Verhaeghe Echte Kriekenbier

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

An odd example of an odd style. More malty than most sour ales. Decent body, but I don’t like flavored sours much. Not my thing. Better as it warms.

Deep black cherry soda hue. Small purplish head. Definate vinegar, sour cherry, medicinal nose. Nice funk, acidic, vinegar, light in body, dark cherry, wood, cherry pit, funky sour finish. Crisp and refreshing, but simple, and kind of boring. Finishes with a dark, lingering, over-ripened cherry flavor.

RATING #900!!!!! ...and I think I may have poisoned myself... which is usually my initial reaction to a Flemish Sour, a style I admit to not understanding. This one’s pretty good. It pours a beautiful ruby red with a frothy pink head. The nose is all sour cherries. The flavor is at first like cherry cough medicine, but it broadens out to include vanilla, other fruits, a bit of earthiness... a fairly complex taste experience followed by a tart, puckering finish. Good brew.

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Bottle. Red to purple color crystal clear. Pinkish head. No lacing. Nice cherry aroma. Sourish in flavor. A bit thin in body. Puckering. Decent. Thanks Cornboy!!

(Best by June/07/2005) Very cherry in color with a nice pink head. The palate is dry with a touch of iron and horse blanket. At 6.8% this beer is dangerously drinkable. Not a world classic, but well above average.

The aroma is sour cherries and apples. The appearance is a dark red color with a pink head. The flavor is somewhat sour but mostly sweet with some sour cherries, vanilla, and apples. The carbonation tends to get in the way a little bit. Overall this is a little sweeter than many Ive sampled from this style but its still very good.

Best before June 6th 2005 bottle. Don’t know why most readily available Flemish Sour Ales in the U.S. are so heavily filtered, but this one sure is. Still, a ruddy-strawberry rhubarb color, with some medium dark beige/brown tones and a small but somewhat persistent off-white head. Aroma of new plastic, light cherries, a touch of acetic acid and light oak suggestions. Flavor, to my surprise, is not as simple and cherryish as I would have expected. Having not particularly cared for the Vichtenaar, I thought I would like this even less (I don’t like fruit in lambics or sour ales as much as I like the classic rendition). But the cherries do not dominate, there is a lightly sugary flavor, but the beer does present a decent oakiness, with some good instances of sourness along the way. It’s nothing that knocks your socks off. Lightly tart yeast notes, oak and vinegar notes mix with the cherries on the finish. Strange chalk or gum-like consistency to it, almost like chewing a cherry candy chew. Much better stuff out there (can you say "Alexander"), can’t see myself drinking this again.

As I was pouring a giant pink fizzy head erupted from the glass with audible fizziness atop a dark cherry colored clear body. After the head fizzled down quickly to a coating of bubbles there was no lace left about the glass. The aroma was of slightly sweet cherries and also quite a bit of tartness. Very sweet cherry flavor here similar to cherry syrup. The finish is tart and tangy with more cherry flavor. Mouthfeel here is a bit thin and the over carbonation doesn’t help either. I can see being in the mood for one of these but not drinking one after another.