Belle-Vue Kriek

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

Orangey red, thin white head. Nose held notes of cherry (more like red sweedish fish), light oak, and hints of citrus. Sweet cherry and light oak flavor dominates with no sourness I had hoped for. Light bodied, soft carbonation, fruity finish. Not true to form, but ok I suppose. Thanks for sharing Eyedrinkale...

Pours a reddish brown mix with a whitish red head. The smell is of black or maraschino cherries. The taste is a little tart and strongly reminescent of cherries but is not as potent as I was hoping. Finishes well with slight tartness but seemed to be lacking an edge.

Dark red colored, vanishing light red head. Aroma is only cherries with sour bubblegum, too sweet for my taste. Thin to medium bodied. Flavor does not differ from aroma so much: too much cherries with bubblegum and some wooden tones, somehow watery and round ending.

Small pinkish white head. Deep red body. Yoghurty cherry aroma with marzipan notes. Sweet-dry metallic yoghurty cherry taste, a bit artificial, with wooden notes. Mid-bodied. Sharpish mouthfeel. Dry wooden marzipan cherry aftertaste. Decent, but no more. (0.33l draft, The Office Pub, St. Petersburg.)

(bottle) Dark red colour with frothy pink medium head. Strong sourish cherry aroma. Sweety taste with heavy cherry flavour with dry, sour and a little smoky finish. A bit perfumed. One of the better mainstream Krieks.

Bottle: Reddish amber coloured, huge reddish-white head, lasting; sourish-fruity (cherries, no doubt, almonds) nose, only very little "horse-blanket", or "wet-dog" (?) in the background; cherry-dominated beginning, light sourish flavour, moderate fruity aftertaste, short lasting. Not too sweet, quaffable, but nothing worth a detour.......

Hazy brown color with a thin fully diminishing bubbly head. Light sour aroma, hints of cherries. Light sour flavor, barely any noticable fruit.

Long ago, before yuppy culture had fully matured, there existed an “alternate beverage”. It was called Hannsen’s Sodas, and it was good. Rebels against the entrenched carbonated classics could find solace in marginal transparent fruit flavored concoctions – dedicated antipodes to Coca-Cola and Pepsi. As time passed, more and more people, myself included, realized Hannsens’ was a most vile drink. David Brooks’ so called Bobos needed something to fill the vacuous space in their cold, cold hearts to replace the traditional values of family and self-contentment, moving onto newer, healthier and inexplicable ecological beverages like Sobe or Pomme. I never made this switch because I was poor and found little in the new wave of consumerism. Instead I fell back on Big K Pineapple soda which was like pounding a mixture of concentrated sulfuric acid and yellow food coloring. We forgot classics like water, tea and root beer in our zealous reach for new and uncanny drinks. Just the other day I had a terrible flashback to Hansenn’s, caused by an unwitting madeleine. It was the Belle-Vue Kriek; a beer with a startling likeness to Cherry Hansenn’s, both beverages most wicked. It poured a dark purple-red, topped with a wafer thin head that blossomed in a lavender-rose color. The smell was clear; maybe too clear, featuring soda water, processed cherries and sour candies. It smelled a lot like the candy aisle at Wal-Greens, maybe with a hint of strawberry ice cream. Sudsy and sweet, it hits the tongue with a pang of light cherry flavor, and then fades like a bewildering dream. There’s a phantom of wheatiness here that doesn’t fit in at all, and the whole experience makes this nothing more than a meek and weak kriek. It is a circular return to the proximal beverage of my youth: a rasping, wheezing attempt at cherry soda, better left to the judgment of history than a reincarnation in beer.