Steeped in history and tradition, Cantillon is held in the highest regard among beer connoisseurs worldwide.     Cantillon produces Lambic beer, but unlike other Lambic  brewers,  does not sweeten or modify their beers in any way. Cantillon beers are sour, funky and unique - they are the traditional style sour beers brewed as they were when the brewery first opened over 100 years ago.

Lambic beers are made from a blend of malted barley, raw wheat and debittered -3 year old- hops. The wort is exposed to wild yeasts and natural bacteria by cooling in an open vat. The beer is matured in oakwood or chestnut barrels, which also harbour the wild yeasts and bacteria, and left to naturally ferment in the brewery’s cellar for up to 3 years.

The wild bugs cause the beer to ferment natural (spontaneously) - that is without the  addition of any commercial yeast strain. The result is a light bodied but intensely sour and complex beer with a tartness reminiscent of a hard cider or white wine.

Lambic brewers often add fruit to the casks mid fermentation. The beer then takes on  intense fruit flavours and colours, though interestingly the fruit does not add much sweetness to the beer.

The beer is commonly bottled in 750mL corked champagne bottles - fitting due to the  vinous character of this style. We are lucky enough to have 375mL corked bottles also.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Rose De Gambrinus

Tasting Notes:  Pours a ruby russet, with amber highlights, and a billowing pink head. Raspberry and cream, peppers, and earthy aromas dominate the nose, with hints of oak and turkish delight. A tart, raspberry flavour combines with ripe fruit, marmalade and a refreshing acidity to finish creamy, puckering and moreish.

 

Food to Match:  As an aperitif, or paired with a fruity dessert.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Alcohol Strength: 5.0%

Drinking Temp: 10° - 12°

Style: Fruit Lambic

Pack Size: 375ml & 750ml

Availability:

Rare

 Cuvee Lou Pepe (Gueze, Kriek & Framboise)

In a lambic brewery, every bottling (about 50 each season at the Cantillon brewery) results in a beer with its own more or less complex taste. These differences are one of the characteristics of the Gueuze, Kriek or Framboise. The lambic beers are blended in order to neutralize these differences and to be able to offer our customers a beer with a harmonious taste the whole   season through.

The Lou Pepe beers deviate from these principles. The Gueuze Lou Pepe is made with two years old lambic beers with a mellow taste, often coming from barrels in which only wine has been kept before. In July, the same kind of beer is used to make the Lou Pepe Kriek and Framboise. With these beers too, the fruits are soaked in barrels coming directly from         Bordeaux.

The second fermentation of these particular beers is not caused by the addition of young     lambic but of a sweet liquor. The yeast will transform the sugar in carbon dioxide. All the    lambic beers which are used, are brewed in the same season and the use of liquor instead of young lambic makes the taste of the fruit more intense. The Kriek and the Rosé de Gambrinus contain 200 g of fruits per litre on an average, while the Lou Pepe beers contain about 300 g. This fruity taste, combined with the wine flavour coming from the Bordeaux barrels,             distinguishes these special beers from the other Cantillon products.

The particular name of these beers comes from the south-west of France, a region the Cantillon family is very fond of. In this beautiful region, the grandfather is called Lou Pepe. To his   grandchildren Florian, Simon, Louis and Sylvain, the master-brewer is the Lou Pepe of the North.