Boon Oude Kriek

Brewed by Brouwerij F. Boon
Style: Lambic - Fruit
Lembeek, Belgium

Clear reddish of color with a reddish head. An aroma with red berries and sour notes. A flavor with raspberries, sour notes and red beeries.

375 ml bottle purchased mail order from Liquor Max in Loveland, CO. Best before 22.12 (based on other reviews, I take this to mean December 2012). Pour is strawberry deep red with a fluffy pink head that falls pretty quick. It is the exact same pink that is on the top of the label. Wild looking beer. Aroma of musty, funky, yeasty and cherries. Awesome nose. Taste is sour, tart funkiness with a very solid foundation of cherries. Everything works well together and is blended beautifully. Palate is medium, with a nice sharp tartness to the finish. Crisp, fruity, complex, refreshing. Wow, this was delicious.

Bottle (2003): Poured a ruby red with a medium pink head. The aroma is sour cherries. The taste is tart cherry and old vinegar twist. Makes my mouth tingle.

(3/2/08) Bottle sample at Zythos Bier Festival 2008 in Sint Niklaas. 2006 bottle. Deep red with a pretty pink head. Aroma of cherries and some wood. Sour cherries flavor yet not completely dry. Finish is a bit too mild. Medium-bodied. A good Kriek with lots of real fruit.

Bottle: Pours a dark ruby color with a nice explosive head with large bubbles and a thin lacing. The nose is tart with some some light champagne vinegar notes, cherry pit, ripe fruit skin and some light sweet malts. The flavor is balanced between cherry and tart yeast. Ample esters, a decent body and some funky cheese and leather notes in the tail. Yummy!

Best By Date March 2026; Sampled March 2008
Pretty well carbonated as a careful pour yields a two-finger thick, pink tinged, light colored head. The beer is a dark cherry color and shows a lightly hazed, bright red color when held up to the light as well as an aggressive carbonation with lots and lots of CO2 bubbles coming out of solution. The aroma has a nice tartness to it that is mostly lactic in character but seems to have a touch of something like uriatic acid too. Somehow this smells a bit tannic, slightly woody and a bit like cherry skins, though it does not have a pronounced fruitiness to it. As I dig through the aroma the cherry becomes a bit more evident within the sour aromatics; cherry flesh aromatics and tart cherry notes subtly contribute to the aroma. Towards the finish the nose gets a bit funky with barnyard notes, some musty slightly moldy cotton aromas, damp leather. There is even a touch of faint, toasty grain notes that assert themselves after I spend a protracted time deeply inhaling the aroma. While the cherry notes are not pronounced, there are times were I can clearly smell their signature, even if for only a half second or so and then the Lambic notes take over again.

Nicely tart up front, but a fleshy, though still quite sour, cherry flavor and texture is quite noticed. The beer has some tannic structure and body to it that provides for a touch of heft. This is very well carbonated and this adds to an effervescent texture that tends to scrub the palate. Cherry skin flavors, a slight woodiness and a touch of Brettanomyces character (musty, slightly earthy, with a bit of barnyard funk) tends to dry out the finish. Though I guess dry out, is the wrong way to say this as this was never sweet to begin with. The sourness in the flavor is a bit more balanced between Lactic and cherry derived tartness than the aroma might have suggested. As the beer warms up a bit, the fleshy, cherry flavors become a bit more noticeable; there is a substantial fruit character to this beer despite it being bone dry.

Another nice beer from Boon, at times I have written this brewery off because of its non-Oude products, but he really can produce tasty, authentic Lambic. I especially like how rich the cherry flavor is here, but without being sweet at all.

Rerate: much better than first time now that it’s chilled to a decent temperature. deep ruby red, lovely bright pink head. traditional lambic flavor, but not so hardcore sour as some others. refreshing "fruitness" without so much sweetness. And I’m the only one at the tasting that doesn’t hate this. In fact, I love this stuff.

Original: Got to try this since one of my friends randomly ordered it, and surprise surprise she didn’t like it, so I had to help finish it. Very decent kriek as it turns out, you could do a lot worse.

Pours a nice cherry red with a half-inch slow diffusing bubbly head. Aroma of sour cherries, alfalfa, and some oak. Lively carbonation and tart flavors on the palate. Slightly astringent in the finish. Sour cherries, unripe persimmons. Excellent!