Fun Fact: Etymology of ‘Lambic’

Bronx NY- After listening to a recent radio show on Lambics, I found myself wondering where the word “Lambic” originated. I thought that it surely had some relation to the style’s fruit flavors or natural fermentation. The answer it turns out it much more simple. According to etymonline.com “Lambic” is related to the fourteenth century Middle French word for a still, alambic. At this point the etymology takes an interesting turn. The fourteenth century term, through the previous three centuries of contact between French knights and the Arabic speaking world, was an adaptation of al-anbiq the Arabic word for “distilling…

Archaeology and Beer

Bronx NY- Archaeology, my other nerdy obsession intersected with Beer on Saturday when I received my copy of the new January/February issue of Archaeology Magazine in the mail. The cover story was labeled “Lords of Peru” but in fact when I went to the actual article the title was “Trophy Skulls and Beer: unearthing the source of an Andean empire’s power” by Andrew Curry. Archaeology has yielded interesting results for the beer world in the past i.e. Dogfish Head Midas Touch (some statements about the discovery made by Dogfish are unfounded). This time it was archaeology learning something about ancient…