Faro

What is Faro?

Faro is a lambic beer sweetened with caramel or brown sugar. It is characterized by a sweet and sour taste.

Sweetener is added to the beer during bottling. Modern faros are pasteurized after the sugar is added, preventing further fermentation in the bottle.

Compared to other lambics, faro usually has a lower alcohol content and a lighter body. Nowadays, faro is not very common.

Origin Story

Historically, faro had a very low alcohol content (2-3%) and was made from a blend of lambic and freshly brewed beer, to which brown sugar (or sometimes caramel or molasses) was added. Typically, the cheapest and poorest quality lambic and some other cheap light beer were used to make faro. 

Sometimes, herbs were also added to the beer. The sugar was added shortly before serving, so it did not have time to ferment into alcohol but gave the beer a sweet taste.

This method of preparation made faro a light, sweet, and inexpensive drink for everyday consumption. In the 19th century and early 20th century, faro was the most common beer style in the Brussels area precisely because of its affordable price.

Nineteenth-century French poet Charles Baudelaire commented on the unpleasant aftertaste of faro, saying, "It’s the beer that you drink twice". He was implying that Brussels faro was brewed with water from the Senne and that the river was also used as a sewer.

After World War I, the popularity of lambics, including faro, declined, and other beer styles emerged. Today, only a few faro producers remain, and the beer does not enjoy great commercial success.