As I had two 5-liter bag-in-boxes of lambic from Timmermans left from another project (more about that later), I decided to use these for some other fruit macerations, click here to read more about the others I have going on already. The lambic I had were still very young and I was curious to find out how I could transform these still quite bland, malty, and semi-unpleasant tasting lambics into something delicious. The youngest lambic was approximately 3 months old, and the other one was around 8 months old. I made two macerations with this, one with blackberry, wine leaves, and lavender. The other with black apple, black pear, and plum pits.
Blackberry, wine leaves, and lavender lambic
The weekend before picking up the lambic at Timmermans, I traveled back to my parents to stay with them in their lakeside holiday home for a few days. The area near the lake was always full of blackberry bushes and as a kid, we always used to pick blackberries around there. This time my mum and I had to search a bit for some bushes with ripe berries but in the end, we found enough of them. Furthermore, when pruning one of the grapevines, I was wondering if grape leaves would be a nice addition to lambic too. After all, grape leaves are edible, so maybe they could add something to lambic too. To test I made some tea using grape leaves. The taste was very subtle but slightly sweet and herbal. Something that could potentially work well with lambic I think. So, I picked a handful of young leaves, and into the bag with blackberries they went. Inspired by Nevel’s wild beer with lavender ‘Purper’, I picked some lavender flowers to use in the maceration. I couldn’t use the ingredients immediately so I stored everything in the freezer for a few days. After tawing, I added everything to a glass fermentation jug. Overall I added around 900 grams of blackberries, 20 wine leaves, and 4 lavender flowers. I filled the jug up with 3 liters of the 8-month-old lambic and one liter of the 3-month-old lambic.
Black apple, black pear, and plum pits lambic
For the black apple, black pear, and plum pits lambic, I added approximately 850 grams of black apple, 100 grams of black pear, and 7 plum pits to a blend of the two lambics, made of one liter of 8-month old lambic and 3 liters of 3-month old lambic. The black apples and pears were made by keeping them at 50 degrees Celsius for several weeks in an incubator. During these weeks the sugars in the fruit react with the amino acids (something called the Maillard reaction), which causes the formation of new flavor- and aroma compounds and the browning of the fruit too. It’s a technique that’s been popularized by Michelin-star restaurant Noma in Kopenhagen, which is featured in their book ‘The Noma Guide to Fermentation’ too. The plum pits I saved from making lacto-fermented plums and I decided to add them to add some more depth and hopefully some almond aroma to the lambic.
Time to have some patience now and let the yeasts do their magic to transform this into something delicious. I figure with the young lambic used and the sugar from the fruits, these will need at least 6 months of fermentation before bottling or using in another blend. Follow me on Instagram to stay tuned for any updates!