Upcoming Lambic Releases From Upland Brewing

Upland’s Blackberry and Cherry Lambics will be available for online reservation beginning at noon on Wednesday, March 16th. Just visit uplandbeer.com and follow the link on the the reservations page. Due to limited supply, reservations will be limited to one bottle of each style per person. Each bottle is $20 + tax.

You’ll be able to pick up your bottles from our Bloomington Tap Room or Indy Tasting Room from March 29th through April 12th.

That’s right, unlike previous releases, you’ll be able to choose whether to pick up your Lambics in Indianapolis or Bloomington! As before, someone else can pick up your bottles for you, but they must show a copy of your ID.

There is no set time that reservations will close – we’ll keep it open until we run out. But don’t wait too long. Reservations closed after only 18 hours last time, and we have even fewer bottles this go-around…

The History
The name ” Lambic ” is derived from the name “Lembeek”, a small town in the Senne valley, just a few kilometers southwest of Brussels. While conventional ales and lagers are fermented from cultivated strains of brewer’s yeasts, lambics developed before anyone understood that fermentation was caused by microorganisms – in fact, even before anyone knew what a microorganism was. Brewers (mostly just average folks making beer for their families) simply left the sweet wort open to the air, often in the attics of their barns, and wild yeast and bacteria landed in it and did their magic, eating sugar and producing alcohol.

The result of this unique fermentation is a beer like no other: dry and quenching, with a slightly sour aftertaste.

How We Make Sours
Upland follows traditional lambic brewing practices. A turbid mash of boiled, unmalted wheat is conducted before mashing in with a balance of pilsner and pale malts. Unlike the common infusion mashing technique used to produce most lagers and ales, this method allows the yeast, primarily Brettanomyces, and lactic bacteria to feed on a more diverse sugar and dextrin (low-weight carbohydrates) content. After a long kettle boil, the mixture is hopped with 3 year old Hallertauer that has lost most of its alpha acid content, creating a beer with minimal bitterness that also retains the preservative qualities of the hops.

Batches of Upland sours are fermented with a combination of yeast and bacteria selected to create a strong, pleasant tartness aged in white oak casks for over a year while the sour and acidic qualities slowly develop. Then in the case of our lambics, we add fruit, which prompts a second fermentation and adds another layer to the already complex flavors and aromas of the beer. To our Dantalion, we add a blend of spices rather than fruit, which complements the sourness developed during fermentation. After aging for several more months in the barrel, we bottle condition the beer for several weeks to achieve a fresh, zesty carbonation.