Boon Oude Kriek

Brewed by Brouwerij F. Boon
Style: Lambic - Fruit
Lembeek, Belgium

Serve in Flute, Tumbler

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I found it to be much better than the Lindemans offerings that tend to be the most prevalent in shops around here. The nose was tart, acidic, winey, sour, and wild-yeasty; "Medicinal, like the dentist’s office, yet not totally unpleasant." However, it doesn’t especially taste acidic even though the nose would have you think it would. It tastes, basically, like you’re sucking on cherry pits. Pairs quite well with pistachios and hazelnuts.

Bottle Oude Arsanall Antwerp. Cloudy reddish colour with medium off pink head. Aroma - earthy,sour cherries, musty cobwebs. Sour cherry flavour with red wine vinegar long finish with tart cherry aftertaste. Sharp and pungent with tart lemony goodness. A good kriek but not one of my favourites

Pours a dark red with a pink head. Aroma of sour cherries, and Brett. A strong tart sour cherry flavor with Brett characters. This is sweet and tart, sour and funky, overall pretty good.

Bottle, pours a pinkish red, very lively carbonation and a bit of head left after the beer settled (1 min). Smells of vinegar and fruit. Both tangy and tart, flavors of cherry, rose petals, hints of metal, barnyard funk. With each sip, this lambic felt alive on the tongue. Great beer.

Bottle of 2004 vintage. Dark red colour, almost no head. Nose of big red fruit, peppery spice with a slightly creamy, rounded edge, blackcurrant, almost harissa, complex as hell! Flavours? Sourest thing of all time, but really dry, very very little sweetness which rerally accentuates the face-puckering sourness. Spicy strawberry at the beginning, with an aromatic edge to it as well, lemony caramel coming through. Proper mahogany note to it as well. Obviously, bugger-loads of cherries. Bloody hell what a beer.

2007 vintge bottle. Cherry red with thck pink head, beautiful. Subtle aroma of citrus, cherries, hint of wet leather. Taste tangy, dry, crisp sourness, cherries, cereal, hay, citrus, light spicy almond bitterness. Dry and lightly sour finish. Although quite sour drinks very well.

Way better than the normal kriek. Sour with cherry aroma and taste, not artificial like the kriek. Little bit of funk going on. Very drinkable, great with cheese.

UPDATED: MAY 31, 2010 75cl Bottle at home vintage 1979. This bottle was from Frank Boon’s third year of kriek production which started in 1976 with a tiny production output of 850 bottles. The 1979 bottles had no label and the corks were wine bottle corks with the year printed on them. The corks are held down by a metal clasp. The cork on this bottle looked to be in a pretty bad way and the bottle had lost 1/6th of its contents over the past 31 years which actually is not that bad. I opened this one with some family and friends and due to the appearance of the cork I was not expecting any carbonation. Well I could not of got it more wrong! I carefully removed the cork and was greeted not with a pop or a hiss but a bang! This coincided with the bottom half of the cork cracking me right between the eyes much to the amusement of my family. The beer after 31 years had lost the majority of it cherry color and looked like a dark gueuze. The bottle also had a huge amount of sediment which led to a very murky appearance. As mentioned earlier there was still plenty of carbonation and quite a persistent head for the age. The aroma was of dark fruits, plums, figs and cherry. The taste had more plums and dark fruits with only a hint of cherry. This was until we got to the bottom of the bottle. The last couple of pours were full of sediment and this is where the cherry was hiding. The general consensus was that this beer had been very carefully stored and everyone agreed that this would of had plenty of life for another 10 years and possibly even longer. Very interesting.

After a nail-biting battle with the cork, the beer poured a surprisingly clear dark red with a thick, pink head. It let us know right away that this was a real lambic - off the pour it gave a strong hit of brettanomyces leather and barnyard, with a tart, lactic backbone. Unlike most beers calling themselves kriek, this one didn’t hit us over the head with cherry candy flavouring. The flavour offered up some sour cherry notes, along with a woody (cherry-stone?) bitterness and a bracing lactic acidity. It felt a lot like biting a lemon; your mouth can’t help but pucker a bit. The wonderful lambic funk dissipated pretty quickly, but came back in full force whenever we refreshed our glasses. This isn’t the funkiest bottle out there, but it’s a boon to any lambic drinker stuck in North America.

It pours a golden red with a slightly pink foam. The aroma is saturated with cherries, almonds, hay, barnyard and a touch of balsamic. Upon tasting, it starts with a dry blast cherries with a small residual sweetness remaining. Vigorous carbonation adding lots of life and kicking up a slight bitterness that grows into a crescendo and softly collapses as one swallows. Lingering, is a dry cherry and almond note, with a fresh grapefruit like tart bitterness.