Turns out I have rather more Lambic analyses than I thought. Though, sadly, only three give the level of acidity. Unsurprisingly, it's pretty damn high in all three examples.
What is a shock is the strength of some of the examples of Lambic. Only two of the seven are below 6% ABV. Even all the Faro is above 5% ABV. The strongest Lambics are almost 10% ABV - way, way stronger than any modern version.
Knowing how it was produced, the extremely high level attenuation is to be expected. All the bugs would have eaten through just about anything fermentable. The attenuation is particularly impressive if you know that before 1900 most continental beers were below 70% apparent attenuation.
Gerstenbier, in case you're wondering, is the same as Bière d'Orge. It's just the Dutch-language version of the name.
| Belgian beers 1839 - 1898 | ||||||||
| Year | Brewer | Beer | OG | FG | ABV | App. Atten-uation | Acidity (%) | pH |
| 1839 | Unknown | Lambic | 1085.1 | 1011.5 | 9.72 | 86.49% | ||
| 1850 | Unknown, Brussels | Lambik | 1058.4 | 1013.2 | 5.89 | 76.39% | ||
| 1850 | Unknown, Brussels | Faro | 1051.2 | 1011.2 | 5.20 | 77.17% | ||
| 1850 | Unknown, Louvain | Petermann | 1069.6 | 1015.6 | 7.06 | 76.47% | ||
| 1870 | Unknown | Faro | 1055.1 | 1013.5 | 5.41 | 75.50% | ||
| 1871 | Unknown | Lambic | 1070.7 | 1008.7 | 5.60 | 86.95% | 1.06 | 3.37 |
| 1872 | Unknown | Lambic | 1059.7 | 1003.3 | 7.42 | 94.47% | ||
| 1889 | Unknown | Lambic | 1088.2 | 1011.1 | 9.71 | 86.46% | 1.11 | 3.36 |
| 1889 | Unknown | Faro | 1055.9 | 1012.6 | 5.41 | 76.47% | 0.9 | 3.4 |
| 1890 | Unknown | Lambic | 1061.4 | 1003.3 | 7.43 | 94.63% | ||
| 1890 | Unknown | Faro | 1055.4 | 1013 | 5.41 | 76.54% | ||
| 1898 | Unknown | Lambic | 1059.4 | 1003 | 7.43 | 94.95% | ||
| 1898 | Unknown | Faro | 1054.5 | 1012.9 | 5.41 | 76.32% | ||
| 1898 | Unknown | Gerstenbier | 1048 | 1002.5 | 5.96 | 94.79% | ||
| Sources: | ||||||||
| "Bericht über die Entwickelung der chemischen Industrie während des letzten Jahrzehends" by August Wilhelm von Hofmann, 1877, page 382 | ||||||||
| Handwörterbuch der reinen und angewandten Chemie by Justus Liebig, Johann Christian Poggendorff, Friedrich Wöhler, 1858, page 1038 | ||||||||
| "Bericht über die Entwickelung der chemischen Industrie während des letzten Jahrzehends" by August Wilhelm von Hofmann, 1877, page 382 | ||||||||
| American Handy Book of the Brewing, Malting, and Auxiliary Trades by Robert Wahl and Max Henius, Chicago, pages 823-830 | ||||||||
| "Handbuch der chemischen technologie" by Otto Dammer, Rudolf Kaiser, 1896, pages 696-697 | ||||||||
| Brockhaus' konversations-lexikon, Band 2 by F.A. Brockhaus, 1898 http://books.google.de/books?id=oZ5PAAAAMAAJ&pg=PA999&dq=bierdruckapparat+konversationslexikon#PPA1000,M1 | ||||||||
The 5.60% abv for the 1871 lambic can’t be right for 1070.7 OG 1008.7 FG.
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