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The tradition of brewing wheat-based beers extended forward from the days of the Gauls and permeated most of what is modern day Belgium and Germany. Sadly, much of the history of brewing lambic was never recorded and what is left are largely educated guesses based on the number of breweries licensed to operate in and around the Brussels area that likely produced some form of lambic, an extensive list of [[List_of_Closed_Lambic_Breweries_and_Blenders|brewers, blenders, and cafés]] that are no longer in operation, and anecdotal accounts like those of Jef Lambic in ''[[Books#Les_Memoirs_de_Jef_Lambic| Les Memoirs de Jef Lambic]]''. In the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, brewers were generally considered artisans and were mainly part of the agrarian community.<ref name="Guinard">Jean-Xavier Guinard, [[Books#Classic Beer Styles: Lambic|Classic Beer Styles: Lambic]], 1990</ref> This meant that many of the brewers were themselves farmers or had close family or community ties to the farmers in the community who supplied the raw materials for making beer.
In 1839, the area in which lambic could legally be brewed was limited to “Brussels and the immediately surrounding area”, and, ccording to Van den Steen (2012), “until 1860, ‘foreign’ beers whether imported or [domestically] produced were virtually non-existent in Brussels”Brussels.”<ref name=GeuzeKriek>Jef Van den Steen, [[Books#Geuze & Kriek: The Secret of Lambic Beer|Geuze & Kriek: The Secret of Lambic Beer]], 2012</ref> By 1860 this region was extended to a two-mile zone around the capital city of Brussels. The reason for this zone of protection was likely due to the fact that many brewers making a living in the area believed that the unique process used to create lambic also included unique micro flora that could only be found in the immediate area surrounding Brussels. However, in 1904 a Danish scientist by the name of Niels Kjelte Claussen was able to demonstrate that some of the same yeast present in lambics was also present in British beers. Claussen chose to classify the yeast as brittanomyces, but a typesetting issue caused the publication to be printed as brettanomyces. The yeast is still known by this name today, though in 1921 scientists also discovered more distinct strains of brettanomyces in lambic beers naming them bruxellenis and lambicus.<ref name=GeuzeKriek>Jef Van den Steen, [[Books#Geuze & Kriek: The Secret of Lambic Beer|Geuze & Kriek: The Secret of Lambic Beer]], 2012</ref><ref name=LambicLand>Tim Webb, Chris Pollard, Siobhan McGinn, [[Books#LambicLand: A Journey Round the Most Unusual Beers in the World|LambicLand: A Journey Round the Most Unusual Beers in the World]] </ref>
Around the same time as the brewing processes were being worked out, the aforementioned Jef Lambic was writing his manuscript providing an overview of the Brussels lambic culture from a social perspective. The author, who was the son of a lambic brewer at [[Brasserie_De_Keersmaeker|Brouwerij De Keersmaeker]] (later known as [[Brasserie_Mort_Subite|Mort Subite]]), describes the lambic cafés of the day as chic meeting places for both the upper and working classes. He also discusses the invasion of the “brown beers” in the 19th century.<ref name=JefLambic>Jef Lambic, [[Books#Les_Memoirs_de_Jef_Lambic| Les Memoirs de Jef Lambic]], ~1955 </ref> These bottom fermented German beers was cause for concern to many brewers in Brussels and Belgium alike when they first began appearing in the 1860’s.<ref name="Guinard">Jean-Xavier Guinard, [[Books#Classic Beer Styles: Lambic|Classic Beer Styles: Lambic]], 1990</ref>
Sweetened lambic is still extremely popular, yet so is the ‘traditional’ unsweetened lambic. From hundreds of producers in the early part of the 20th century, the current lambic lineup includes nine lambic brewers (who also blend) and four lambic blenders. Though small in number, these brewers and blenders represent a new resurgence in lambic interest. Many brewers who had long since abandoned the idea of non-sweetened lambics are back to producing both sweetened and unsweetened products for consumers. In 1994, Lindemans reintroduced an unsweetened gueuze called Gueuze Cuvée René and [[Brouwerij_Timmermans|Timmermans]] has also reintroduced a line of unsweetened products.
As lambic brewers and blenders began to recognize the importance of keeping the older traditions alive, some banded together to form [[HORAL]]. This group aims to promote lambic beers, brewing, and culture in Belgium. Their stated goals are "to promote the craft lambic beers and related products, paying attention to the entire process of brewing to serving lambic; denouncing irregularities concerning artisanal lambic beers and related products; take steps to protect the traditional lambic beers and related products.".<ref name = HORALAssociation> HORAL - Association, Members, and History, http://www.horal.be/vereniging (Dutch)</ref> HORAL has worked to obtain and maintain current European Protections on traditional lambic beers since the Traditionally Specialty Guaranteed label was assigned to them in 1997.<Ref name = Avermaete&Vandermosten> Tessa Avermaete and Gert Vandermosten, Traditional Belgian Beers in a Global Market Economy, 2009 </ref>
===Lambic 2000 - Present===