On Saturday, December 8, one of Belgium's premier
lambic events will be held at its premier lambic beer
cafe: In de Verzekering Tegen de Grote Dorst (In the
Insurance Against the Great Thirst.) The cafe is
located in Eizeringen (Lennik) in the Payottenland.
Photo, above: Yves (left) and Kurt Panneels
The "Dag van de Lambiek," as they say in Flemish,
is an event where Yves and Kurt Panneels, who own
the cafe, have many straight, unblended lambics on
offer from the various lambic breweries and blenderies
in Belgium. "It's a feast for lovers of unblended
lambics!" Yves told me. "Most are served from barrels,"
he added.
"The theme is the art of brewing lambic, and the art
surrounding the lambic beer culture. We will have
cartoons from Belgian homebrewer Erwin Vanmol
displayed on the walls of the pub," Yves remarked.
There will be at least ten lambics, in jong (young)
oude (old) and kriek (kriekenlambic, cherries steeped
in lambic) form, and possibly more.
This is the fifth year of Day of the Lambic, which
started in 2008. Each year starting then, lambics
not enjoyed during the event were blended to make
a special, very rare Oude Geuze.
Only 24 bottles in the 75 cl size and 15 in the
1.5 liter Magnum size were filled in 2008, and
these are getting very hard to find now. I wrote
about this beer in 2010, here
Somehow, I still have my bottle, which is
number 11 of 24. Whether I'd ever part with
it, or age it for a few more years and open on a
special occasion, is something I haven't decided.
"We will likely do another special bottling this
year as well," Yves commented.
For full details of the event, which runs from 3 pm
to 8 pm, see: http://www.dagvandelambik.be.
