Belle-Vue Kriek

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

Serve in Flute, Tumbler

Corked bottle. Deep glowing red color. Small sized white foamy head. Aroma is sour cherries and sweet cherries. A medium bodied kriek. Tart and sour cherries flavors predominate. Light carbonation. Touch of candi sugar and peppermint at the finish. Sour cherries flavors is consistent throughout the beer. Very enjoyable drinking kriek. Mouthfeel is full. Finish is clean and dry. Aftertaste is slightly sweet.

UPDATED: AUG 24, 2005 Bottle (330ml). In a Maredsous stem glass. Pours a fairly cloudy, deep red, almost cola coloured. The head is thin, white, tinge of red, quick dispersing, bit of lacing and a gruel remnant on top. Aroma surprisingly sour, like a cheap white wine too long open in the bottle, sour cherry note - for the life of me, I can’t smell beer. Tart taste, but not as sour as nose warned - mild sour cherry flavour with an artificial cherry over top, hint of sweet wine, touch of malt (maybe wishful thinking) - a touch brackish. A little astringent and oily in the mouth, but elusive on the palate. Would only drink in summer.

Corked 5.1% bottle. Brilliant red pour with heaped pinkish suds. Plenty of oak, apple juice and cherrydrop fruitiness in the snout. Sweetly..well, cherryish with a countering edge of sourness and lots of drawn-out creamy vanilla malt after the swallow. Nothing complex but nicely balanced Kriek.

Dark red color with a slightly pink head. The aroma is sour cherries and some lemons. The taste is sweeter than I expected with cherry cough drops and some notes of bread. Htins of hay. The taste is sweeter than a normal lambic, but still pretty good. There is hardly any funky lambic character detectable.

UPDATED: FEB 17, 2005 Aug, 2003: Bottle - Belle-Vue. I sampled this alongside Mort Subite Kriek and Echte Kriek. Opening the very tight cork was stressful and difficult, but produced nothing more spectacular than a small sighing pop. The delightful foam settled into penicillin clumps above congealed blood - the whole thing appearing to be the sort of drink the devil would offer you when signing a Faustian pact.
The aroma was initially sharp and tingly - making the hairs at the back of my throat stand up - then it got gradually musty before the cherries came out, quite attractively wrapped in cobwebs and old newspapers. The aroma was more complex than the Mort, but less pleasant.
The mouthfeel was the most pleasant of the three - there was a gentle life to the beer that made it taste fresh from the surgery, but never intruded rudely with gas, farting or an alka-seltzer of any sort.
It had the most restrained flavour of the three in terms of sweetness and sourness, with an edge toward the sourness but mostly well balanced. The flavour was pleasantly cherry - not strong, but a definite cherry - finishing with a mild, barky, earthy bitterness; subtle - just present enough to notice.
A pleasant experience - more interesting and a better quality than I expected - but not really memorable or especially great. [3.5]
Feb, 2004:Bottle (La Becasse Kriek). Sweet, sweaty leather spanked cherries being chased across the schoolyard. A swirling cherry sweetness comes to a blank stop. Not great. [2.4]
Fec, 2005:Bottle - Belle-Vue. Appearance is lovely. Taste is enjoyable - good mix of sweet and sour. Nice cherries and assorted mouldy bits. Good mouthfeel. Fresh, cleansing and attractive. [3.1]

UPDATED: MAY 12, 2011 I’ve had this a million times and never rated it, and then had it thinking it was the Larnaca brewpub house kriek because they label it as such. So this is my rating from that one. Draft. Deep, opaque color of crushed cherries with a tight pink head. Candied cherry aroma is inviting. Sticky palate. Sweet-tart in fair balance. Tastes like canned cherry pie filling. It’s actually nice even though it is candy-like. It was good not knowing what it was, as if it was a blind tasting. Thinking it was a Cypriot brewpub beer made me impressed. If I knew what it was at the time I would have been harder on it.

Tastes like cherry soda with less carbonation. Not sure about this one. Might make a good cough syrup.

syruppy sweet. not the best