Verhaeghe Echte Kriekenbier

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

Aroma of cherries and wood, bit winey. Reddish coloured, offwhite lasting head. Taste is fruity (cherries), winey, sweet, some light sourness and woody. Fresh and dry palate. Okay, but lacking complexness and balance.

In short: A “session” Flemish Sour with a nice cherry character. Nice brew.
How: Botte 330ml. Consumed with a with a little age on it.
The look: Cloudy dark red topped by a beige ring of foam
In long: The pleasant nose is oaky and has quite a bit of cherry. Taste is dominated by cherries and oak with none coming out on top. There is also an unusual basil-like herbal sensation. A light flavour of toasted bread and caramel in the back. A moderate mouth drying tannic character. Body is lean, carbonation it prickly. Sourness level is low-medium for the style. Flemish Sours are usually not the type of beer I could drink all night long but this one is an exception. For the style it is not very intense but it makes up for it in drinkability. I think it is underrated but this is not surprising because sour ales tend to be rated according how intense they are and this one is really not very intense. May not be the most intense Flemish Sour but how easy a beer is to drink affects how I appreciate a beer. On the other hand, how easy it is to sniff has little to no effect on my overall appreciation.

330ml bottle picked up at the foreign beer section av London Drinker 08. Beige head resting on a hazy orange-brown body. Fresh smell of cherries. More acidulous cherries in the taste with oaky and yeasty notes. Sweet ending. One small bottle is enough (Arriva hotel, 13.03.2008).

Loads and loads of cherries - almost like drinking fizzy cherry juice. A little tarter than most Flemish Sours, and lacking in the sweetness that goes with the style. However, if you like a tart/sour, complex cherry brew, then this is for you!

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.

Bottle. Poured a reddish color with a thin head that went away quickly. Aroma of sour cherries, and a good amount of bretty funk. Nice tartness, followed by cherry, funk, and a little metal. Pretty funky with nice tartness. Enjoyable.

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.

De Zolder, Brugge, New Year’s Eve. Sweetshop clarity and some sugar, but nibbles with genuine lambic/sour ale character. Lurking wood, acid, alcohol and even a hint of cheese. The natural sweetness of the fruit without it being overpowering. Definitely not a ’ladybeer’. A find.