Re: Eurovision

From: Stewart Stansfield <stu_stansfield_at_CNOWsc4_4xpPmYAr-hnp_KGvndW7hagv1SxV5zN4E8NIhFaoiLzN63MUTzUfA>
Date: Sun, 13 May 2007 15:13:32 -0000


Dan, on arrack:
> Yuck. Hoping mine disappears by itself.

Okay, I won't be bringing a bottle of arrack. (No, I don't particularly like the stuff either, but I'm supposed to have gone native, and it's the closest to the idiom I have...)

Dan, on lambics:
> No idea where/what these are.

A lambic is a spontaneously fermented beer, most famously brewed in an area known as Payottenland, just west of Brussels. A gueuze (more specifically the authentic oude gueuze) is a selection of blended lambics, of varying ages.

You will probably have come across these in the past, in the (often sad) form of Belgian fruit beers. Cherry lambics (kriek) are quite common, though sadly you tend to see the insipid Belle Vue stuff rather than authentic oude kriek (or rarer draught kriekenlambiek).

It's very hard to describe a good gueuze. To the uninitiated, the first taste has more in common with a sour, fairly dry cider than any other beer you might have tasted. It's quite alien. But it's my favourite type of 'beer' in the whole world.

Cheerio,

Stu.            

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