Oud Beersel Oude Kriek

Brewed by Brouwerij Oud Beersel
Style: Lambic - Fruit
Beersel, Belgium

I suspect this bottle is from 2004 as it says best before 2024 (!). Beautiful cherry aroma, cheese, nice tartness and brett, slightly sour but mostly cherry. Pours is probably the most beautiful I’ve ever, with a deep glowing red body and large, wonderfully pink head. The large head shows in the palate though as the beer is a bit too aggresive and carbonated, coming across almost as seltzer when cold. No matter, though. As it warms, the beer calms down and offers cherry up front with barnyard tastes and a slightly harsh finish. Once the cherries past its a very dry, acidic afair; red-wine vinegar, perhaps. I’d love to taste this after a few (ten) more years aging.

Beautiful deep cherry color with a nice pinkish head. Acidic, vinegar with a touch of cherries in the first mouthful. The flavors mellow out a little bit in subsequent sips. Still very vinegary, quite sour & tart, but with a nice element of cherry.

Bottle: Pink head and lace atop a ruby red clear body. The nose is ripe with funky cheese, tart cherry and barny horse notes, the dusty belgian experience. The flavor is tart and lightly sour, not overly puckering nor sweet, just dry but very drinkable example. Doesn’t quite push forward the envelope on any front though. Quaffable, enjoyable, yum yum.

2002 vintage pre frank boon brewer reddish color w/ a nice thick pink head and some good lacing. heavily sour cherry aroma some barnyard notes as well. heavily tart palate coats well. Flavor is simiilar to the 3fountains i had earlier tonight (share a yeast strain) dominated by a tart cherry then some great spices round out a flavor that will include a touch of lemon zest and green apples. Good stuff.

Nose is rich with cherry but tempered with some peppery sharpness, old socks, and sour yeast. Pours a deep cherry red - quite opaque. The flavour is intense - sharp, sweet, sour, dry, biting - every taste sensation you can have all muddled up together. Flavours of home made lemonade, cooking apples, and even some toffee sweetness to take the edge off. Not a lot of cherry in the flavour. As a recent convert to lambics, I like this a lot.

Huge tart cherry aroma makes your mouth water. Flavor is the perfect blend of sweet and tart cherries, with hints of wine. Extremely good!

From the bottle.

Pours a lovely cloudy cranberry with small fizzy white head.

What a staggeringly good beer. I’ve gone through bottle after bottle of this; I keep trying to age it but I keep digging into the cellar before I get there. All of the expected elements are present in the aroma and flavor - aroma of vinegar, sour cherry, wine cask, and barnyard lambic; taste that is deeply sour like biting into a lemon, tongue-drying woody tannins, slightly metallic at the end of the sip on the back of the throat; hints of cherry aroma more than strong cherry flavor. As the beer warms, the light, refreshing, and splendidly sour champaigne nature yields to the wild lambic underneath.

Wonderful!

On tap. On tap (Uber tavern in Seattle), this is a strikingly different beer. It’s far sweeter, with the cherries far more apparent in the aroma and the flavor alike. The woody dryness of the bottled version isn’t there, nor is the mouth-puckering lemon juice sourness. Instead I get a very nice, but rather....easy drinking...fruit beer. Feeling generous I would give it a 4.0 maybe on tap, but the rich complexity is missing and it wouldn’t pull the 4.4.

Additional note: the difference described above almost certain comes from the comparison of the old version from the old brewery (bottle) to the new version from the new brewery (tap). See http://www.ratebeer.com/Forums/Topic-81709.htm

one of the best kriek i have had. while chickie, it’s not that sweet as to lose its lambic character. with just enough hint of cherry, this brew is well balanced.