Changes

No beer style has a greater dichotomy than lambic. For many, it is an entry level beer, marketed as easy drinking, sweet, and a great transition for people who generally do not like the taste of beer. On the other side is a complex beverage: an acquired taste that is considered to be one of most evolved and sought after tastes among beer aficionados.

The dichotomy between sweetened and unsweetened lambic has been represented for more than 200 years. Until the mid-1800’s, when pressurized barrels enabled beer to move more freely, beer in the Brussels was primarily lambic blended into faro. Traditional faro is lambic that has been sweetened with brown sugar. Drinkers who did not appreciate the tart nature of lambic would add one or two lumps of sugar to make the beer more palatable. A tool called a ‘stoemper’ was often used in lambic to help the sugars dissolve faster. Despite the popularity of faro and sugar sweetening, some lambic drinkers insisted on drinking their lambic “neat”.<ref name=GeuzeKriek>Jef Van den Steen, [[Books#Geuze & Kriek: The Secret of Lambic Beer|Geuze & Kriek: The Secret of Lambic Beer]], 2012</ref>