@ 2016

Wheat beer of - according to the brewer - completely spontaneous fermentation, effectively making it a lambic, ironically situated just outside of the Senne valley exclusively associated with traditional lambic. I have been curious about this for a while. Sampled at ZBF 2017, apparently from a two year old batch, thanks 77ships for sharing! No head whatsoever, pale clear golden blonde robe with warmer peachy hue - indeed looking like a ’flat’ lambic so far. Lovely sour ale-like, complex aroma of unripe plums, very old sherry and sherry vinegar, wet oak (including quite expressive vanilla, more so than in ’true’ lambic), crabapple, sweat, unsugared yoghurt, yellow redcurrant berries, fermenting pear, damp hay. Expressively fruity, estery onset, unripe pear and plum notes surrounded by a strong, colourful gooseberry and crabapple tartness, flat, vinous and not carbonated, with vanilla-like oak notes already apparent at an early stage and evolving further towards the finish; dryingly sour, but in an unripe stonefruit and soft, tart lactic way rather than sharp vinegary acidity. A smooth, lightly bready and restrainedly ’wheaty’ backbone supports and carries this mouth-drying and utterly appetizing tartness; this beer’s full complexity, however, fully opens in the finish, adding wet oak, long drying lactic sourness, hayish and herbal notes, a subtle ’earthiness’ and a whole lot of oloroso-like ’vinous tartness’. Vinous, noble, refined and complex with a very subtle and elegant funkiness and a lovely sherry-like character to it, this comes across as a highly accomplished sour ale with strong lambic features - but it being achieved with actual spontaneous fermentation, something not often practiced outside of the Senne valley even within the present day craft beer movement, I see no reason why this cannot actually be called lambic. Not sure if HORAL would agree with that, but apparently the legal definitions set by the EU would allow for it... Highly fascinating, I really think Brabant is onto something great here and Fred (the brewer) has stated that this project will be continued, with new barrel aged and fruit versions being under development. I wonder if one day, he will have enough stock of both older and younger of these ’Brabambics’ to create a geuze - but I am probably running way ahead of things, as this beer seems to have needed the age to reach this level of quality (I cannot compare myself, unfortunately, since I never had it young). Brabant has been doing more than decent Belgian ales since the early years of this century, then temporarily ceased activities and finally came back as a highly productive creator of international styles, many of which were new to Belgium. After countless attempts at session IPA, milk stout, imperial stout, black IPA and others, one more successful than the other, I have the impression this brewery has now finally found its true talent and this Brabambic has the potential to launch it into greatness - if this project kicks off and the high quality of this batch can be maintained and elaborated upon, there is no doubt in my mind that something truly world class will come out of it. Quite the revelation of the festival to me. Very impressed, big cheers to Fred!

At Modeste BFF 2016. Pours unclear orange, good white head. Smell is funk, intense, citrussy. Yet not lemon nor sour. Taste is very corny. Malty, cornflakes. Very nice ! bit lactic, very creamy mouthfeel. Soft carbo. As expected, not a lambic, but fred created here a possible new beerstyle ( ? ) that sure as hell is damn nice! I need more of this, but sadly enough, it sold out really fast.

(02.10.2016) Sampled draft @ Moderste 2016. Hazy orange, few bubbles. Nose is big lactic, sour yoghurt, fermenting berries, fermenting juniper berries, zest, oddly milky. Taste is sour rotting bread, rotting yeast, spoiled milk, vinegar, low spoiled stone fruit, spoiled cheese. Lactic spoiled cheese & yoghurt body. Lambiek is about controlled infection / Brabambic is about is interesting infection. Bit too extreme, raw for me. ///// (23.04.2017) Another sample @ ZBF 2017. Different barrel, looks like this beer just needed more time for me. Surprisingly pale golden. Lovely mellow lemon sourness with faint touch of vanilla oak, juicy lemon, citrus fruit, very mellow sourness,... Not much in the way of funk, just fruity sour with some nice oak flourishes. Changing the score to 4.2 from 2.7 on this one. I like where this is evolving.