3 Fonteinen Schaarbeekse Kriek

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

Bottle: Red pour with a small pink head. Aroma of sour cherries, some sweetness, and some floral notes. Flavor, sour, tart cherries, a little bitterness. Had a great dry finish. I can never really pick apart a good lambic, the sourness is usually all I’ll really get, but man do I like them.

Bottle shared with HogTownHarry, GregClow, jerc & tupalev -- courtesy of HogTownHarry. Pours a cute pinkish-red with a small diminishing white-pinkish head. Very nice tart cherry aroma. Flavour of mild sour cherries along with some sweet malt and yeast -- complex and very flavourful, never cloying or overly sweet. Very nice body, dry finish. Great stuff, a top-notch Lambic!

Deep red body with a small pink head, good lacing. Aroma is leather, cherry, and tartness. Flavor has these notes but has a more pronounced cherry flavor. Fairly dry finish. Nothing extreme here other than the price. Solid and well made. Kinda fun to have this next to Sam Adams Cherry Wheat LOL. One looks like cherry soda, the other tastes like it.

Bottle. Pours a lovely reddish colour with a pinkish head. Acidic barnyard aroma with lots of cherry. Also hints of cherry pits in the aroma. Has a sweet malty flavor with lots of cherry and cherry pits. Nutty hints in the flavor aswell. Nutty cherry aftertaste. A lovely one.

Bottle shared with HogTownHarry, blankboy, tupalev & jerc - courtesy of HogTownHarry. Hazy ruby colour with a small pink head. Aroma is funky, sour, barnyardy, medicinal - LOVING IT! Flavour of sour cherry, lemon juice, funky yeast - I’m sure if we’d had this earlier in the tasting my notes would be better, as there was just too much going on in this beer. Just lovely.

750 mL bottle, snifter, bottle 03/2005. A thin, foamy pink head is quick to disperse over a deep and rich burgundy, sanguine hued body. The glass beams red like a cherry Jolly Rancher when held to the light…captivating (the beer, not cherry Jolly Ranchers). Cherry aroma is not lacking as this beer is bursting dark cherry and cherry pit aromas…very sour, very tannic. Farmyard and horse blanket aromas bustle about but fall squarely in line with the other elements, never dominating. Distinct lactic sourness simply adds to the sour and funky party already underway. Warm and bready, even crusty, malt elements really work well here much in the same way I’m so fond of New Glarus Belgian Red (…cherry pie…). Acetic acid also appears to be present, but not enough to make the beer seem pickled. The oak barrels have imparted a very mellow and warming presence to the aroma. The flavor begins sweet and full, making no mistake that the cherries are the star in this beer. Sour (almost licorice) and tannic qualities crush the sweetness down some making this infinitely drinkable. The acidity level is mind-blowing perfect…everything is. Bready malts arrive late and wash into wonderfully long, dry and tart finish. This is reminiscent of a really well made Zinfandel—the actual sweetness is fairly low and the finish dry, but the juicy and fruity flavors keep fooling you into believing that it’s very sweet and rich. While this beer isn’t nearly as sour as the Cantillons or Oud Beersels and not nearly as funky as Hanssens it does something none of those beers manage. It somehow manages to transport the flavor of these fresh picked cherries straight to the glass without disturbing them in the slightest. Mouthfeel, I almost forgot! Very rich and almost syrupy up front, it seems to quickly thin out into a velvety—almost oily—texture as it dries out in the finish. Carbonation seems a bit on the low side, but allows the flavors to be delivered with less interference…I’ll live. I can only begin to imagine how impressive this would be with a rich dark chocolate cake filled with real cherries and coated in a semi-bitter chocolate sauce. ...Drie Fonteinen Schaerbeekse Kriek? ...I like you. *blushes*

Bottle shared with Hogtown Harry, GregClow, Blankboy, and Jerc, Harry’s bottle. Really really funky, sour, funk aroma - I loved it! Deep red, no head. Sour funky cherry taste. Complex too: hints of citrus, tartness, very dry, cake. I certainly don’t do it justice, but this is a wonderful lambic. and a pleasure to drink - and one I could drink the whole big bottle of.

Ruby bodied, tiny white head. Acidic lambicy aroma, cherries in the background. Very dry sour flavour leaves the mouth salivating and puckered slightly. Light grassy-hay undertones, fairly prominent funk, and a bit of lemon like tartness. I enjoyed the taste of this much more than I expected based on the aroma which does not do the flavour justice in my opinion.