Cantillon Kriek

Brewed by Cantillon
Style: Lambic - Fruit
Brussels, Belgium

Serve in Flute, Tumbler

375ml bottle into snifter galss. Pours a rosey red with a small lavander head. Aroma is of barnyard, sweet cherries, brett and funk. Mouthfeel is moderate with excellent carbonation. Taste is sweet yet sour, perfect balance, cantillon continues to be one of my favorite beer producers.

750ml green bottle, corked and capped. Pours an expected cherry red shade, holds a tiny pinkish head which rejuvenates itself. Aroma is cherry fruit with a sourish edge. Sour, tart cherry fruit flavour, sharp and acidic. Finish is bone dry, sweaty, acidic fruit notes in the back of the throat. Medium bodied with a tight sharp effervescense. A great tart and sour lambic.

Bottle from 16th St. Liquor in West Vancouver. Pours a dark red colour with a thin light pink head. Very good dusty aroma of cherries and cheese. The flavour is very good also and pretty much the same: dusty cherries and cheese but with a strong but not overwhelming acidity. Light body, oily texture, leaves a dry feeling after the finish, soft carbonation. Excellent kriek !

UPDATED: JUN 20, 2011 Comprata in bottiglia da 375 dal besagnino. Colore rosso vivo, pochissima schiuma, forte aroma di ciliege; il gusto è strano, dolce/acido, particolarissimo. Grande Kriek grande Cantillon ribevuta più volte è una delle mie preferite

Hazy brown and cherry red color. Low head retention. All kinds of fun stuff going on in the aroma including earthy sour and barnyard. Soeruitiness in the taste imediately dominated by the sourness. More fruitiness at the end. Light body. Overall an enjoyable experience. I look forward to exploring more sour beers like this.

75cl Bottle at home. This is a real classic from Cantillon and it gets a high score from me for a few reasons the main one being availability and price. It will not take you too much time and effort to locate one of these (even in Ireland) and when you do the price is still very competitive. The aroma is of cherry, wood, brett and smoke. As for the taste all of the classic cantillon and true lambic qualitys are present. There is cherry, brett, acid and oak. The finish is bone dry and always has you coming back for more. This is one of the classics and for the price still one of the best. You can pay triple the money for other limited run lambics but they will not be three times better than this.

2008 bottle shared by (I think) Nate - thanks! Surprised that I hadn’t rated this delightful beer yet. Psychedelic Willy Wonka riverboat ride pink, with intense carbonation. My notes say more or less what Spencer’s did. Sour as a motherscratcher, as sour as it gets really. But so far from merely face-puckering, and in fact a wonderfully complex beer: fruity, funky, earthy, abundantly flavor and dry all at once. This is as real as it gets. Awesome.

UPDATED: FEB 14, 2011 2009 bottle. Brooding red with a lasting pink head. Aroma is sour and wheatily-funky with cherries (and their stones). Taste is moderately with a tiny bit of cherry sweetness buried at the bottom. The cherries don’t add much sweetness but they seem a platform for the sourness. They reduce but don’t kill the acid. [3.7]

December 2009 bottle. Cherries still there but fading, lactic mouthfeel. Barnyard and basement funk, sourness is quite lemony. Now extremely dry with not even a suggestion of sweetness. About this age seems to be where I like these - involving but quite approachable and still quite fruity.