Cantillon Kriek

Brewed by Cantillon
Style: Lambic - Fruit
Brussels, Belgium

750 ml bottle from Sam’s in Chicago, bottled in 2005 (and transported back to Nova Scotia via Ontario then consumed in New Brunswick, just to rub it in to the Canadian Food Inspection Agency who banned this stuff from being sold in Canada and the provincial government liquor administrations who consider it illegal to transport alcohol across provincial boundaries so they can maximize their precious tax revenues). Hazy bright red colour with a fully diminishing fizzy white head. Mmmm, Cantillon aroma - horseblanket, leather, yeasty, barnyard, and brie - plus fresh sour cherries. Flavour is tart cherrystaight through with some accompanying yeasty funk. Not as assertively sour as I expected, but still wonderful stuff. Light bodied, very dry and refreshing. 4 days later, CFIA, and I’m still alive...

Botte: Dark cherry, wood, light lacing. Nose of funky fruity brett and vinous malt. Light hoppy notes too. The flavor is more tart than bile, super vinous, super sour. No fruit present. The flavor is also bilish. Finishes zesty, sharp and hard. I’ll pass on this here. I like sour, but only when it blends something good together. They make vinegar as a stand alone product for a reason.

This beer is too sour to be drinkable for me. I skip this one in the future. Or maybe i had a bad bottle but i don’t think so because a lot of people here confirm what i experienced. You like it or you don’t.. well i don’t.

[bottle] Aroma=Sour cheery oak balsamic vinegar. Appearance=Hazy dark cherry. Flavour=Very sour vinegary vineous cherry oak. Feel=Light body, mouth puckering.

Bottled - Swan and Rushes Leicester. A bright red, ever so slightly hazy beer which has no obvious carbonation in the glass. The aroma has great acidity with cherries and sharp lemony aromas. The taste is also sour. There is puckering sharpness. Fruit seems fairly minimal against the sour funkiness going on. Very nice though.

Musty, wet blanket, funky, woodsy, slight sour cherry, and raw beef? in the nose... complex and interesting. Very assertively sour up front (for me) pick out some spicy astringency, apple peals, and sour cherries in the flavor. Dry mouthfeel with lingering sourness, low carbonation, and acidity. Interesting beer, but lambics are still new to me so I need some warming up to them.

Bottle@Plan B, Copenhagen. Almost flat, little carbonation. Aroma and flawour mainly of cherries expressed in huge sourness that pretty much rules the day. I’d like something more...

Bottle (375ml). Shared with tupalev, my bottle. Poured cloudy deep brick red with a small head. Nice sour aroma, funky yeast, sour cherries - very nice! Taste is very sour indeed - cherries, lemon juice, yeast, even a hint of sour milk in the finish - very fruity, but an oddly quick finish for a lambic. Average body, even a tad weak in the back end - very acidic mouthfeel, only mildly carbonated, no aftertaste or even much of a linger - love sour cherry character, though. VERY drinkable beer - perhaps a wee bit simple, and I’d like the sourness to be more aggressive and longer lasting, but hell, a lovely quaff, so no quibbling.