Mort Subite brewing tidbits

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yUhtz4CFDDE#!

Some tidbits of their brewing process as described by the head brewer:

@19:55 - he describes the fruiting process in detail for their kriek. If I hear him correctly, they use lambic brewed in Feb/March and fruit it with cherries in July. So....fruiting at 4-5 months...yikes. But at least they use whole fruits.

@23:50 - he says their Original Lambic is 50% old lambic and 50% young lambic.

@25:35 - he says "young" lambic is at maximum 2 months and "old" lambic is at minimum 1 year. They don’t use any lambic of the age 3-11 months for blending. Also the oldest barrels are 4 years....after that "too much sherry flavor".

@27:35 - he says the "oude" on oude kriek signifies that it is only lambic and fruit. "no juice, nothing for the color, nothing for the flavor".....which I guess is an admission they add those things to the regular kriek? It sounds like Oude Kriek is all "old" lambic (>1yr) on cherries, and then blended with 5% young lambic for bottling.

@29:40 - Oude Kriek is made with 7,000 kilos of cherries and 25,000 liters of lambic....more than 30% cherries. (2.33 pounds per gallon)

@31:25 - Oude Geuze is 95% "old" lambic (again 5% young for bottling) with an average age of 3 years. Nice.

@32:10 - he has a bit of a rant on how he dislikes the category term "Sours" or describing lambic/geuze as "sour". Instead advocating the term "Brute" and using champagne terms to describe geuze.

Thanks for the info!

The non-sweetned offerings I had from them (Oude Gueuze and Jonge Lambik) were both very enjoyable. I should have really tried harder to get the Oude Kriek, but alas I only had so much time...

Mort Subite Oude Kriek may be the most underappreciated beers on the site. That thing is an absolute work of art.

I also found written from a person who attended Mort Subite’s open brewery day:

"Most of their output is syrupy sweet lambics like Kriek Xtreme where, if there even is any, the spontaneous fermentation comes from air pumped in rather than traditional open fermentation, any fruit flavor comes from syrup, and it is aged in steel."

http://aconsideredglass.blogspot.com/2010/05/open-breweries.html

There is a picture there of the stainless fermentation/aging vessels as well as the large oak barrels they use for their "Oude" products.

Much appreciated.

Originally posted by puzzl
Mort Subite Oude Kriek may be the most underappreciated beers on the site. That thing is an absolute work of art.

What I find most interesting is they don’t use a coolship (and even more interesting is that they are a member of HORALS )

Originally posted by levifunk
What I find most interesting is they don’t use a coolship (and even more interesting is that they are a member of HORALS )

Originally posted by beastiefan2k

Originally posted by levifunk
What I find most interesting is they don’t use a coolship (and even more interesting is that they are a member of HORALS )

there is a reason why not all traditional lambic brewers are part a part of HORAL.

What are their thoughts on American Lambic?

Originally posted by javit
What are their thoughts on American Lambic?