 Dave Janssen, Bill Young & Adam Harbaugh The Lambic Award is a distinction awarded by the High Council for Artisanal Lambic Beers (HORAL) to persons who have made a particularly significant contribution to the interests of traditional lambic beers and the promotion of Oude Geuze and Oude Kriek. The Lambic Award 2020 was handed to Adam Harbaugh, Bill Young and the other team members of Lambic.Info, which was founded in 2015. This reference website has become one of the most important documentation sources on gueuze, kriek and lambic. This non-profit project is run by a group of passionate gueuze lovers who spend an important part of their spare time collecting the information. “Lambic.Info bundles an incredible amount of information about our lambic culture in a well-organised way. For example, if you want to know more about products of present and past breweries and blenderies, then you should definitely have a look at this website," said HORAL chairman Gert Christiaens. “At present, the website contains more than 500 pages and 3500 photos ranging from beer labels, bottles, and other breweriana to historical and current pictures of lambic breweries and gueuze blenderies. The editorial team has even put an extensive bibliography online. A real titanic job!" Bill Young, one of the two initiators, lives in Colorado and works in the IT sector. While visiting beer festivals in North America and Europe, he developed a preference for the beers of the Senne Valley and the Pajottenland: "In my search for accurate information, I found out that it was ‘a bit everywhere and nowhere’. At the same time, my friend Adam Harbaugh, a Montana-based French teacher, was doing research about the history and culture of the lambic beer industry through numerous written sources. The project took a better form after we attended the Toer de Geuze in 2013. To keep all information easily up-to-date, we chose to use a wiki format." “Once we got the project started, also other people got involved. Nick Bigelow helped with items related to brewing, science, microbiology and chemistry. Jonah Edwards was instrumental in getting the technical side of the site set up and helping us edit. Matt Granstrom was doing research on the closed breweries and blenderies. Ryan Degnan had already been maintaining a spreadsheet of bottling dates for some producers and came on to help research and edit. Finally we added Dave Janssen in 2016 to help with historical research," says Adam Harbaugh. “So we are now 7 people along with a large online community of contributors. The main drive for this project was and still is to collect as much accurate information about the lambic culture and the region where these beers are produced into one place so that people can learn about it." |
 Arjaun: Dirk Evenepoel, Dirk Van Lierde, Bart Praet, Walter Evenepoel and Etienne Wauters The Lambic Award is a distinction awarded by HORAL to persons who have made a particularly significant contribution to the defense of the interests of traditional lambic beers and the promotion of Oude Gueuze and Oude Kriek. This year the honor was given to the Pajot folk group Arjaun. The award was presented in the presence of several members of the High Council. Folk group Arjaun was founded in 1981 by the Evenepoel brothers. Walter makes the lyrics and is responsible for most of the singing. His brother Dirk plays the banjo and guitar. The brothers were soon joined by bagpiper Stefan Timmermans. With the arrival of accordionist Etienne Wauters and bass player Dirk Van Lierde, Arjaun expanded into a five-member formation. When Stefan emigrated to Spain last year, Arjaun found a worthy successor in Bart Praet. The members of Arjaun were lured to the famous beer restaurant "De Heeren van Liedekercke" in Denderleeuw. Unsuspectingly, the musicians found a lot of lambic brewers and geuze plugs there. Great was the surprise of the members of Arjaun when it turned out that this was the Lambic Award for them. “Arjaun is not only very popular in the Pajottenland, but also far beyond. In their songs, they mix beautiful folk stories with good humor. Their songs are often good-sounding tunes that can also be easily sung by the public. Apart from the fact that the group members are all gueuze lovers, different songs explicitly refer to our eating and drinking culture, and more specifically to gueuze, faro and other lambic beers," said HORAL chairman Frank Boon. “Arjaun is regarded as a real regional ambassador. Through their music they play an important role in promoting our traditional lambic beers, and "Oude Geuze" and "Oude Kriek" in particular. It was therefore no surprise that the HORAL members have reached a consensus very quickly to award the Lambic Award 2018 to the musicians of Arjaun.” |
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HORAL awarded Edgar Winderickx (84) with the first Lambic Award. The Lambic Award goes to a person, who served the lambic industry in an extraordinary way, thus promoting en defending the interests of the traditional lambic beers. List of HORAL's Lambic Award winners: 2011 Edgar Winderickx |
