Verhaeghe Echte Kriekenbier

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

[cask at GBBF 06] Aroma is dominated by cherry with some musky aromas and a faint acidity also a little lactic. full body with a sweet and tart finish. A little on the sweet side and I’d prefer a more agressive sourness.

Draft at GBBF ’06. Dark red with a white head. No, it has a faint pink tinge to it. Cheese and sour cherry aroma. Vinegary sourness, but not overpowering as it blends wonderfully with the sweetness of the real cherries. Superb.

Bottled. Ruby red colour, minor head. Aroma of cherry and alcohol (cherry liquor). Minor hints of burnt sugar. Flavour is strong cherry and alcohol. Some cookies in aftertaste. Strong cherry in aftertaste. Tasted almost like the sweet Madeira Wines on Madeira island. Brutal kriek, but yet again very nice.

On draught at The White Horse, Parson’s Green. Red-brown colour with a small, but quite creamy off-white head. Sour fruit and yoghurt aroma. Nice and sharp sour flavours, fruit is very prominent, soothing sweetness underneath. Medium-bodied and quite fizzy. A wonderful beer for a hot summer’s day.

Deep rich ruby red with an effervescent fast-fading pink head. Aromas of fresh mashed chokecherries (I’m serious-- this reminded me immediately of the smell in the kitchen when my dad made chokecherry jam when I was a kid) and something musty/earthy. Fresh sweet & sour cherry juice flavour with a definite sour finish that squeezes the saliva from your mouth in the first few sips. There is more here though, something woody and earthy and faintly yeasty too. Beguiling and different and quite good.

11.2oz bottle - best before 4/14/06. Pours a reddish/brown color with a slightly pink bubbly head. Good amount of cherries in the aroma. Somewhat sour smelling as well. And maybe a little mustiness. The cherries also come through quite prevalently in the taste, but not over-powering and not too sweet. Good amount of malt flavors as well as the oak. Somewhat sour. Fairly well balanced.

Lovely sour cherry flavour. finishes same, with a lingering palate which, if it were a gutter lager, would offend. here, however, it merely tastes like another.

Aroma is both sour balsamic and sweet and sour cherries. Body is a red-tinted brown and holds a diminishing thumb thick pinkt-tinted white head. For is syrupy sweet cherries and a dash of funky fruit mash and sourness. Far less sour than other Flemish Sours, but pretty damn funky tasting like MSG laden baby corn. Has a bit of a metallic twang int he finish that doesn’t belong, but not a bad beer really.