Lambics are specifically Belgian beers, made in a certain part of Belgium, specifically in Payottenland east of Brussels in the Zenne valley. The beer may well be named for the Payottenland town of Lembeek. Lambics are fermented using wild, air born yeasts. Brewers often have their primary fermenting vessels on the top floor of the brewery so that they can open holes in their roofs to let the yeasts, rain, dust, bugs, and whatever else into their beer. Lambics have a very distinctive taste, and are often flavored fruit. Whole fruit is often added to the beer causing a secondary fermentation. These beers can range in taste from fairly sweet to very vinegary and sour. Often considered to be something of an acquired taste.

Lambics, much like Trappist Ales are a part of a dying, largely Belgian breed. Brewers rely on the wild yeasts floating around in the air outside to turn the mash into beer. This is accomplished by storing the 'beer' in huge vats without lids and exposing the beer to the outdoor air because parts of the roof are on a track much like screen doors that necessitate their ease of opening. Some Lambic producers, are quite eccentric when it comes to the brewing environment, as they do not like to 'disturb' any dust or cobwebs inside the brewery for fear that it may affect what goes inside the beer. While the beer is unfiltered and unpasteurized some sediment remains, however it is pretty ridiculous to believe that insects are found in the beer-anything of that nature found in the beer is always removed. As a connoisseur myself, I have found these beers to be quite similar to other handcrafted, unfiltered, Belgian beers. They are quite tart and acidic,(almost like a hard cider) definitely making them an acquired taste. Some lambics are sweetened to balance this tartness. Traditionally cherries(kriek) were first used, however raspberries(framboise) and peach(peche) are two more common additives. Lambics, like wine, often improve with age(I believe though, that they must mature for at least 2 years before consumption), and you may see variations known as 'Gueze' which is a Lambic mix of both young and mature beers (probably introduced as a way of making lambics more profitable). Another known variation of the Lambic that I know of is 'Faro' which is a lambic sweetened with either sugar or juice of some kind. You can buy these in bottled this way, or as often found in Belgian bars, patrons can make their own Faro from a Lambic they purchased, by simplying taking a spoon of sugar and mixing it in.

Lambic beers are wheat beers that are fermented in a unique way, the yeast used having been derived from the atmosphere, rather than being pitched into the beer. Only one traditional producer still allows the yeast to "fall from the night sky" onto their cooling brew. The other eight trditional producers blow air across the top of (or in one case through) the cooling liquid. The key difference then is that the beer is allowed to ferment slowly, usually in massive oak casks, for up to three years. Draught lambic should come stright from those casks untainted. "Young" lambic is six to twelve moths old, "Old" lambic two or three years old. The most distinctive form of lambic beer is gueuze (or geuze), pronounced "hers" in Flemish Dutch. This is a blend of these two types of lambic, bottled with a tiny amount of sugar to spark refermentation and ideally then left for a further couple of years before drinking. While draught lambic will always be for me an acquired taste, authetic traditional gueuze is one of the masterpieces in the world's collection of alcoholic beverages. At room temperature or lightly chilled it is, as the British beer writer Roger Protz once said: " ... at a bibulous crossroads where the difference between wine, beer and cider blurs." By European Union law, to call a beer a lambic it need only to have had some lambic fermentation involved in a part of its production. Some of the better known, more widely available lambic actually contain only a small proportion of true lambic-fermentation beer. Tim Webb Author, LambicLand (www.booksaboutbeer.com)

The slang term for intoxication "Lambasted" is also derived from this process of brewing.