Belle-Vue Kriek

Brewed by Belle-Vue (InBev)
Style: Lambic - Fruit
Sint-Pieters-Leeuw, Belgium

Serve in Flute, Tumbler

Sweet candy-like cherry aroma, bright red color. Some slight head when poured, but it faded fairly quickly. Sweet-but-bitter flavors of candy-like cherry and some bitterness. Mouthfeel was soft and somewhat syrupy, but finished up fairly dry and astringent. Decent, but not a style that I often go for.

Well, I now know that I do not like Lambic Beers. This was horrible, but I can see how some people may like it, as it is different, and is refreshing. I Felt it to be fairly dull with little to no aftertaste. I am still contemplating how this is even considered a beer. It tastes so far from what I’m used to. I will not try this again, nor any Lambic beer. I’ve given this a mediocre rating to avoid bias, as I believe this is an interesting style of beer, however it is definately not for MOST beer drinkers.

Was expecting a bit of a bang from the c+c bottle, but nope nothing but a dull muted pop. Poured clear red (bar the head almost pop like) with a cherry spritzy aroma and a mouthfilling sour cherry taste.

Light aroma of cherries and oak. Beautiful red hue body with no head whatsoever. Tastes like the "rockets" candy that cheap parents give out to kids on Halloween. Slightly astringent and bitter with provocative lingering cherry aftertaste. Good beverage although I must admit it was difficult to discern where the beer began and the Dr. Pepper finished.

UPDATED: OCT 13, 2007 Long ago, before yuppy culture had fully matured, there existed an “alternate beverage”. It was called Hannsen’s Sodas, and it was good. Rebels against the entrenched carbonated classics could find solace in marginal transparent fruit flavored concoctions – dedicated antipodes to Coca-Cola and Pepsi. As time passed, more and more people, myself included, realized Hannsens’ was a most vile drink. David Brooks’ so called Bobos needed something to fill the vacuous space in their cold, cold hearts to replace the traditional values of family and self-contentment, moving onto newer, healthier and inexplicable ecological beverages like Sobe or Pomme. I never made this switch because I was poor and found little in the new wave of consumerism. Instead I fell back on Big K Pineapple soda which was like pounding a mixture of concentrated sulfuric acid and yellow food coloring. We forgot classics like water, tea and root beer in our zealous reach for new and uncanny drinks. Just the other day I had a terrible flashback to Hansenn’s, caused by an unwitting madeleine. It was the Belle-Vue Kriek; a beer with a startling likeness to Cherry Hansenn’s, both beverages most wicked. It poured a dark purple-red, topped with a wafer thin head that blossomed in a lavender-rose color. The smell was clear; maybe too clear, featuring soda water, processed cherries and sour candies. It smelled a lot like the candy aisle at Wal-Greens, maybe with a hint of strawberry ice cream. Sudsy and sweet, it hits the tongue with a pang of light cherry flavor, and then fades like a bewildering dream. There’s a phantom of wheatiness here that doesn’t fit in at all, and the whole experience makes this nothing more than a meek and weak kriek. It is a circular return to the proximal beverage of my youth: a rasping, wheezing attempt at cherry soda, better left to the judgment of history than a reincarnation in beer.

Bottle. Dark pinky-red with a thin off-white pinkish head. Cherry malty nose, trees, not offensive, sweetish. Moderately carbonated mouth, sweet cherry, woody, then a touch of sourness. Reminds me of sweet cherry sweets I ate as a child, and black forest gateaux. Not much palate, what there is is a bit woody. Slightly sour towards the end. All in all, well rounded, not bold enough for my liking though. Bit ’flimsy’

Bottle in Tallin. The ability to make a beer so incredibly sweet and rich but yet still enjoyable must be applauded. Good show chaps.

bottle. Poured a deep redd colour with a fairly non existnat head though it was a little too cold and I wasn’t the one pouring. The flavour rounded itself out nicely as it warmed.. The first sip was a little frightening. I found it mostly enjoyable but my father-in-law disagreed (guess it wasn’t such a great thank you gift for him after all...) I will have to give the Lambics some thought and try a few others to see what I think.