bottling the first lambic use(s) of lambics from recently-received used barrels as separate releases, and releases highlighting a single fouder foeder or selection of older barrels. Some examples of this are: