Verhaeghe Echte Kriekenbier

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

Tap at Ginger Man: Pours a nice ruby color with a creamy off white, lacing head. The aroma is fruity and fairly sweet with notes of candied/maraschino cherries, marzipan and almond paste. Sweet, yet welcoming. Nice chewy feel with mild carbonation. The flavor is dominated by sweet/tart cherry flavors. The presence is very natural, however, making it pleasant. Has some almond paste sweetness and tarter cherry characteristics of cherry skins/tannins. Doesn’t offer much funk/tartness or wild fermentation suggestions, but has a very natural fruit presence and is pretty tasty overall. An easy drinker.

Bottled. Brilliant red pour with a pink fizzy head. There is a strong, sweet component in this with apple pie and light oak. Very lively body behind the sweetness makes this almost taste like a soda. There is a nice underlying sourness though that makes this a bit more quenching and balanced. An easy drinker that would be a good introduction to sour beer. And, unlike its cousin Duchesse de Bourgone, this one is actually good on tap as well as bottled.

The beer pours an opalescent sanguineous color, the head fair in size, frothy in texture, but settles quite quickly, leaving a spindly lace behind. Nose is sweet and sour fruit, something like raspberries and ripe bananas, light hints of malt, and not unpleasant. Front is malt with a very light sweetness, but the sourness of a “Flanders Red Ale” hits the palate almost immediately. The top is cadaverous, the finish is caustic, meagerly hopped, the aftertaste bone-dry with a lingering sourness which is expected in this style. I must admit it is a bit thin, or better yet watery, but it appears the majority of raters, have never experienced a “Flanders Red Ale”. Ranks #759 on my current 1000 beer master list.

Bottle from Utobeer. Reddish-brown in colour with a white, pink tinged head. Oaky aroma, with some berry fruit and a slight whiff of vinegar. Cherry flavour, with some yeastiness, almonds and a slightly sour finish. Very good.

Disappearing head on a deep amber/red body. Sweet and sour cherry aroma with a slight woodyness. Nice and mild. Flavor is vinous with wood and cherry notes and a sour end. A nice and fresh sour ale without beeing extraordinary.

[595-20070908] 11.2floz @ Sourfest 2007 (Buffalo, NY, w/ rudolf, frylock, IPFreely, jerc, swoopjones). Roasted yeast and medium alcohol aroma with not-nice burnt caramel. Hazy, dark red amber body with a medium-lasting foamy white head and some bits. Sweet fruity malt caramel flavour with a bit of cherry base. Medium body. Tastes quite nice despite the aroma.

Bottle: Tary cherry aroma. Pours a deep transparent red with a tan head with a pink tint that fades quickly. Starts rather tart cherry but not as much so in the finish. Light vinegar in the background.

Pours to a odd red-hued brown with a thin white head. The aroma is lots of fermented cherries, vinegar, menthol, and oak. The flavor is strange, apple cider vinegar? Oak. To me, the palate is one of the redeeming qualities of this beer. I love Flemish Sours when they’re good, but this isn’t one of them. I want more Panil!