The very first Lambikstoempers Beer Weekend which took place in the Payottenland 16 years ago sounded like a real blast.
“We had every single lambic brewer there,” says Johan ‘Wanne’ Madalijns who has been the chairperson of Lambikstoempers vzw in the Payottenland since 2003. “Including Cantillon and Belle Vue. We even had Bockor and Bavik from West Flanders.”
It’s no surprise that Wanne – with a Santa Claus beard and Hell’s Angels laissez faire – has been at the helm of this Zythos affiliated beer club since 2003. He’s got a natural ability to make people feel at ease and an unrivalled first hand knowledge of beers in the area.
LAMBIKSTOEMPERS
The term ‘Lambikstoempers’ itself throws up an interesting story. At a time when lambic beers were much more widely consumed, drinkers would take the acidic edge off their beers by adding some sugar. To do this, they used a metal ‘stamper’ to crush a sugar cube into a glass of lambic or geuze. That device was called the ‘lambikstoemper’ and when the beer club in the Payottenland and Senne Valley started up in 1999, they took the name of this little piece of local beer history.
“We run our festival every year over two days and we always put spontaneously fermented beers in the spotlight,” Wanne says. “The largest part of the selection at our festival is reserved for the lambic, the oude geuzes and the oude krieks.”
It’s not just spontaneously fermented beers on show here, however. They are also showcasing other beers closely associated with their region. “Brouwerij Angerik have re-started again in Dilbeek so their beers are here,” says Wanne. “And Belgoo are now producing beer from their own brewery in Sint Pieters Leeuw.”
There are also beers from new brewery 4Pajot. “They’re four mad brewers from the Payottenland who just started from scratch this year,” says Wanne. The beer list this year also includes beers from small start up ‘En Stoemelings’, Brussels big hitter Brasserie de la Senne and the beers of Brouwerij Den Herberg in Buizingen such as their brett bottle-conditioned Cuvée Devillé.
DE LAMBIEK
The festival takes place in the Bezoekerscentrum ‘De Lambiek’, the Lambic Visitor Centre in Beersel. Not only do they already have an incredible selection of lambic beers at their year-round bar, but they’ve got staff here who care about the brewing heritage of the region and know their stuff on spontaneous fermentation.
There’s a good mix of local lambic lovers and international beer geeks in attendance, enjoying the sun on the terrace in front of the bar area or checking out the exhibits in the open museum section of the Visitor Centre at the back. In total, 520 people come to the festival over the weekend.
“We’ve got the new Oude Geuze from De Troch here,” says Wanne. “It’s very very new.” The last time De Troch produced an Oude Kriek was in the 1980s and this reincarnation at the request of their new American importer was created with more than 35% of Schaarbeekse sour cherries. Only 40 hectolitres were produced and Wanne is delighted that it is being poured at their festival.
The other beer he’s most excited about is one created especially for the Beer Weekend by the Lambikstoempers themselves. The Lambooske is a blend of 30 litres of Lindemans lambic of one year old and 9 kg of fresh autumn raspberries. “We’ve got bottles of our 2013 and 2014 Lambooske here too so you can try them against the 2015 blend,” says Wanne.
If you come next year (27-28 August 2016), you can try the 2016 Lambooske against all of its previous vintages. Sound good?
