pLambic?

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Plambic is the most irritating homebrew term ever. Obviously I'm not in Belgium so I don't really have to tell anyone it's not a true EU defined lambic and I'd never try to pass it off as one commercially. Next we're going to be making pkolsch and psteam beer. And if the argument is spontaneous fermentation, then the big guys wouldn't be so worried about their rafters and old barrels. I haven't pitched anything in months, just reused the same dirty bucket, so I guess I'm spontaneous too. I have nothing but love for the lambic producers, they're my favorite beers and what they brew and blend is just amazing, but seriously we're homebrewers and plambic is ridiculous. Rant over.
 
Good rant, and point well taken. I figure to each his own.

If I were going to rant, I'd start with Lindemans calling their fruit and sugar alco-pops "Lambic."
 
pohldogg said:
Plambic is the most irritating homebrew term ever. Obviously I'm not in Belgium so I don't really have to tell anyone it's not a true EU defined lambic and I'd never try to pass it off as one commercially. Next we're going to be making pkolsch and psteam beer. And if the argument is spontaneous fermentation, then the big guys wouldn't be so worried about their rafters and old barrels. I haven't pitched anything in months, just reused the same dirty bucket, so I guess I'm spontaneous too. I have nothing but love for the lambic producers, they're my favorite beers and what they brew and blend is just amazing, but seriously we're homebrewers and plambic is ridiculous. Rant over.
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Oddly enough, soon in Belgium they will be making 'pLambics' This is because they suburbanization is pushing out the large farming areas where that the open fermentation takes place. Soon it will be US brewers and places like Wyeast or White labs that are keeping the original strains alive.
 
i make mine from urine. that's why i call them plambics.
and yes, my clambics are made of ocean water. and clams.
 
ACbrewer said:
Oddly enough, soon in Belgium they will be making 'pLambics' This is because they suburbanization is pushing out the large farming areas where that the open fermentation takes place. Soon it will be US brewers and places like Wyeast or White labs that are keeping the original strains alive.
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Cantillon is in downtown Brussels. The microbes are in the walls, and especially the wood of the barrels. I don't think there is much risk of these beers dying out in their native land.
 
I think the original intent was to show respect. What you are making is not a true lambic. The American brewers that make comparably good sour/funky beers do not call their beers Lambics because they are not. At the same time, they don't call them pLambics either with most opting to say "American farmhouse" or "spontaneous fermentation" or whatever.
 
when i gave wild beer to my guests they got all crazy and started swooping down going kee-argh kee-argh. and they tried to bite my horsey's face and teeth right out.
 
pohldogg said:
Plambic is the most irritating homebrew term ever. Obviously I'm not in Belgium so I don't really have to tell anyone it's not a true EU defined lambic and I'd never try to pass it off as one commercially. Next we're going to be making pkolsch and psteam beer. And if the argument is spontaneous fermentation, then the big guys wouldn't be so worried about their rafters and old barrels. I haven't pitched anything in months, just reused the same dirty bucket, so I guess I'm spontaneous too. I have nothing but love for the lambic producers, they're my favorite beers and what they brew and blend is just amazing, but seriously we're homebrewers and plambic is ridiculous. Rant over.
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effing awesome... +1... i'm guilty of using the term and will cease immediately... sometimes you just know you've done wrong. now excuse me, i've got a psaison to pitch yeast into..
 
Beerrific said:
I think the original intent was to show respect. What you are making is not a true lambic. The American brewers that make comparably good sour/funky beers do not call their beers Lambics because they are not. At the same time, they don't call them pLambics either with most opting to say "American farmhouse" or "spontaneous fermentation" or whatever.
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In the book Wild Brews, Jeff Sparrow uses the term "acid ales", which seems accurate without specifying a geographic location where it is brewed.
 
I believe he was referring to the beers of Flanders. Seeing as the reds and browns are really not different styles and not based on the east west arguments.

I don't care for the term because it bias people before they try them as saying the only flavor is sour.
 
Guess42 said:
I believe he was referring to the beers of Flanders. Seeing as the reds and browns are really not different styles and not based on the east west arguments.

I don't care for the term because it bias people before they try them as saying the only flavor is sour.
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Yeah, who would ever drink something called "acid ale"? Yikes.
 
When I was learning English language I made the mistake of saying "acid" instead of "sour", of course people looked weird to me when I said that. In Spanish, as well as other latin languages, "ácido" (lat. acĭdus) means "sour", and also mean "acid" in the sense of a corrosive substance, just as English... That may be the origin of the word "acid ale"... sorry for resurrecting an old post, I just learn the term "Plambic" and I found it ridiculous.
 
Oldsock said:
Cantillon is in downtown Brussels. The microbes are in the walls, and especially the wood of the barrels. I don't think there is much risk of these beers dying out in their native land.
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Yes it is. Just a 10 min walk from Bruxelles Midi train station. Its quite something that we romanticize about Lambics as being some country farmhouse beers when the best of the best is made in the middle if a very busy city.

Its also interesting that Cantillon claims that each barrel is thoroughly cleaned and steam treated between batches such that in each case/brew all the microbes are coming from the air anew each batch. The air would include bugs living in the rafters above/around the cool ship.
View attachment ImageUploadedByHome Brew1464436454.446639.jpg

Personally Id think some of the bugs survive but it does seem like they probably kill off most of them. Was news to me View attachment ImageUploadedByHome Brew1464436233.703254.jpgView attachment ImageUploadedByHome Brew1464436260.331352.jpg
View attachment ImageUploadedByHome Brew1464436485.148389.jpg
 
mynystry said:
When I was learning English language I made the mistake of saying "acid" instead of "sour", of course people looked weird to me when I said that. In Spanish, as well as other latin languages, "ácido" (lat. acĭdus) means "sour", and also mean "acid" in the sense of a corrosive substance, just as English... That may be the origin of the word "acid ale"... sorry for resurrecting an old post, I just learn the term "Plambic" and I found it ridiculous.
Click to expand...

you should look at this [ame]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HbVOTJHA21k[/ame] Which is on the 'double vocabulary of English.'

The best quote I ever hear about English, is "English doesn't just borrow words from other languages, English follows them down dark alleys, mugs them and riffles through the pockets for lose grammar and spare vocabulary"

Almost all our brewing vocabulary is German, our science is Latin and Greek, our wine making French, and our mead making is clearly some sort of Gaelic, or Viking (Metheglin- mead made with spices.)
 

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