If there were ever a defining moment for a homebrewer or beer lover, a moment analagous to an art historian standing beneath the dome of the Sistine chapel for the first time, it would have to be a visit to a working lambic brewery in Brussels. Now imagine for a moment that you could somehow stand beneath that same frescoed dome in Rome while the master himself were painting it. Unfortunately, that is where this image will always be, in your imagination, which is quite unlike the reality of watching the master brewers at Cantillion finesse the 100 year-old brewing equipment into producing one of the planet's most elegant and unique beverages. There were no artists renditions between myself and the cobwebbed gallery of recycled port casks frothing out the bung with spontaneously fermenting lambic. There were no museum placards explaining the aroma of vinous, wild fermentation that filled the air, nor were there ropes or railings to keep me from tiptoeing over rivulets of effluent from high krausen, or immersing my head in billows of steam tainted by the cheesy aroma of aged hops. The coopers cleaning and repairing casks for the next batch were not made of wax, but flesh and blood; it was the real deal. And once Steve and I had worked up quite a thirst, we sat in the makeshift cafe up front and drank the indescribable product of this alchemism for 1.50 a glass.

The Cantillon brewery opens its doors to guests on brew-day only once a year (the first weekend in March), and Steve was lucky enough to be here at just the right time to experience it. If we had the patience we could have sat there drinking all day and watched every step of the 10-hour process, but we saw what we wanted to see, and drank what we came to drink. So, we bought a few of the beers from the gift shop that we didn't try and brought them home for some more enrichment of our beer-tasting experiences.



Brucsella Grand Cru This is the raw 3 year-old lambic that goes into the various geuze blends at Cantillon. As such it is a bit more expensive than geuze and is quite still. It is a challenging beer to drink, being quite tart and unforgiving, but I must say that I have acquired a tasted for the sour stuff. This beer is simply amazing.

Vigneronne An interesting lambic fermented on white muscat grapes from Italy. It smells odd, but tastes wonderful. It retained much of the grape's character while splashing around the characteristic tartness and cheesiness of the gueuze. It's like having cheese and wine in a glass.

St. Lamvinus A similar concoction using French cabernet and merlot grapes from Bordeaux. I didn't much care for this one as it didn't have the complexity of the other fruit lambics and didn't seem to retain any of the grapes' characteristics. Not super tart either.