Cantillon Kriek

Brewed by Cantillon
Style: Lambic - Fruit
Brussels, Belgium

Serve in Flute, Tumbler

Served on draft in a tumbler at a local beer bar. Beer is reddish pink and the head is pink but converts to white after a few moments. Head is made up of a small to medium sized bubbles. Beer is completely hazy but on the edges you can see steady carbonation rise through the beer slowly propping the head up slightly. The head falls away and leaves a lot of lacing on the glass. This is what a Kriek lambic should look like. The aroma, I was expecting something unique to cherries, but I got a sour / tartness in a general way rather than in a cherry specific way. Smells like a lambic / gueze, just not like a cherry anything. Beer is medium to low in body and very sour. Now I’m getting a little bit of tartness that I can recognize with cherries. Beer is really sour though. It almost tastes lactic rather than citric in the mouthfeel. Mouthfeel is good. The carbonation carry the sourness throughout the mouth and palate and finishes the beer cleanly with no aftertaste. Drinkability is OK to good and overall I really enjoyed this beer. On a side note, as I was drinking this beer a fruit fly landed in my drink and promptly died. I fished it out and continued drinking, thinking to myself, "This is my preferred death." Serving type: on-tap

375ml bottle, bottled 2008-08-11. Pours a cloudy ruby red, virtually no head. Very fruity nose, cherries, almonds, brett, funk, malt, hay, wood, ruby grapefruit. Medium body, bone dry, very tart/acidic, quite low carbonation, no bitterness. Very tart, acidic, comlex taste. Lots of brett and funk, cherries, cherry pits, almonds, blackberries, malt, hay, wood, grapefruit. Cherry character somewhat subdued due to two years bottle ageing, but still a fantastic kriek. (2010-12-22)

Big thanks to Alex for giving us this 2005 bottle... Poured a dark ruby grapefruit juice with a big pink head, good retention and lacing... The aroma is great strong horse blanket, musky, not a lot of depth but the horse is outstanding... The taste is equally awesome with tons of horse. This is very tart couldn’t crush the whole bottle quickly, but I’d sip on this for a couple hours just loving love. Age this a couple years but this is well worth owning, drinking, and cellaring.

38cl bottle

head: thin, bubbly, pink
colour: deep red
smell: almunds, geueze, malts, skunky, sweet/bitter
taste: very nice sour punching cherry in the start !!! , malts, lingering bitterness, with a semi sweet almundy taste, end is dry and mouthwatering , a very very nice kriek , just as i like them !!

75cl corked and capped bottle, 2007 bottling. The beer has aromas of sour fruit, barnyard funk, and some wet grass. It is a reddish color with a brown tinge with minimal white head that dissipates quickly. The taste is sour cherry and a but of oak. Mostly sour though...it is very tart. Palate is lighter body with very little carbonation. Overall, this is a classic for the style. Not one to drink everyday, but a refreshing treat.

Very nice cloudy red beer with a fast diminishing head. Brilliant aroma of wild sour cherries. Just love the pure taste of sour cherries. Cantillon realy gets to what I’m looking for in beer: pure, natural and delicious. (Corked bottle 75cl)

Bouteille de 750ml, capsule métallique qui couvre un bouchon de liège. Embouteillé en septembre 2010. Bière rouge claire, la mousse rose disparait rapidement. Le nez offre des effluves de brett, de levure sauvage et un léger fond fruité. En bouche la bière est très rafraichissante, acide, les cerises sont présentes. Un peu moins bonne que la Lou Pepe. 8/10

Bottle. Ruby red pink with a thin white head. Musty and earthy and sour cherries in the aroma, with some light vinegar. Sour, but not totally puckering. Nice fruitiness that comes through bright and tart, and love the lack of any residual sweetness. Thinner body, bubbly, dry, and tart. Nice.