Lindemans Faro

Brewed by Brouwerij Lindemans
Style: Lambic - Faro
St Pieters Leeuw-Vlezenbeek, Belgium

Serve in Flute, Tumbler

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Finally got a hold of this elusive style, albeit a common brand. Earthy nose is sweet and enticing. Texture is tingly and full up front, dryish in the middle, sticky in the finish and cloying in the aftertaste. Unfermented Belgian candi sugar really comes through. Rich rock candy in the malts, with a distinct, honey-like and mead-like aspect that dominates from start to finish. Some flowers in the aromas, along with sweet petals and sugar-coated perfume-like essences. Has a curious nip of sourness that surfaces here and there, but it is washed away with sweetness. Extremely mild, almost non-existent hop bitterness. Interesting beer, especially for it’s mead-like qualities, but too sweet for me. I won’t, however, rule out the style after just this one sample, especially due to the fact that it’s Lindemans, which brews a lot of sweet beers.

The aroma is funk, barnyard, and some vague sweeetness struggling to get out. The appearance is dark chestnut brown/red, translucent, off-white head, decent lacing. The flavor is sweet, almost cloying, candi sugar, earthy, barnyard, funk. The finish is tart fruit, sugary, sour, acidic. Medium in body, sort of oily. I jumped at the chance to add another Lambic faro to my collection (this style is usually a bitch to find.) This was ok, but not especially enjoyable.

Pours a pretty amber-brown and what head you can muster by pouring aggressively ducks back into the suds almost before you can put the bottle down. Brett, Funk and Rubber on the nose initially. There is some light cherryish tartness there too. First drink: this is a fairly sweet beer, sugar is right up front, like ’kool-aid’ up front. It has a nice mouthfeel, I’ll give it that. It has enough sour balance that I don’t hate it, but this would take some getting used to. Glad I got a Girardin Black Label coming up next.

Thanks AgentSteve. Poured clear golden amber, smooth, sweet berries, candied sugars, little yeasty, dry finish.

Bottle. I’m not a Lambic-fan. But had this one at home, so had to taste it... Pours out orange, amber coloured, a small head, won’t hold good. Smell of ripe fruits, some spices, something unpleasant comes up. Very oily, almost sirupy mouthfeel. Very, very tastefull, almost pure sugar it seems. Lots and lots of sweetness, some caramel, some spices, some fruits. A bit sourness comes up also. It’s drinkeable, but it’s no beer for me. An unpleasant siropy thing.

I finally found a Faro lambic! Poured a clear honey color with a white foamy head. Aroma is very similar to a gueuze, with some sour notes and yeast. Taste is sweet with fruity notes, mainly grapes and cherries. Taste is closer to a fruit lambic than to a gueuze. A good amount of flavor, but not many yeast or sour tastes. Finish is a little bit more dry than the beginning. An interesting style, but I think i prefer gueuze and fruit lambics.

I’ve been rating beers here since 2004, have rated over 5,100, and yet this is only the 2nd faro I’ve ever had. That’s kind of like the number of cycles hit for by Pete Rose. Well, enough pointless statistics crap. On to the review. The pour is ruddy chill hazy liquid caramel copper color, mayhaps a bit toward the brown end of the visible light spectrum, with pretty much no head at all save a few frothy bubbles near the sides of the Stone Levitation tulip glass. The nose is sour mashy malt, sugar syrup, lactic notes. The flavor is nice, good complexity and sweet, like a much less fruity base example of the Lindeman’s lambics, but with more sweetness and a lot of sugar syrupy and honey flavors. Take the Lindeman’s process, remove the fruit, add a smattering of mead, and let the wild yeast fall where they may, and you end up with this, a very quaffable and unique beverage that defies traditional classification and stands quite nicely as a solid example of a style that is far too rare in the states.

UPDATED: APR 30, 2012 375mL bottle, pours amber orange with a small head. Aroma of candied sugar and subtle sourness. Flavour is very sweet candied sugar, quite cloying, coating the teeth with sugary residue. Not too bad.

Pours nearly clear perfect amber with a tall frothy off white head that fades to a thick skim fairly quickly, holds there and leaves a little lacing. Aroma is tart stone fruit, sweet candi sugar, fruity floral notes and mixed Jolly Ranchers. Flavor is lightly funky basement, candi sugar, sweet grapefruit juice, musty cereal grain, tart stone fruit and more Jolly Ranchers. Palate is light bodied, with a light, sharp carbonation, entry somewhere between creamy and syrupy and a slightly acidic, sticky and somewhat dry finish. Tasty and refreshing, but a touch too sweet and syrupy for it’s own good.

375ml green bottle, corked and capped. Reddish amber pour, clear, thin white head. Aroma is dusty, slightly funky with sour lemons. Flavour is sugary, sweet, light lemony, sour notes in the background. Faint sour aftertaste. Medium sticky body, light body and carbonation.