De Ranke Kriek

Brewed by Brouwerij De Ranke
Style: Sour Ale
Dottignies/Dottenijs, Belgium

The body is the color of a bisected ruby red grapefruit, clear upon the first pour and increasingly hazy as the bottle nears its end. A foamy, fizzy, off-white head settles slowly to a wispy film with a thin edge. Sudsy lace pools back into the liquid from which it was spawned. The aroma is as divine as expected, exceedingly tart, juicy red cherries being the obvious focal point. Dusty barnyard yeast lends a dry, funky, lambic-like character, while notes of soft, vanilla laden oak soften things up considerably. Flavors are mouth puckering and sour up front, fading into softer, sweeter cherries at the mid-point, and ramping back up towards intensely tart on the finish. Oaky vanilla and damp, sour, farmhouse wood notes linger on the finish. The body shows more substantial than a typical lambic, no doubt due to the slightly increased sugar content. Light to moderate carbonation works wonderfully in this brew. I’m thinking Hanssens Oude Kriek cut with New Glarus Belgian Red, 80/20. You can’t go wrong with something like that, in my book. Fantastic beer.

Bottle. Reddish beer with a pinkish head. Huge dusty cobweb aroma with lots of tart cherry. Tart cherry flavor with oak, dust, and nice acetic backing. Medium bodied. Acetic tartness lingers with cherry, dust, and earth.

Bottle shared with GregClow, Hogtown Harry, Jerc, Blankboy, and Garthicus, courtesy of Harry. Fantastic sour and tart aroma. Almost pink, hazy, like tomato juice, small white head. Great taste - very sour - mouth puckering. Some spicy notes as well and of course cherries. Terrific.

750mL bottle. Pours cranberry juice color, capped with a moderate sized off white head. Moderately tart, woody, musty aroma, with a hint of sour cherry. Flavor is very dry, with moderate tartness, complimented by cherry, grapefruit, orange, oak and lemon. Long, dry tart finish. Nice beer.

Cloudy, murky, reddish-brown hue, with a reddish-beige head, yeasty, funky brett, sour black cherry nose, with some barnyard, wet oaky winey notes, with a tart cherry, wildberry aroma follows through on a medium-bodied palate of a wild yeasty funk, tart, acidic, fruity cherry character, with some raspberry, cheery sourness, some winey, wet oakiness, hint of zesty lemon, leading towards a tart, fruity, cherryish sourness finish.

Bottle shared with HogTownHarry, blankboy, tupalev, jerc & garthicus - courtesy of HogTownHarry. Hazy ruby-pink. Aroma is funky and tart, like a spicy and yeasty cherry vinegar. Flavour isn’t quite as funky as the aroma suggests, but it’s pretty damn tart, with big sour cherry notes and a drying, yeasty finish. Perhaps a bit too bracing, but still pretty nice.

Shared with HogTownHarry, GregClow, Tupalev,Jerc & Blankboy -- courtesy of HogTownHarry. Appearance: Cherry red with a small white head. Aroma: Sour and yeasty. Flavour - Sour (yippie!) cherry, seriously lovely beer. Mmmmm. Thanks Harry.

Bottle (750ml) shared with HogTownHarry, GregClow, tupalev, jerc & garthicus -- courtesy of HogTownHarry. Pours a murky red with an average size diminishing pinkish-white head. Nice aroma of tart cherries, light spices, dry funky yeast and some sourness. Flavour: TART! Yeah! Tart cherries along with some spices, wood and funky yeast -- earthy, acidic and dry but very drinkable. Wow, I was not expecting to like this this much -- this is great stuff!