TOPIC:

Who's a fan?

I was in Brussels at the weekend and was very impressed by a number of fruit beers, especially one called Saint Lamvinus which I sampled in the Cantillon Brewery.

Is there anywhere in Dublin that has a good selection of these types of beer, like a Kreik or a Framoise?

Redmonds do Liefmans and beer of Europe will supply Cantillon

There seems to be a good range of Belgian fruit beers in Irish shops at the momnet. Anyone tried the Chapeau range, for instance. And there's more Liefmans around than there used to be.

I bought a bottle of Lamvinus in Brussels a few weeks ago. I must drink it before I go back next month in case I need to buy more. Thanks for the reminder!

I wouldn't normally be a huge fan of the fruit beers, especially when they tend to really just resemble alcopops i.e. too sweet. But they can be a nice refreshing change in a session when they have that sourness to them (such as Lamvinus). My wife had a Timmermans Peche when we were in De Kelk (Bruges) last Nov and I thought it was an excellent brew. We looked for it in several other bars, but what they had to offer didn't come anywhere the Timmermans.

Sweeneys[/url:ndhsaz4h] in Glasnevin have a good supply of Lambics. Strawberry, raspberry and a few others.

Anyone ever brewed a lambic? Is it even possible here or do you need 100 year old belgium bath tubs and such.

It's possible. The Americans do it, of course, and apparently most of the Belgian lambic breweries are doing non-spontaneous fermentation these days.