Cantillon Lou Pepe Pure Kriek

Brewed by Cantillon
Style: Lambic - Fruit
Brussels, Belgium

Vintage 2005; bottled 2005. A bloody red pour, thick and silty, with a frothy pink foam making it seem lighthearted, if only for a moment. Stable and cheese aroma with a fat cherry skin sweetness. A hint of brown sugar and a brazen dry wood tannin presence to balance the funk, briefly; but, the musty cave and farm aromas tend to outlast the characters of the malts and fruit, in minerals, gouda rind, a funky blend of mildew and cinnamon, and rotten fruit. The sharpness and foulness it shows is arresting, but it seems a little young yet; many of the older Cantillons in my memory are notably more settled in the nose, allowing the nuances ample spotlight but filtering them through a laid-back smoothness. That’s really a very small complaint, though; the seabreeze saltiness and peppery briny qualities are forceful, and characteristically attention-commanding.

Flavor is more notable for its splintery wooden dryness than for its sourness. And it’s a barren flavor; not an oaken sweetness or a spirit-imbued depth, but a harsh, dirty, rotten wood in rainwater kind of woodiness. The natural acidity of the lambic and fleshy qualities of the cherry engender a hugely tannic, almost blood-textured wine-like impression. The spice of cinnamon resting on apples, cherries, and blood oranges provides a lovely sweetening dust, momentarily, before a veritable flood of balsamic vinegar washes over it and suffocates it unmercifully, and with malice. The wooden bitterness creates a hard complimentary flavor to the wild acidity of the cherries, and it really composes itself well, if certainly with a somewhat harrowing countenance.

Body is incredibly full while being quite lean. Firmly carbonated, staunch and tight, and enamel-eating in acidity, though the thickness of the malt and cherry characters is somewhat more prominent than the more simple acidity often found in a flanders red or a gueuze. Finishes in a clinical harshness of vinegar, cheese and blood, with extreme puckering length. Again, the Cantillon expression of the style, especially when comparably young, is one of naked exposure to the wilderness in all its violence and glory. It’s memorable, and it’s monumental.

Bottle into flute. Pours a dark red, with no head to speak of other than a faint rim of light pinkish bubbles around the edge of the glass. Aroma really sings with sour cherries, rich and tart, a bit dry. Taste is sour cherry from the beginning, dry and tart, the sharpness balanced by the very full cherry note, balanced and delicious. Because of the balance, one of the most drinkable Cantillons I’ve had. Superb.

I taste a great deal of apples and cinnamon in this one, with sour cherries on the side. Smells the same plus funk and dry wood. Medium acidity - not as much as I expected, but that’s not at all a bad thing. Very good.

Bottle, vintage 2004 (bottled in 2006). Pours a cloudy red with a pretty pink head that dissipated quickly. Aroma of sour fruit, tartness, barnhouse funk, and cinnamon. Flavor of sour fruit, cinnamon, oak/wood, and apple skins. Quite tasty but this really wore on my palate after a glass. Very acidic, like many Cantillons are. Good, just hard to drink.

Dark red beer with a medium pink head. The strong cherry flavor is very sour and tart. a good sipping beverage.

Bottle 75 cl. (Bottled 2005). Almost clear dark red color with moderate reddish head. Aroma sour, red cherry. Medium body. Taste this is really "kriekbier" dry, full cherry, sourness, some wood notes... G O O D.

75cl, exclusive brew Anno 2006, from De Hopduvel Gent, complex, balanced, cloudy, nearly no head, very good sour Kriek, but expensive

tasted with the phoenix crew. 2001 bottle from sparky27... pours a watered down raspberry puree color with a foamy pinkish white head. smells like a wet basement mixed with vinegary sour notes, cherries and skin, a little yeast and a bunch of minerals. the flavor is rather like a tart red cherry with all the sugars sucked out of it... quite tart and very dry, tannic... somewhat like wood aged red wine vinegar, fruity, yeasty, lots of stoney/mineral-y goodness and an intensely sour and dry finish. light to medium body. super prickly carbonation. almost parching mouth feel. beautiful complex specimen...