Cantillon Lou Pepe Pure Kriek

Brewed by Cantillon
Style: Lambic - Fruit
Brussels, Belgium

Serve in Flute, Tumbler

Had from bottle at Pizza Port Belgian Beer Festival - 2010 (2007 vintage).
Poured a cherry color with slight fizzing and a little bit of lacing. The head is mostly white with a bit of a red hue - it last all the way until the last drop. The cherries and raspberries dominate the nose and also the flavors. The nose is amazingly sweet while the beer itself is a bit on the sour side. The alcohol is completely hidden within the beer which finishes with the slightest bit of acidity. A must try.

This version of Lou Pepe Kriek is from 2006. It pours a very dark red color. A light white head forms but quickly fizzes away to what you see in the picture. When I took my first smell I was very put off. It’s hard to explain but the beer smelled, well rotten. Like rotten eggs and cabbage. Ok maybe not that bad but I think you get the picture. But as I let it sit for a while the real goodness came out. The sourness stings the nose, beautiful hints of wood, cherries, vinegar. I fell in love with the aroma. Now from how sour the nose was, I thought I would get blasted in the taste, but it wasn’t like that. I’ve heard some Cantillon brews are just extremely sour and I can’t wait to try some but this one was more of a nice balanced sourness mixed in with the oak, cherries, and barnyard funk. Don’t get me wrong here, it’s definitely a little puckering. But not over the top. It also has a nice sugary sweetness that lingers on the taste buds. A masterpiece in my books. It’s complex but highly drinkable. Mouthfeel is nicely carbonated. Slick and medium bodied. The sourness lingers for a while after you’re done.

Aroma:kirsebær mandler Ud.:rød uklar Skum:rød E.smag:sød moderat sur moderat Krop:medium For.:vandede Brus:blød 27/1-12 @f1

07/24/11. 2009 Bottling. Pours like maraschino cherry juice. Hazy. Light pink head, looks like a light strawberry ice cream or something. Smell right away, tart, acidic sour cherry, and some yeast funkyness.Sweet, yet very sharp and musty. Taste is like a super sour apple acidity up front, totally caught off guard. Immediately the tartness and acidity decimate your palate, and then a very natural and soft cherry sweetness takes over. Starts to shift into this like twilight zone of some kind of fruit I know I’ve tasted before but I can’t put a name to it for the life of me. It’s meaty, in flavour not in texture, well at least the texture of the beer isn’t meaty, but the texture of that fruit would be. Almost reminds me a bit of a Kalamata olive. It would be like if you ate an olive that was sitting in pureed cherries and lemon juice. It’s medium bodied, and I would have thought that it would have been like champagne for carbonation, but it’s just really pleasant and compliments the flavour really well. The finish is mainly that tartness and holy crap is it dry.

Bottle, vintage 2006, courtesy of Nino of Sherwood. Pours a dark cloudy orange. Smells of balsamic, with some metallic oxidation, and basement funk. Tastes of sour cherries and grapes. Very nice.

Pours cherry red colour with profuse head that dissapears later. Fermented cherries and grapefruit in the aroma. Sweet and sour taste with the fermented notes present. Full body, thin feel, soft carbonation and medium sweetness and medium sourness in the after taste. Not my kind of beer but worth the try.

2007 bottle opened in 2012. Surprising amount of head when first poured from the bottle, but it settled quickly. Very complex but distinctive sour cherry lambic.

Bottle, courtesy GT2, thanks man! Pour is bright pink/red with a off-white/pink head, impressive retention/lace. Aroma of cherry, raspberry, funk, barrel. Taste is fruity, cherry, horseblanket, light oak. Plesantly tart and light. Palate is soft, tart, high carbonation, funky/mineral finish. Very nice.

UPDATED: JAN 25, 2012 18/04/2011 Ma che siete venuti a fà (tap). Rosso ciliegia, intensissimo, denso e torbido, con bellissima schiuma rossiccia. Aroma intenso, acido, molto fruttato, si percepisce già in fase di spillatura. In bocca è moderatamente acida, molto fruttata, quasi una spremuta d’arancia, con lievi note citriche, secca, appena astringente. Corpo medio, ben strutturata, perfettamente bilanciata. Assolutamente bevibile e meno acetica, sporca e aggressiva di tante altre produzioni di Cantillon.