Monday, July 8, 2013

Chapeau Fraises


Lambics have a pretty neat brewing process.  Traditionally, they are produced in the south of Belgium where they are brewed in a similar fashion to other styles of beer.  With one big difference. Instead of the yeast being added directly to the mix, the wort is exposed to the open air and allowed to  ferment with wild yeasts.  It this spontaneous fermentation method that gives lambic its distinctive flavor.

There are different variations on the styles but the most common found outside of Belgium are twice fermented fruit lambics.

Chapeau Fraise (3% ABV) brewed by Brouwerij De Troch is a strawberry lambic that is aged a minimum of two years in the bottle.

I find it interesting that the bottle is it's capped and corked.

It pours a bright coppery orange that is slightly hazy and has no head to speak of.

The aroma is acerbic with the essences of sweet strawberry.

The taste is like tart but mostly sweet strawberries.  There's loads of fruit flavor and not too puckering.  There is little to no carbonation and the mouthful is relatively light; not syrupy at all.

Lambics are among my least favorite styles of beer.  So, personally, I think Chapeau Fraise is okay but I don't love it.

But that's me.

If you like lambics or sours, you'll probably enjoy this.  My husband did.


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