Catching a Rainbow

Lambig is a distilled spirit, made in Brittany exclusively from Breton Cider.
The name Lambig comes from the French word for a still, an Alambic, in which the cider is heated and the evaporated alcohol is distilled into this little known treasure.
In Brittany distilled cider is referred to as Lambig, but to those of non-Breton descent the more common eau de vie (water of life,) is more often used.

Lambig is produced by the heating and distillation of cider. Cider for Lambig is fermented until all the sugar present has been converted into alcohol. The cider is then heated to at least 78.3 degrees Celsius, the boiling point of alcohol, and the collected evaporated spirit is condensed and collected.
The spirit at this stage far exceeds the normal 40% by volume and is diluted with 50% water to achieve the desired strength. Eleven litres of cider are required to make one litre of distilled spirit, which then has to be aged, often in Oak barrels.

In Brittany individual producers of cider are permitted to make Lambig although they are limited to 20 Litres per establishment per year, or enough to keep the cider maker through the cold winter months.
Traditionally Lambig was made on the farm and travelling stills would visit each farm and convert their cider into Lambig, for personal consumption. However, today a number of travelling distilleries are licensed by the state and travel the length and breadth of Brittany converting cider from many producers into Lambig.

On a clear spring day, walking through the woods near my home, I came upon a sight, which has probably not changed for hundreds of years, a Lambig still.
Walking in the woods, the trees resplendent with the first green of spring, the smells of an earlier season came drifting in on the wind. The scent of wood smoke, apples and cinnamon were all accompanied by conspiratorial whispers hushed, huddled, and expectant as I drew closer to the clearing in the wood.
A large still had been set up near the brook and the cooling waters of the stream were being used to condense the hot vapours into Lambig. The still itself was about a quarter the size of a double decker bus, both in length and breath. It was clad in an outer casing, which gave it the appearance of a tower used to attack castles in the middle ages. On one side the still appeared closed down but on the other the whole side had been raised to form an awning, under which the producers went about their business. Cider was brought in barrels, buckets and bottles, the quantity checked before being poured into the boiler, which was then sealed, and more logs were added to the fire.
Cigarettes were smoked, old acquaintances renewed and wary glances were exchanged, mainly in my direction. Who was this stranger in their midst? Although not openly hostile I felt this was a closed meeting and certainly not one in which I should have whipped out my digital camera and started recording the scene.

The distillation of Lambig is controlled and those in charge of the mobile distilleries are required by law to keep records such as, how much cider was deposited, how much Lambig was spirited away, as well as the registration number of each vehicle used and the number of occupants. One person in a van is allowed twenty litres, but two, forty and not too many questions are asked.

As the cider reaches the correct temperature the spirit evaporates and the vapour passes through a condenser, which cools the vapour back into liquid alcohol.
The condenser consists of a tube, surrounded by a cooling jacked into which the river water is fed and when its has done its job, cooling the vapour, the now hot water flows from a pipe and back into the river.
The idea is simple and one, which was made popular by the German chemist Justus Baron von Liebig as, all schoolboys know. Were the still, the Alambic and the drink Lambig, named after the baron, or is this pure coincidence, I don’t know nor did I think any of the group waiting patiently for the spirit to begin flowing.

We did not have to wait long. Steam began billowing and some of the pipes began creaking and knocking as the man in charge leapt from one job to another. Checking the fire, opening a valve, checking a pipe for temperature and closing another valve he was obviously an old hand at Lambig making as each task fluidly ran into the next.
Finally a tap was opened and a torrent of warm clear liquid poured into a bucket. When the bucked was full it was changed for another hanging from the tap by a piece of rope and the exchange was carried out in one deft movement, the tap ever running. The Lambig was then poured from the bucket into large glass jars holding 50 litres of spirit and then stoppered with a wooden bung. The spirit was then poured into an assortment of bottles placed in the boot of cars or on the back of a tractors trailer and whisked away.

The sale of Lambig before 1896 was forbidden but in that year a statute was passed allowing the professional distillation of Lambig and commercial distilleries have since evolved. Young Lambig is often use in cocktails, whereas when aged it is drunk as a fine brandy. It is often compared to its Norman cousin, Calvados which is also made from Cider, but only varieties from Normandy.
Whereas Calvados has an Appellation d’Origine Contrôle, Lambig has the les specific accolade of AOR or Appellation d'Origine Régionale. However, some individual producers have been awarded the coveted AOC for their individual Lambig’s.