Verhaeghe Echte Kriekenbier

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

OK, I’m a sucker for red-colored beer. The color is cough-syrup red, with the gravity of water. Pours thin, smells of slight cherries and old oak and tastes soft and artificial. The dryness on the tongue borders on unpleasant, then comes this strange (but nice) lively carbonation - strange. This is the lowest rated of the three primary beers from this brewery for a reason - it lacks the boldness and character of the others.

Bottle (Echt Kriekenbier): Ruby hue with fading fizzy pink head and little lace. The aroma has notes of oak wood and cherries (duh) with a hint of lemon zest, sweetbread, and dusty yeast esters. The taste is quite mild all things considered. The cherry taste is only mild in tartness and the woody nature is more subdued than expected from the aroma. The brown ale background seems to flatten out the punch of the Kriek. A note of clove on the finish. The feel is fizzy and crisp with a lingering dryness. While quaffable, I stick with my favorites from the style.

11.2 oz bottle (best before 06.07.05): dark, maroon body with a pale pink, dense and creamy film that persists throughout. Strong, tart cherry skin aroma, woody & earthy. Nice tart flavours right on the tip of the tongue, turning acidic in the end, but stays fruity. A cherry champagne-like quality on the palate: crisp carbonation and a sweet tingling effervescence. Nice, but not quite as complex as the greatest of the Flemish Sours…

Deep red body, thin off-white head. Fruit skin aroma, very woody and musty, with a sulfuric twang that smells like artificial fart spray (ugh). The sulfuric character is also notable in the flavor and lends a strange funk to the sour, thin, woody body. There’s a bit of cherry tartness but overall this feels watered-down. I don’t like this one as well as I liked the Vichtenaar Flemish Ale.

Dark red color with no head. Cherry aroma. Very old, cherry taste, like they are old to the point of mushiness, but not so far gone that they are rotten. Odd presence of malt as well. It didn’t strike me as sour.

Acidic cherry smell, more acidic than other Flemish Ales. The cherry is so tart I have trouble actually gauging the flavor because my saliva glands are so busy freaking out I can’t taste anything. The carbonation is pretty intense here, enough it seems to affecting the flavor slightly. Very funky/dank flavor underneath those cherries, rather interesting actually. Not quite on par with say...the Petrus, but fairly tasty nonetheless.

Pours reddish brown with a fizzy pink head. Aroma is musty cherries. Flavor is sligtly tart and is of cherries, wood, and some funky taste with maybe cinnamon. Mouthfeel is carbonated, like champagne.

Bright red coloured body with a thin off-white head with pink and copper tints. Aroma of tart cherries, malt, alcohol and a pungent sweetness. Medium-bodied; Tart cherry flavour up front with a short sweetness and not much malt-one dimensional. Aftertaste sharp and bitter from the cherries-not left smooth! Overall, a decent cherry lambic-not smooth or refined, but good to try this rare beer! I sampled this 33 cL bottle purchased from Whole Foods in Vienna, Virginia on 29-August-2004.