Big Sky Kriek Ale

Brewed by Big Sky Brewing Company
Style: Fruit Beer
Missoula, Montana USA

Serve in Flute

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This fruit beer pours a medium reddish orange color from a 750ml bottle. Small sized white foamy head. The aroma is fruity, sweet and cherry. A medium bodied fruit beer. The malts are fruity and sweet, cherry and ever so slightly tart. The hops are herbal and earthy. SMALL RANT. Brewers please do not call a cheery/cranberry/fruit beer a Kreik/Lambic when its NOT. Unless it a tart, funky beer please don’t call it a Kriek. I am taking point away from you for this please STOP. Back to the rating. OK its more a slightly tart fruit beer than a kriek, but its tarter and funkier than a fruit beer. Decent cheery flavors. Mouthfeel is full and round. Finish is clean and smooth. Aftertaste is slightly tart.

Aroma is cherries/fruit, slightly musty and a slight astringent. The flavor is tart cherries/fruit along a noticeable alcohol presence. Quite a bit of alcohol for a fruit beer, close to wine in alcohol, not bad just a bit rough on the complexity.

Sampled at an esbls tasting. The nose is cherry but it could have more life and zest. The flavor is cherry, too. Some spice and yeast. Lots of different flavors for a kriek. Even a bit of chocolate. An odd kriek but still tasty.

2010 bottle numbered 671 out of 3600. Pours pink and then is a dirty ruby red once in glass with faint bubbles that disappear and leaves lacing like a wine or scotch. Aroma is a lot like a red wine but add sour rotten cherries to the mix. Taste is sour and funky with dry corks and cherries that are spoiled with alcohol present in the finish (again wine characteristics are all over this one). Palate is medium dry and slick and even oily and again finishes very dry almost like tannins in wine. I feel the wine barrels have really played there part in this brew and that this was bottled in 2010 plays a part as well.

Bottle. Some light cherry red tones with a small white head. Really chocolate like aroma. Slight cherry there too. Gross... Sweet, sweet tasting and boozy. Molasses, brown sugar, slight cherry. What the fuck is this? Fuck this beer. Too thick and syrupy. Beyond vile.

Bottle. #788/3600. Pours a red tinged tan color with a slight white collared head. WTF, the smell is very odd; caramel, vanilla, and cherry. Eeeee, the taste is not that great. It’s like a crappy New Glarus Enigma. Sweet, malty, vanilla, and some caramel. I would avoid this beer if it comes up and for the price it is not worth it. Yikes. Medium mouthfeel. The best part of this whole beer is the label.

2010 bottle poured to a Duvel tulip Appearance: A syrupy, ruddy-amber body with very little light penetration to it. No head retention, or lacing. Aroma: Cherry, Oak, and a musty, earthy smell. Taste: Tart cherries, & Oak. There is more going on, but, those are dominant. Palate: Medium bodied, a dry-tangy finish. There is a noticeable heat to it. Overall: I’m glad I got to try this. It is a unique concoction, and I’ve not really had anything like this. Whether or not it really is a Kriek, that’s besides the point to me. They have pulled off something that I cannot say that it is like anything else I have had. This would be something that someone who enjoys wine might like.

Bottle 70 of 180. I am starting to think that maybe Flathead Cherries may not be that well suited to beer. Compared to the Smoove cherry ale, this one smelled a bit better, which I attribute to the oak and wine. Same deal with the flavor, too. At the time, we decided that we couldn’t really tell which one was better, but I suppose the Kriek is objectively better. The biggest thing the 2 beers had in common was the Flatheads, and a medicinal flavor throughout.

On tap at Blue Palms (listed as Big Sky Cherry Golden 11%). Pours with a hazed golden body and a small white head. Aromas are sweet with honey, biscuit, pears and a musty/cobweb note. Flavors are big, sweet, and boozy, light cherry and some cinnamon. Estery with big notes of clove. A bit messy. Lively bubbles but a sticky body.

Hazed cherry red pour with pink head and lace. Black cherry aroma, oaky/port wine aroma. Sour cherry, and a light acidity. Good mouthfeel, with agressive carbonation. Pretty nice beer.