3 Fonteinen Schaarbeekse Kriek

Brewed by 3 Fonteinen
Style: Lambic - Fruit
Beersel, Belgium

March 1st, 2005 bottle. Excellent kriek aroma with a horseblanket and wet hay mixed with sweet tart cherries and tannic cherry pits. Surprisingly light carbonation, giving this an almost watery mouthfeel. That much is unfortunate. I did have a moderately difficult time rousing a head on the pour, but did get one, which faded quickly into a very thin ring of foam, pinkish in color, atop the hazy purple of the beer itself. There’s a nice hard acidity to this without being over the top, and its not really all that sweet. The cherries are just there, complementing the flavors but not really on equal footing. Very dry, slightly tannic finish, perhaps shows a little bit of oak here. A little brett funk is apparent in the middle between the initial sourness and the woody finish, but you really have to concentrate for that one. Overall really good, just not as *great* as I’d hoped it would be.

thanks nhorween. looks like pink hoobastank. smells like a cherry kriek. tastes pretty damn balanced for the style. i was telling these guys earlier that it’s not as vinegary as some other krieks i’ve had. i like it for it’s balance. i could drink plenty of this without getting jaded.

Corked and caged bottle from boboski - thanks! Bottled 01 March 2005, consumed 09 December 2007. Deep Burgundy pour really lets off a lot of air - not exactly aggressively carbonated, but still very active. Very fine, teeny tiny bubbles compose the dense layer of pink, lacing head. Rush of sour cherry (with a touch of sweetness) and wild fermentation. Taste is strong sour with an even stronger woody dryness, but there’s no sense of aggression or histrionics. Sour cherries prominent here but the general sense is more of fruit than cherry. Puckering acidity, but again, not overdone. It’s interesting to find something with such a robust, complex taste and such a blunted after; the sour and tart notes fade almost immediately, and what little sweetness there was in the main course is nowhere to be found in the finish. Medium-full body on the heftier side of style, with a short dry, wooden aftertaste. Smooth and superbly balanced ... exudes class. About as solid as they come.

Small serving during 11-30-07 tasting at the Lex-Larp Cellars as I joined joet and the Twin Cities crew. Poured from a 750 mL bottle. Sharp, tangy, yeasty aroma features fruit sweetness. Pours a cool looking, hazy red with a light pink head. Awesome, sharp, sour taste. Very dry and wine-like. Reminds me of a great pink champagne. Raspberry flavor; if I didn’t know this was a kriek, I’d have sworn it was a framboise. That’s okay because I prefer raspberries to cherries anyway. Tangy aftertaste. Light to medium body. Soft in the palate. This is a well-made, interesting, and delicious brew. I wish I had more to say about it, but this is the 12th of 13 beers I had that night in the tasting, and as anyone who has taken notes on a bunch of beers in one day knows, they tend to get sloppy and cursory toward the end, not to mention the burnt-out palate phenomenon.

[Bottle] Pours red with a light pink head. Aroma is about what I expected, sour, funky, some cherry. Taste is the same. Medium mouthfeel, long finish. This is one of the weakest styles for me to rate as I definitely enjoy most of the beers...but have difficulty picking out many flavors aside from varying degrees of funkiness, sourness, and whatever fruit happens to be in it. Definitely one to come back and re-rate some time.

Fruity, smooth and mildly bitter kriek. Delicious. 75 cL from the 2007 batch, sipped from champagne flutes. Way better than any champagne I’ve had. Pours blood read with a bubbly, pink head. Nose is full of wild and black cherries. Sour flavor is restrained by a surprising layer of hoppy and acidic bitterness, makes a tasty, harmonious balance. Fruit is less than intense in the flavor. Dry finish. Fantastic.

[Bottle at Ølbaren] Pours hazy deep red with small short lasting pink head. Sour aroma with fresh authentic cherry and oak notes. Sour flavor with lovely cherry notes that finishes of with nice citric acid character. Great complexity. Great beer!

Sweet raspberry aroma. Pours a cloudy red with thin head. Sweet fruit aroma and tart finish. Acids and carbonation make for a lively palate.