Felix Kriek

Brewed by Verhaeghe
Style: Sour Ale
Vichte, West-Vlaanderen, Belgium

Bottle. GBBF2003 (kriek tasting session). Well over ten years old. Bronze brown with a slight haze, thin brown head and moderate condition. Fruity nose with sweet cherry, cherry skins and a prune note that develops with warming. More cherry in the mouth along with caramel and a balancing dry bitter almond flavour. Long dry finish with hints of mouldy cherry skins. Not the finest non-lambic Kriek Ive ever had, but until I find another Crombe Kriek this comes close to perfection.

Bottle at GBBF 05. We had lots of discussion on this, as the bottle we had was a 1992 vintage of the oud kriek, brewed by a different manufacturer to later versions. By all accounts, this is the optimal version, and I certainly enjoyed it. Ruddy, sherry colouring, with a small head. Smells wonderful: sweet, cakey, icing sugar, fruity, marzipan, cherry. Flavour is all of the above, with a small lambic bump near the finish. Predominantly sweet, with only the one noticeable sour moment. Absolutely delicious. Good balance, good flavours. A real highlight.

vintage 1975 @ Kulminator: Cloudy reddish brown with nice lasting head. Strong aroma of ripe fruit, wood, red berries and spices. Flavour is sweet with beautiful long sour finish with dryness. Well balanced.

Vintage 1975@Kulminator. Leathery aroma, sweet, light berries. Golden red, small floaties. Still quite fruity - cherries in spirits, leathery, nutty. Plenty of sweetness left. Smooth mouthfeel. Light horseblanket exhaling. Wonderfull. (rating from the older bottle) Bottled, vintage 1992 @ Akkurat Quite a bit cherry, citus,wood, a hint of blue cheese. Quite sweet, sugar and fruit Full oily body Sweet exit Bordaux color, no head.

GBBF 2003, bottle: Big sweet cherries wafting up immediately - like candy or cherry jello, but with class. Auburn color and a foamy head. Sugary, sweet and syrupy, but balanced by the sourness at the back of the tongue. Thick body, but a short profile. Warming, round body and full mouth feel. Good balance for this beer. "Leaves a carpet of malt in the middle of the tongue", says Lorenzo.

[1975 vintage] Very sour and pleasant. This is definately the best of the three vintages I have tried. The others have been too sweet. Complex sour natural cherry aroma and flavour.Rating: 4.1 --------&# vintage] Too sweet and unbalanced. Deserves a quite low rating .--------& or 1990 vintage] Reddish brown coloured. Quite sweet. Not refreshing anymore. I think it was slightly too old. It had some of this characteristic "too old"-flavour that you find in very old beer. Rating 6-3-6-3-12 (3.0)

Felix Ouderaards Kriekbier, Akkurat, Stockholm; Vintage ~1990, 16 years old
Clean color, mahogany; almost no foam. Strong aroma of cherries, cherry kernels, some malt, kirsch, spicy cookies; the aroma is developing and transforming! Almost still; velvety mouthfeel, some sweetness, cherries and cherry kernels fruitness, a touch of vinegar sourness. The final is not bitter enough, but quite sweet, too simple, with some old wood character. Minimum signs of age.

Soft brown color that glows red yet at the same time is kind of dull. Lots of cherries in the nose with some chocolate and other dark fruit. Light carmel tasting with heavy cookie to start out. Cherries are well balanced with the sugary cookieness. I like it but some more sourness could help