Summary
This deep dive into a very specific corner of the beer world is a fascinating look at a style, the blenders and brewers who make it possible, and the conflict between preservation and proliferation.
Earlier this year, I was lucky enough to find myself in Belgium. Following a tour through Antwerp, one that incorporated a pilgrimage to the Westmalle Trappist brewery, we arrived in a version of Brussels that seemed to be under a citywide construction project. None of this stopped us from making our way directly to Cantillon, a brewery and museum in Anderlecht.
Days later, we were in a parking lot in St. Gilles, trying a new batch of Cuvee-Saint-Gilloise out of plastic cups. We were not alone. You see, Cantillon, and other breweries that incorporate their style, have a devoted following. If you know you know — but if you’re new to the world of lambics, they might just change your notions of what beer can be.
Brasserie-Brouwerij Cantillon (or “Brewery Cantillon”) is one of several brewers, blenders, and connoisseurs of lambics and gueuze that are the focus of Jerry Franck’s BOTTLE CONDITIONED. In this most esoteric of documentaries, Franck – who was frustrated with the way beer was depicted in mainstream media – explores the small Belgian community dedicated to this very particular craft. Indeed, it was a presence very nearly lost, with the number of local breweries shrinking from around 70 at the start of the 20th century to about five or six by the 1960s.
So, what is a lambic? It’s a type of beer where its fermentation uses wild strains of yeast, often sourced from local environs. By comparison, other beers use more controlled and cultivated strains of brewers yeast. The results make it the wine of beers, with a distinctive dry, tart and often sour flavours. As Cantillon owner Jean-Pierre van Roy puts it, “It’s the lambic that tells the brewer what to do.”
Going deeper down the rabbit hole, a gueuze is created by blending together young and two to three-year old lambics, then left to condition in a bottle for another year or so. Collectors will even cellar these for up to 10 to 20 years as it allows the beer to undergo a secondary fermentation and change flavour profiles again. The point is that it takes time.
Which is where the Luxembourg-born Franck approaches his subjects. In the rapidly expanding world of craft beer, where new audiences are constantly sampling and critiquing hundreds of styles, slow beer can be a high demand rarity. In Cantillon, you have the tension between Roy and his son Jean Van Roy, the latter of whom wants to produce more bottles to meet demand. Jean-Pierre wants to take that space and expand the museum, cementing and preserving lambic history.
Over at the equally historic 3 Fonteinen, managing director Werner van Obberghen faces criticism for expansion plans that clash with a fiercely protective beer community. Then there’s relative newcomer Raf Souvereyns and Bokke Blendery, who are finding their feet on the scene and creating their own traditions.
Franck does a good job of eliciting some honest opinions out of these three players, creating a dichotomy of old and new while acknowledging the commercial realities of the product. Beer importers the Shelton Brothers note they could barely sell lambics at $1 a bottle in the early days, but the market for high demand bottles can be anywhere between $500 and $10,000. “Lambic became the Pokémon cards of beer.”
Jean-Pierre Van Roy laments that it is “atrocious” we don’t “drink beer like we used to,” so it’s perhaps ironic that he doesn’t see that the pathway to preservation is through this new generation of fandom, not to mention films like this. Indeed, viewers of this documentary are most likely already nose deep in this corner of the world, but it does a great job of introducing the uninitiated as well. Still, even Van Roy would acknowledge the reality that Franck ultimately lands on here. “The nature of lambic is chaos.”
2023 | USA | DIRECTOR: Jerry Franck | WRITERS: Jerry Franck, Courtney Marsh | CAST: Jean-Pierre Van Roy, Jean-Pierre Van Roy, Werner Van Obberghen, Armand Debelder, Raf Souvereyns | DISTRIBUTOR: Cynasty Films | RUNNING TIME: 82 minutes | RELEASE DATE: See official site for screening dates
