ABV: 5.5%
Origin: Beersel, Vlaams-Brabant, Vlaanderen
Website: www.3fonteinen.be
Brouwerij en stekerij 3 Fonteinen, Beersel, Vlaams-Brabant, België
The simplest way to make an acidic young lambic palatable is to bung sugar in it, and in the past this was probably the most common way of drinking lambic in its heartland in and around Brussels. Low gravity lambic, blended with a lighter beer that might not be spontaneously fermented, would have been dosed with brown sugar at the pub just before serving. The resulting drink, known as ‘faro’, was, like mild in England, an everyday refresher popular with manual workers from factories and farms.
These days faro is a minority style, usually made from standard strength lambic and pre-mixed with brown sugar, and perhaps some caramel, at the brewery or blender. The sweetening needs to be done shortly before serving, or the beer has to be pasteurised first, otherwise the sugar will prompt a refermentation and the beer will lose its sweetish, relatively still character.
I find the style fascinating, and 3 Fonteinen’s version is one of the rarest, usually only reliably on sale in Beersel itself, so I pounced on it when I spotted it at ZBF, served from a handpump. I wasn’t disappointed.
The beer was mid-amber in colour with a bubbly white head, perked up by the pump. A gentle aroma had notes of oranges, oil and perhaps some cinnamon spice. A lusciously soft and slightly spicy palate was gently sweet and beautifully balanced, with a distinct lambic rasp and notes of orange and grapefruit pith. There was a more candyish note in a chewy, lightly nutty finish. Some bottled faro is sickly sweet – this wasn’t, but comforting and sublimely drinkable.
For more on the brewer and blender see 3 Fonteinen Oude Kriek.
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