Belle-Vue Kriek

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

Serve in Flute, Tumbler

Aroma: slightly lagery like a pilsener (that remained right through the drink) with generous amounts of medicinal cherry. Appearance: dark clear red with a slightly off white head. Flavour: none of the pilsener flavours but quite sweet/sour cherry flavours with a touch of nuttiness.

The first Lambic I ever tried. Left me a bit dissapointed. Maybe it was the bottle, maybe it was that fine kriek smell that made me expect something special. Don’t know now. The colour was a nice deep red, but the head was big, and pink (which was in a way off-putting). The taste was sour, with the cherries barely showing from time to time, and it felt watered down.

UPDATED: AUG 11, 2006 Bottled (BB 01/2005)
Dark ruby red color, almost no head. Sour kriek nose. Sour, sweet, mould and earthy flavor. Short kriek/cherry aftertaste, sour. (8/3/6/3/13 3.3)
Re-rate, bottled (BB 03/2005)
Cheery red with good creamy reddish head, lace. Earthy, mould aroma but same time fresh. Taste is extremely freshing with some earthy and mould tones. Cherry is underlying somewhere in a palate. Quite thin, quickly finish with some sourness. (6/4/7/4/14 3.5)
Corked bottle (BB 01/2007). Deep red, clear. Small red head. Nose is very metallic, mixed with cherry. Drier than I remembered, even sour, slightly metallic. Better than its fame. (6/4/7/4/14 3.5)

Bottle Pours a cloudy deep red with a good frothy white head that never completely goes away. It and nice lacing are maintained well. Aroma is a ver nice sour cherry with earthy musty hints. Flavor however leaves some to be desired. That strong cherry flavor is missing and only a tease of what could be there. Bread, yeast, old wood barrels are a nice inclusion but dissapointing on the cherry. Feel is lively and refreshing. Not very dry or sweet. The after taste is more like sucking on a piece of the barell used to store the stuff. Not bad, just doesn’t compare to the Lindemans.

Corked bottle. Red and foamy with sweet cherry aroma. There is some sour notes in the palate, but the main feature is sugar and fruitness. An average mass-produced lambic.

UPDATED: DEC 13, 2006 A very nice dark cherry aroma with dark red color. Flavor of dark cherry but rather weak - did not match what I anticipated from the aroma. Shared with a group - the guys hated it and the girls liked it - there you go. Addendum: Had a bottle cellared for about 18 months, a totally different beer - aroma takes on the more traditional mustiness with cherry sweetness greatly fading. Flavor matches aroma - a musty, dry light cherry flavor. Aging made this much more like a traditional lambic.

Very sweet for a kriek. Good as an introduction beer for the style - popular with girls (compared to other lambic)

Red color, sweet cherry aroma and taste, medium body, sparkling winy finish.