Cantillon Kriekenlambik

Brewed by Cantillon
Style: Lambic - Fruit
Brussels, Belgium

Draught Bright red, gorgeous ruby colour with one or two bubbles. Deep superfruit, cherries, very densely flavoured; fusel alcohols, vanilla. Peperkoek, sour cherries, not very sour, pure fruits. Still, I get some oily-like flavours from the cherrykernels. Super lip-smacking titillating fruitacids, and extremely refreshing. Super - I’m repeating myself. Fruitlambic in the best way.

Opaque very dark pink. Headless, uncarbonated for the moment. Extremely fresh nose! Remarkably well extracted cherry flavours, no comparison with the regular bottled kriek that is all about extreme acidity. Quite phenolic this one still, almost clovey, a bit medicinal, bordering plasticy and spicy. Certainly juicy though, but a tannic one at that. Not quite soft, but certainly not rough, yet the finish hints at character to come. Still, in this shape, very good.

On tap @ Bruxellensis. Recolte (Harvest) 2007... The fresh stuff, just tapped the week before, they said. OK then. It was a deep, dark red with a few bubbles on top. Big, black cherry aroma with some wild cherry. Tart, slightly sweet, and raw: very fruity flavor, all cherry, managing only mild acidity, medium body, and a cherry-stem aftertaste. Refreshing and incredibly flavorful.

Tried at Weekend of Spontaneous Fermentation 27/05/06. Dull cherry red body with no head. Sour aged taste of cherry. Liked the Mort Subite Oude Kriek better.

Draught. The body is orange-brown with a small white head. Aroma is complex wood, pine, and citrus. Wonderfully dry earthy flavour with that oak appearing again. Very, very dry now that I think of it. I didn’t get very much fruit in the flavour, not cherry at least, just grapefruit and then some oak on the lips. Sampled at the Weekend of Spontaneous Fermentation on May 28, 2006.

Draft pour
Consumed at the Weekend of Spontaneous Fermentation, Opstal, May 2006
Dark red, mostly clear appearance with a still thin head. Nose is slightly sour, almost muddy, bloody, lightly tinny. However, the nose is quite strong and pungent. Sourness is transparent up front, before exploding on the palate at the back of the tongue... good, strong acidity (like citrus acidity), punch-like, intensely sour and lightly musty, and the fruit shows up almost as a sweet raspberry flavor rather than cherry.

Draught – Clear deep red body; Very sour citrus, wooden nose some very nice cherry behind; Extremely sour body, with not much else then sourness; Into very sour finish only little cherry and some marzipan. Vinegar like in both nose and finish.

[Draft at GBBF 2005] An unclear pink beer with no head - a somewhat artificial look - eventhough I know Cantillon is as far away from artificial as anything can be. The aroma is sour with very strong notes of cherries combined with lesser notes of grapefruit. The flavor has a nice sourness that draws out the mouthwater and has nice notes of both cherries and grapefruit.