Belle-Vue Kriek

Brewed by Belle-Vue (InBev)
Style: Lambic - Fruit
Sint-Pieters-Leeuw, Belgium

Bottle (330ml). In a Maredsous stem glass. Pours a fairly cloudy, deep red, almost cola coloured. The head is thin, white, tinge of red, quick dispersing, bit of lacing and a gruel remnant on top. Aroma surprisingly sour, like a cheap white wine too long open in the bottle, sour cherry note - for the life of me, I can’t smell beer. Tart taste, but not as sour as nose warned - mild sour cherry flavour with an artificial cherry over top, hint of sweet wine, touch of malt (maybe wishful thinking) - a touch brackish. A little astringent and oily in the mouth, but elusive on the palate. Would only drink in summer.

Draught at the Belgian Cafe in Perth. Looks pretty cool-- clear ruby-brown with a pink head that lasted the duration. Cherry candy aroma dominates (like children’s cough medicine). All sweet cherry on the palate. Very interesting and fun to try, but one is enough (toooo sweet!)

vintage 2001. mild vinegar aroma. pours a dark brown with amber highlights and a thin brown head. the taste of cherries cut the sour, but the fruit was not overpowering.

Bottle. Dark red/brown colour. Lasting pinkish head. Cherry aroma. A bit metallic. Notes of malt. Cherry flavour. A bit sour. Slightly bitter finish. Palate feels slightly greasy.

Belgium’s best selling kriek, but unfortunately also a product which has not much in common with the real kriek. The taste is too sweet and too sticky. This is a pity, as the Belle Vue base lambik is of very high quality, but blended with other beers to produce most of their beers, including this kriek. Sugar has obviously been added to please the consumers of the coca-cola generation, but this takes away all the characteristics of a real kriek which should be sour, acidic and uncompromisingly refreshing. For real krieks, try Girardin, Cantilon or 3 Fonteinen, to name but a few.

dark red, a lot of lacing, firm head. Sampled in a smoky bar so the aroma wasnt quite there for me, nice mouthfeel, sticky and yeasty and obviously cherries, avarage but nice [re-rate] 2003 vintage, loads of cherries in the aroma, small head. Thicker palate then in the fresh sample. It has lost a bit of carbonation and replaced with a bit more complexity. Better when slightly aged

Deep ruby beer with a short lived white head that leaves some lacing. Very candy-like cherry aroma. Flavour is more interesting, with some hops to give a somewhat dry finish to the sweet cherry.

Tasted 04/06/2005. 330ml bottle Regional’s, Wellington. Pale, fizzy, reddish-hue a big light pink head. Sweet aroma that is like ripe cherries and champagne. Light mouthfeel. Dry sweet flavour up front without the tartness of the Framboise (and again this is more like like champagne than your average beer). Little noticeable hop or malt influence left from what must be a pretty hungry yeast.