Lambic and meerts

I have a question about how those are "labeled".

So I had a meerts at Tilquin during Toer de Geuze this year, and when I wanted to rate it, they said it should be rated under "Boon meerts", because Boon produced the meerts. Which holds sense, because Tilquin is a steker (blender) and not a brewer.

But, the weird thing then is, that when I had a lambic at Hanssens during that same TdG, and when I asked which lambic it was, they answered me: Boon, one year old.
Which holds once again sense, because Hanssens is a "steker" as well, so you shouldn’t be able to rate Hanssens lambic, because that is in fact Boon lambic.

Weird thing now is that on this site you can rate Hanssens lambic, but not Tilquin meerts.

Someone care to elaborate me?

Meerts and lambic are two different things. Meerts is just a second or third run of your wort, I’d consider it as a malta with some alcool, even if Boon calls it a light lambic. The meerts getting to Tilquin undergoes very little time in a barrel and is serve as such fresh out of the barrel.

I have also asked Pierre Tilquin to chime in and send me his view. That should once and for put a stop to people who keep entering the meerts for the sake of just having a Tilquin rate. I must have deleted the entry ten times by now with the other admins.

The answer is quite simple, Hansenns has been on sale before, where as Tilquin is not a commercially available product and is therefore unrateable. He just uses the meerts that he gets from boon to blend into the draught gueuze and as such you are very lucky to have tried it!

I understand Sebastien, but it’s pretty confusing, as you’d understand. You buy lambic at Hanssens (from Boon) and you should rate it as Hanssens. You buy meerts at Tilquin (from Boon) and you should rate it as Boon. Hanssens has as few contribution as Tilquin, but still someone else gets the credits. That’s pretty confusing...

Just curious, if people keep adding this beer that is unrateable, why not add it then put the unrateable tag page on it?

Here is the answer from Pierre. He does not want it to be rated or entered because it comes from a third party (in this case a colleague).


The Meerts (or March in English) is a low alcohol lambic brewed by Boon for Gueuzerie Tilquin, to be used for making the draft version of the Gueuze Tilquin. It helps to decrease the global level of alcohol of the blend. Traditionnaly, Meerts was obtained from the second wash of the grains, during filtration, and was fermented separately from the first wort. Now, when brewing lambic, both worts are mixed together to give the wort of lambic. The particularity of this Meerts, is that it can be drunk very jong (3-4 weeks), and was a sort of pour-man’s drank to have during field work.

Ok, seems ok. But still, why is a Boon lambic rated as a Hanssens lambic rated then?