Think of how few flavour additives are ever added to Belgian beer – rarely anything other than fruit, of course, and the odd spice such as coriander and Curaçao. Then think of what lengths brewers go to in order to inject flavours into their beers using different sorts of malt, special yeast and, especially nowadays, all kinds of exotic hops.
Isn’t it odd that you would try to create fruity, spicy or herbal flavours without using fruit, spice or herbs? Not any more. Thanks to a new collaboration between lambic brewers Lindemans and Danish beer firm Mikkeller, you can now sample a lambic beer made with the addition of fresh basil leaves – if you’ve ever wondered what the best beer is to go with pizza, wonder no longer.
Lindemans reckons, and few would disagree, that the new trend worldwide is towards sour beers, even if the hype surrounding bitter-hopped beers is not yet played out. Mikkeller, known for its desire always to test boundaries, agrees.
“The Belgian Lambics have something mysterious about them,†says Mikkel Borg Bjergsø, co-founder of Mikkeller. “The spontaneous fermentation process adds to that mystery. We have been experimenting with pretty much all beer styles, and finally we got to work with Lindemans lambic!â€
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