Ichigo Lambic
(has 1 batch)

OWA's newest Japanese-themed lambic, now with "ichigo", meaning strawberry in Japanese; this fruit is perhaps even more popular in Japan than it is here in Europe, and some varieties, grown regionally, are regarded as the best in the world by people who know more about strawberries than I do. The variety used here are - according to the label - 'Sky Berry', grown in the Tochigi Prefecture. The lambic is of course De Troch's, as always in this series. From a 75 cl bottle with cork and crown cap, both concealed under a strawberry-evoking, almost origami-like red paper; apparently this is bottle 38 of only 100 made, at least in this first batch. Released a lot of 'smoke' when slowly opened - followed by quite violent gushing, but being prepared for this, I was able to reduce the loss to about 1/5 of the bottle. Medium thick, irregularly opening but in all relatively stable, eggshell-white, creamy head lacing in shreds over an immediately cloudy, warm peach blonde beer with pale orangey tinge and the tiny 'hairs' of the strawberries still inside, sinking to the bottom of the glass - if that isn't proof that whole fruit was used here, I don't know what is. Aroma of still somewhat green, unripe strawberries rather than the deep red, sweet juiciness I was expecting (and enjoyed recently in a Hanssens Oudbeitje, the only other strawberry lambic I can think of right now); apart from this green berry scent, I get other less expected, herbal and 'dusty' hints of damp straw, old dried lemon peel, wild cranesbill leaves, mouldy orange peel, raw potatoes pulled fresh from a loamy soil, brown soap, stale old bread, plum kernels, herbarium flowers, sawdust. Notably acidic onset, lemony with the wryness of unripe green berries or stonefruit peel but low in actual ripe strawberry flavour, more redcurrant-like really, although a strawberry scent does rise up retronasally during swallowing; until that happens, a dry yet juicy, fruit-acidic and estery, smooth, finely carbonated, bread crust-ish body unfolds, leading to a dry, very quenching finish with the sourness lingering a the back, overseeing a persisting fruit peel wryness, soft bready malt notes, dusty old wooden barrel tannins and a light background onset of Bretty funkiness. The wryness lingers far beyond the last sip - a bit too much so to be fully agreeable, perhaps. Not one for the lambic dilettante: this lambic's general profile reminds me a bit of De Cam Trosbessen, even if the fruit used is totally different; but it does have the same bitter plant- and wry unripe berry-like, almost uneatable plant-like wryness and 'greenness', covered in the dust and cobwebs of an old lambic brewery. Reading about the juicy sweetness of these Japanese strawberry varieties and the immense amount of applications this people has come up with to use them for, I was honestly expecting a juicy, rich, luscious, delicate fruit lambic with the sweet aromatic fragrance of ripe strawberries elegantly hovering over the dusty and funky lambic, as is the case in Hanssens Oudbeitje - again the nearest product I can compare this with. This is altogether very different, far from accessible and perhaps a tad harsh for even a fruit lambic, but it's not because it differs significantly from my expectations, that I was unable to enjoy it - it just took a different mind set, I guess. Not a greatly refined fruit lambic, though, but it is pure lambic and pure fruit, so for a 'lambic-head' like me, that amply qualifies.