Creating a fruit lambic.
Lambic beers and fruit have proven to be a good match from a fairly early stage; fruit contains many properties that give lambic added value. Traditionally, a blend with sour cherries (cherries) was chosen to obtain a kriekenlambik or an Oude Kriek. Of course, over time, several types of fruit appeared in combination with lambic, resulting in an extensive range of fruit lambic beers available on the market today.
With fruit lambic beer, young lambic is placed in a wooden barrel or stainless-steel tank together with full fruit – no juices, syrups or sugary flavours added. This process is called maceration. During the maceration period, the young lambic will digest the pulp and absorb the flavour, colour and other properties (e.g. tannins, sugars, ...) of the fruit.
After this period, only the fruit membrane and any pits remain. A straight bottling of the beer produces a tasty fruit lambic without carbonation, rich in aroma, body and roundness. When backblended with young lambic, a rich sparkling, fresh-sour and fruity beer is obtained, such as an Oude Kriek.
