Selins Grove The Phoenix Kriek

Brewed by Selins Grove Brewing Co.
Style: Fruit Beer
Selinsgrove, Pennsylvania USA

Objectively speaking: A sharp fruit beer that offers a very serious compromise between refreshment and intensity.
I like: This was from Stine’s handbottles via Glouglou and it seems to have held up very well. The carbonation is still very appropriate. Considerable tart bite towards the finish. Well extracted cherry flavours. 8% alcohol never hampers the refreshment.
I dislike: Not much to dislike about this was besides its rarity. It was much drier than I expected and relatively complex in its maltiness with earthy, toffee and a robust palate to boot.

(Hand bottle, courtesy of mj) Pours a cloudy reddish-brown with a long-lasting tall rocky beige head. Aroma of black cherry, earthiness, and almonds. Flavor of fresh sweet-n-sour black cherries and malt. Straight forward cherries! Thanks Mike!

Hand-bottle sampled in Nov. 2006: Pours a dark ruby mahogany with a thin wispy off-white head. Rich, sweet, full cherry and caramel malty aroma. Body starts thick and fruity with a great balance of sweet malt and cherries with a tart earthy fruitiness and doughy yeastiness with a hint of cinnamon. Great complexity and fullness of palate. An awesome kriek!

Hand Bottled... TITW Part Deux... This beer rocks!... Burnt orange ale with no head. The aroma is of fresh, black cherries; no funk. Very nice, tart ’n’ tangy flavor. Only moderately sour. Medium-bodied with subtle carbonation. A joy to drink. Thanks to kmweaver for supplying the bottles!

Light hazy deep reddish colour with a pinkish head. Cherry fruity aroma with notes of marzipan and almonds and vague hints of yeast. Sweet and tart cherry fruity flavor with a light dry and yeasty finish.

My Bottom Line:
Earth-covered cherries and raisins sensuously ride caramel maltiness until balsamic tartness sweeps the palate and allows more fruitiness for a solo performance. This is a sumptuous Fruit Beer which must be simply wondrous on tap at the brewpub.

Further Personal Perceptions:
-A creamy sheet of foam decorates the murky red.
-There is a slight problem with the nose in this bottle (it’s too earthy and vegetal), but I suspect this will not be the case on tap at the brewery.
-This is better balanced than the New Glarus fruit beers and probably of the same quality when it’s in its finest form.
-The finish is not sour, but just tart enough to make you lick your gums and dive in for a even bigger sip.
-The mouthfeel is luxuriously round, yet very drinkable. A perfect middle ground.

Hand-bottled.

Fresh growler courtesy of kramer17801. Pours red/mahogany with a sparse whitish pink head. Smells of cherries, some oaky hints and sugar. Tastes of tarte cherries and bitter pits. No sugariness or sweetness present. Mouthfeel is tarte with a cherry pie like finish. This one would really benefit from some oak and brett.

March 2008 batch
Very dry, tart and puckery, the fruity is still quite pitty and stemy, there’s a ton of cherry skin tannins which give it a moderate to heavy astringency, not seen so much in last year’s batch, and the fruit is much less sweet, much more dry, more coarse, more pitty and woody, even a little ashy.

March 2007 batch
Incredible dark purple and dark pink murky appearance, speckled tan, almost red hued, thin filmy head, sustaining a film throughout the drink. I want to call the texture syrupy but that brings to mind the wrong ideas. Perhaps full and thick without being heavy is the best way to describe it... the sourness is mild but easily noticed, and well-appreciated, but there’s also this amazing oak dryness at times, mingling with the semi-tart black cherry ’pitty’ flavor. This beer mixes the natural sweetness of the fruit (which really isn’t sweet as in sugary, but sweet as in ’ripe’) with a light sourness as well, lightly lactic and creamy... a pure fruit beer if there ever were one. Really this is one of the best pure fruit beers I’ve had, not candy-like, not overly sweet, it lets the natural sourness of the cherries come through, from the juicy, green flavors of under-ripe bing cherries to the tart, plum-like flavors you find in over-ripe black cherries. Has a lingering, rich and creamy finish. Bit of a faint nose at first with a full glass, though when there’s some room in there, when it’s about 1/4 full, the rich, ripe black cherries and little notes of wood and vanilla and cream show up big time... overall this beer is just an incredible use of fruit, and deserves the praise it has received..