Lambic is usually a blend of at least two different beers; many producers are blenders who buy beer from other brewers and blend them together to create the desired result. A
gueuze may have occupied space in several different cellars over six years or more. While those outside Belgium are likely to find bottled gueuze and fruited versions, a wider variety of styles is available to local drinkers. Beers are often blended again or sweetened with sugar or flavoured
syrups before drinking, as some can be extremely tart. Most, if not all, of the varieties listed below, have
Traditional Speciality Guaranteed (TSG) status. This status does not specify that a product has a link to a specific geographical area.
Unblended lambic Unblended lambic is a cloudy, uncarbonated, bracingly sour beverage that is rarely available on tap. Draught releases are generally regarded as either
jonge (young) or
oude (old), depending on the age and discretion of the brewer. Bottled offerings from
Cantillon and De Cam can be found outside Belgium.
Gueuze A mixture of young (one-year-old) and old (two- and three-year-old) lambics have been bottled. Because the young lambics are not yet fully fermented, they undergo secondary fermentation in the bottle and produce carbon dioxide. A gueuze is given at least a year to carbonate in the bottle, but can be kept for 10–20 years.
Mars Mars traditionally referred to a weaker beer made from the second runnings of a lambic brewing. It is no longer commercially produced. In the 1990s,
Boon Brewery made a modern Mars beer called Lembeek's 2% (the 2% referring to the alcohol content), Sometimes herbs were added as well. The use of
meertsbier (or water) and of substandard lambic in the blend made this a cheap, light, sweet drink for everyday consumption. The 19th-century French poet
Charles Baudelaire commented on faro's disagreeable aftertaste in saying, "It's beer that you drink twice", believing that the faro in
Brussels was brewed from the waters of a river (the
Senne or
Zenne) that was also used as a
sewer. The sugar was originally added shortly before serving, so does not add carbonation or alcohol to the beverage, as the sugar did not have the time to ferment. Modern faro beer is still characterized by the use of brown sugar and lambic, but is not always a light beer. The use of
meertsbier has disappeared, and modern faro is not viewed as cheap or light. Today, faro is bottled, sweetened, and pasteurized to prevent refermentation in the bottle. Examples are produced by
Cantillon,
Boon,
Oud Beersel,
Lindemans or
Mort Subite.
Kriek Lambic refermented in the presence of
sour cherries (usually the
morello variety, or a bitter variety known as the Schaarbeek cherry) and with secondary fermentation in the bottle results in
kriek. Traditional versions of kriek are dry and sour, just as with traditional
gueuze.
Fruit Lambic may be made with the addition of
raspberry (
framboise),
peach (
pêche),
blackcurrant (cassis), grape (druif), or
strawberry (aardbei), as either whole fruit or syrup. Other, rarer fruit lambic flavorings include apple (pomme), banana (banane),
pineapple (ananas),
apricot (abricot),
plum (prune),
cloudberry (plaquebière), lemon (citron), and
blueberry (myrtille). Fruit lambics are usually bottled with secondary fermentation. Although fruit lambics are among the most famous Belgian fruit beers, the use of names such as kriek, framboise or frambozen, cassis, etc. does not necessarily imply that the beer is made from lambic. The fruit beers produced by the
Liefmans Brewery, for example, use an
oud bruin, rather than a lambic, as a base. Many of the non-traditional fruit beers derived from lambic that was commercialized in the last decades are considered to be low-quality products by many beer enthusiasts. These products are typically artificially sweetened, artificially carbonated, sterilized, and based on the juice of the fruit instead of the whole fruit. == Belgian producers ==