- by Mike Sharp
Northwest of Brussels, in very picturesque countryside, is the small town of Wambeek. It is this town that has been home to the DeTroch brewery for at least the last two hundred years. Brouwerij De Troch is the producer of the Chapeau line of lambics being imported to the U.S. by All Saints Brands of Minneapolis.
A 19th century land-use plan of this region mentions a brewery owned by Petronnella De Troch. Even older records indicate that her father, Pieter De Troch, was running a brewery on the same site in the late 18th Century. Petronnella married Egidius De Troch and in 1898 their son Louis took the family business over. Louis married J. De Neve, and their son, also a Louis, inherited the brewery and farm in 1936. The same Louis married M.L. Van den Moortel. Their nephew Jos Raes and his wife M. Vanderhasselt took on the family tradition in 1974 and have been running this rare craft brewery ever since.
My wife and I where lucky enough to be able to arrange a visit at Brouwerij De Troch during our honeymoon in April 1995. After driving past the brewery a few times we eventually spotted the sign and pulled into the driveway. This lead us into a small courtyard formed by a beautiful old farm house and its associated out buildings.
We where met by Mr. Raes and invited into the office to begin our visit. While in the office we discussed what direction Mr. Raes felt the market was taking. It shouldn't surprise anyone that the bulk of the lambic market is for sweetened lambics. The brewery is currently producing 6000HL per year of which the majority is sweetened to satisfy the desires of this market. In addition, a small amount of gueuze and kriek are available at the brewery in their unsweetened forms.
Brouwerij De Troch is currently supplying the European, United States, and Japanese markets with their line of Chapeau products. This very diverse line includes a gueuze, faro, kriek, framboise, peche, fraise (strawberry), mirabelle (plum), exotic (pineapple), and tropical (banana) lambic. The last few fruit beers are unique to Brouwerij De Troch and there is a story behind each. The fraise and mirabelle lambic where originally produced for festivals; the strawberry festival in Liege, and the plum festival somewhere in France. The pineapple lambic was produced at the request of an importer for the African country of Gabon. Now all of these unique lambics are kept in production to differentiate this brewery's products from the other lambic brewer's products.
While touring the brewery we had the opportunity to discuss the methods used by Brouwerij De Troch in making lambic. Production starts as one would expect, with a turbid mash [1,2] of malt and unmalted wheat. Four extractions from the grain are made to yield enough wort to fill the kettles. Here the wort is boiled for 4 to 5 hours to yield a finished wort with a density of five Belgian degrees (a specific gravity of 1.050). The wort is then allowed to cool in shallow vats, or coolships, where it also picks up the necessary organisms to begin its long fermentation. After cooling, the wort is then run into a tub to allow the worts from each coolship to blend into a consistent product. From this tub the wort is then pumped into barrels of 600L capacity where fermentation takes place.
The brick building and equipment used for wort production dates to the opening of the brewery. This includes two coal fired kettles of 2600L and 3500L respectively, as well as a mash tun who's rakes are belt driven in a method that reminds me of early industrial revolution technology. This equipment gives the brewery a 12000HL/year capacity.
After a one year fermentation the young lambic is ready for mixing with older lambics to form the Chapeau gueuze. In the case of kriek, the young lambic is mixed with cherries and allowed to work for another 5 months before bottling. After bottling, both of these products are cellared at the brewery for a further 7 to 8 months to allow proper conditioning.
For some of the more exotic fruit lambics like the mirabelle, fruit syrup and fructose, a sugar, are blended with the young lambic just prior to bottling and this mix is then force carbonated during bottling. The syrup is similar to a fruit puree from which some amount of water has been extracted. Having the fruit in this form allows finer control over the final flavor without having to worry about diluting the lambic substantially. Since the syrup and fructose is still quite fermentable when dilute, the bottles are pasteurized immediately following filling. This pasteurization also allows the character of the syrup to be preserved. If pasteurization did not occur, the majority of the flavor and aroma from the syrup would be stripped off by the fermentation of the sugars in the syrup.
To be more precise about the process of working with fresh single juices, Dr. Mussche [2] provides some basic information. While I don't know if this exactly matches the process at Brouwerij De Troch, it does provide some insight into the process. To lambic of 6 to 12 months of age, 25 to 35% juice is added. This blend is then filtered, bottled and force carbonated, and then pasteurized to stabilize the product. The bottles may then be cellared to allow the flavors of the lambic and the syrup to blend.
Now certainly some purists reading this must be objecting to syrups, sweetening, and pasteurization. To those I would point out that while it may not be to their personal taste, this is where the largest market for lambic is. By producing lambics for this market, breweries such as Brouwerij De Troch are able to survive and also to continue producing much smaller quantities of unsweetened gueuze and kriek for sale at the brewery. While I got the impression that Mr. Raes would prefer producing the more sour lambics, this is a matter of economics.
Market trends and personal preferences aside, it is important to note that no technology is being lost by producing sweetened lambic. Both the sweetened lambics so popular in the market now, as well as their more sour brothers, start with the same base beer. Regardless of the product to be produced, the starting beer is lambic. I am confident that Mr. Raes is quite capable of producing excellent lambic of both forms.
As a compliment to their already extensive line, perhaps we can convince All Saints Brands to bring in a small quantity of the unsweetened gueuze and kriek for sale as a specialty connoisseur item? This would be invaluable to those trying to understand the full breadth of the lambic style. Tasting both versions side by side lends substantial insight into the style as a whole.
I would like to thank Mr Raes for taking the time to talk to me about his perception of the market, and his techniques for making lambic. I can think of no better way to spend the day than talking about lambics with a brewer of this style. I would also like to acknowledge the help of his son as interpreter when the need arose and to thank All Saints Brands for helping to arrange our meeting.
1. Sharp, Brasserie Cantillon trip report, Lambic Digest #603, May 14, 1995
2. Mussche, Where the Wild Yeasts are!, Lambic Digest #612, Mat 30, 1995 [as transcribed by M. Sharp from Homebrew U III notes]
Last Updated: 16 August, 1995
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