Cantillon Kriek

Brewed by Cantillon
Style: Lambic - Fruit
Brussels, Belgium

From the bottle.

Pours a cloudy cherry pink with a soft-pink head, some floating material.

Both the aroma and the flavor are well-adjusted sour cherry lambic; lovely and deeply refreshing from the very first sip; no burn-in time for the tastebuds needed here as with of the harder-core sour lambics. Nonethless the beer does not strike me as overly seet and indeed intensifies in both sourness and in a dry woodines on the finish.

We don’t have the full complexity here that we do with Oud Beersel Oude Kriek, but this is a lovely beer with no out-front flaws and it is a pleasure to drink.

Dark red appearance. Somewhat sweet and mellow flavour. Finish is dominated by citrus and quite sour. An extremely refreshing beer.

This beer offers a sour acidic aroma consisting of cherries and yeast. It is a rose colored liquid with no head but decent lacing. This acidic solution is very tart and has a healthy cherry taste.

A nearly perfect example of what a kriek should be. Which to choose? Cantillon, 3F, Hanssens? Boon? Why choose? Have one of each!

Deep, dark red, barely a head at all. Highly sour nose - maybe slightly cherry, but it’s not obvious nor is it particularly inviting. Very, very tart - one of the most sour ales I’ve ever had! Hard to imagine having to drink an entire bottle of this stuff! It definetly needs some kind of food accompaniment. Not very complex, just sour, slightly cherried, low carbonation...Not my favorite.

[re-rate: had the remainder of the bottle with a meal today, and I enjoyed it a lot more - the tannic qualities and driness served as good palate cleansers and really enhanced the taste of the food - also, with my palate alternating between the flavors of the food and the beer, it seemed much less over the top/intense - this is really wonderful stuff] Dark, purple/red color with minimal carbonation, therefore minimal lace - very "wild" aroma, with brett funk/cheesiness in abundance, along with huge amounts of oak, cherries, barnyard/earth/mustiness - very tart and extremely dry, giving it wine-like character without it actually tasting like wine (if that makes sense) - the funk is all over this (I wish I’d remember to buy cheese to have with this) - woodiness, sour cherries - I’ve been liking the sour beers lately, but this may be a bit too much for me.

Pours a deep ressish pink with a thoroughly pink head that dissipates quickly but leaves some lacing. A very aromaticly tart nose with cherries, almonds and vanilla (from the pits) and some typical Cantillon terroir of barnyard animals. The body is thin and the mouthfeel dry, but the CO2 really gives this an enjoyable texture. The flavors match the nose but the cherries really just add to the dimension of the brett without taking it over as the fruit does in many lesser beers. It finishes extremely tart with some notes of sherry and a lingering oak character. Just amazing stuff.

Vintage 2002. I can see why this is a very good beer, very good aromas of wild yeast and rotten fruit, lots of horseblanket and a bit of cherry/cranberry. But this one is just to sour for me on the stomach (kept me awake for half a night...pfff). So if you like to try it, don’t finish the whole bottle with just 2 people. Tastes very good though: tart and acidic of course, but also a lot of classical earthy lambic notes. Excellent beer but why oh why is it so sour!