Dan: In today’s Brew Man Group, we’re heading back to the land that rules them all. It’s half Dutch, half French, and full of deliciousness. Yes, Belgium is home to some of the world’s most universally loved beers. Seriously, who out there doesn’t love a cold Hoegaarden on a hot summer day? That sh*t is crazy refreshing. However, Belgium is also home to some of the most distinctive, potentially offensive beers in the world. The pure unblended lambic, for example, is a style so disagreeable that most are loaded with sugar and fruit, making them tolerable enough for people like Neil who can’t deal with their complex, controversial flavours. Aside from its pure form, there’s raspberry lambic, peach lambic, apple lambic, blackcurrant lambic, and of course the classic ‘kriek’: cherry lambic.
Neil: Dan is too quick to judge me, as it’s not the style I discriminate against, but simply the flavours presented in the final beer (BTW, he can be a real tool!). If the lambic is done well, I will happily consume it! Nonetheless, the lambic style is an interesting one to explore. Lambics in themselves are simply a beer inoculated with wild yeasts including, but not limited to: Saccharomyces, Lactobacillus, Pediococcus, Brettanomyces. Therefore historically, lambic beer is the first “style” and was produced several thousand years ago via spontaneous fermentation of unmalted grains. If we skip past many undocumented years to 14th and 15th century Flanders and Brussels (countryside area in Belgium), we finally find evidence of brewing habits similar to those seen today in lambic production. Farmhouse breweries would brew locally for trade using wooden fermenters or barrels that could house several thousand species of wild yeast. Consequently, each beer was truly unique to the brewer. Eventually in the small village of Lembeek, roughly 43 brewers merged together to form the first guild, which created the first official “regional brew”. Until recently, it was not unheard of for a Belgian resident to drink a single beer, simply because lambics did not travel well.
Whew, that’s a nice piece of historical mash-up, but how do lambics taste? Aside from traditional beer traits (colour and body), the lambic should show hints of barnyard from the wild yeast strains (earthy, hay, horsey etc.), some moderate acidity on account of souring bacteria, and perhaps some oak or tannic astringency. In fruit lambics as well as gueuze (several lambics of different ages blended together), we can add some fruity traits and a high degree of carbonation on top of the aforementioned qualities. One of the few breweries to produce gueuze in modern times for export is the one we’re discussing today.
Dan: The Mort Subite brewery, formerly the Keersmaeker brewery (and formerly something else before that), can have its roots traced back to Kobbegem in 1604… at least according to a Google translation of a Flemmish Wikipedia page. This old small farm brewery just North-West of Brussels came under ownership by the Keersmaeker family in the 19th century and began to specialize in spontaneous fermentation beers. The name Mort Subite means ‘sudden death’ in French, and refers to the final roll in a dice game called 4-2-1. A particular cafe owner in Brussels noticed how popular the game had become with 1920s bankers, and thus re-named his establishment À la Mort Subite and used the term to refer to the gueuze being served. Eventually the Mort Subite line of beers was purchased by the Alken-Maes group of Belgian breweries, which in turn is now owned by Heineken.
Despite ownership by the world’s third largest brewer, Mort Subite beers are still made in the small town of Kobbegem. This is primarily because the elderly brewery is nestled in the heart of the Senne valley, known for air properties that are particularly conducive to lambic beer production, a process I learned about in detail with a visit to Brussels’ Cantillon Brewery (renowned by beer geeks as one of the best lambic breweries). Unfortunately, I was told that the region’s airborne yeasts have been in decline in recent decades, so the few traditional lambic breweries remaining need to be careful; if the buildings are destroyed, the dozens of yeast strains living in the ceilings and floorboards will perish, meaning the same beer could never be brewed again.
Neil: Upon pouring into our coveted chalii (I hope that’s the plural form of chalice!), it’s immediately evident that this beer looks like a jewel. It’s divinely clear from the lengthy aging process, and tinged ruby-red from cherry tannins. Very different I think, as I decipher a whiff of cherries and farmhouse. However upon my first taste, I can tell that this style has been tampered with. Indeed, I am not as experienced in lambics as Dan, but I can detect when a beer is overly sweet (possibly artificially). It quite literally tasted like candy-sugar, which is definitely a minus in my view. It’s sad to think that the Mort Subite brewery need to appeal to the masses, and consequently cover up the traits that make it unique. But nonetheless, I would still recommend to give it a go just to get that hint of barnyard that we can’t readily find in Canada… And to be fair, I did finish the bottle with no major issues. [3/5]
Dan: This beer is rather gorgeous. A crystal clear orange-red body is topped with some off-pink head that leaves all sorts of lacing down the side of my glass. Not only that, but the aroma is fantastic; like a fresh cherry pie cooling on the window of a horse stable. The taste, however, is not quite what I hoped for. Forgive the simile, but it’s like twenty (maraschino) cherries popping in my mouth all at once. There’s a slightly sour and earthy undertone to the beer, and some oak in the finish from the aging barrels, but the intense sweetness is detracting from the complexity.
Mort Subite is not one of the world’s well-respected lambic producers, mainly due to the fact that they sweeten each of their beers for mass appeal. I suppose this is fitting for a Heineken-owned brewery, but the result is a beer lacking in the traditional funky lambic character I fell in love with in Belgium. On a hot summer afternoon, this would be a great distinctive fruit drink, but it needs to cut out the sugar to become a great kriek. Next time someone asks me to recommend a good chick beer, this will be it, but for me, it’s no Cantillon. [3/5]
Recommended for consumption if you enjoy: Fruli, Cherry Kool-Aid
Props to hops // Dan and Neil
Photo Caption:
Beer in front of a bag of wheat malt, one of the ingredients in lambic beer.
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