Cantillon Kriek

Brewed by Cantillon
Style: Lambic - Fruit
Brussels, Belgium

Serve in Flute, Tumbler

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Again, sorry for my assessment of this beer, I have not yet learned to drink this beer. But I try. Red mega sour and dry beer with an smell of fart.

From notes. First reviewed 2/23/2011. 2007 vintage. Poured from a 750 mL bottle into a tasting glass. Cantillon Kriek pours a hazy raspberry color. Seriously, tons of haze in the middle of this visibly appearing beer. A flash of a pinkish tan head, and then nothing. The smell is tart cherries and vinegar with some underlying wood and funky notes. There is a burst of sweetness in the flavor before the tart acidity hits my palate. Cherry in its purest form embraces both the sweet and sour, eventually relenting to a musty and funky and leathery Brett character. The mouthfeel is very dry and acidic, as I would expect. The carbonation is light, but noticeable, and the body is on the light side as well. This was my first Cantillon, and I very much enjoyed it.

Little head and a cloudy bloodred colour. Initially very pure sour apple. later comes some kirsch, vanilla and sweetness. Evolving. Medium body, high carbonation and some length. Light bitter entry, very fresh with tones of kirsch and bitter apples. unevolved and tight thus showing to little. Feels like there’s a lot of potential but it may need a few more years.

15-FEB-2012, tap @Ølbaren with Sonni. Red with a small pink head. Very fresh with loads of sour cherries - almost marzipan-like taste. Dry and very tart. Not too much, just refreshing. Hints of oak and funk, but mostly just this pure cherry taste. Not overly complex, but nice.

Tap at Mikkeller Bar. Clear light pink beer with a white short-living bubbly head. Fresh, funky flavor with lots of sour cherries, tart lemons, oak and barntard. Bone dry in the mouth, lively carbonation, quenching indeed.

Smell up front is pure funky. Sour tart cherries, barnyard funk, and oak. If you would give this beer to someone who knows nothing about lambics they would probably give this beer back to you and tell you it was bad. It’s pure funkiness. This beer isn’t to horribly sour right from the start but you couldn’t tell my girlfriend that. She thought she loved lambics until she tried this. “It’s too sour!” and she pushes it back into my hand. For me it wasn’t to sour up front but as you drink this it gets really hard to keep on going. The sourness does really start to add up here and it was a really hard beer to finish. Especially the whole bottle. But even though it was hard to finish, that doesn’t mean it wasn’t tasty because it was great. Sour cherries, tart lemon, funk, and oak. All adds to a great mouth puckering event. Dry, medium bodied, and well carbonated.

Bottle shared at a recent BA/RB tasting... Poured cloudy, murky, pinkish red with a grayish, off-white head. Nose had cherries, yeast, brett funk. Dark cherry flavors, cherry skins, tart with yeast spices and funk. A little bit of candied malt that worked with the puckering sourness here.

I like. Nice sour cherry aroma. Thik pink foam. Refreshing and soft carbonated palate. Taste is really nice, sourness with cherry stones and almondy saltiness. I like it ;)

750ml Bottle. Pours bright red - Like maraschino cherry syrup, with an extremely pale pink head of tight bubbles that lasts. Smell is a huge amount of morello cherry, vinegar, and moderate funkiness… more of a kalamata olive funk than cheesy dankness. But the dominant aroma is sour cherry. Wow, yup it follows straight through in the taste. It tastes so much like a sour cherry that it almost has the fleshiness of one. Some vinegar and lemon tartness, though the tartness isn’t overwhelming. The body is medium, pushing the boundary towards full, and though it dries the palate, it’s not mouth puckering or anything. The sourness definitely dominates, but allows for the other flavours to emerge as it goes. Finish is tart. Good stuff. But damn, compared to Iris… I dunno….

Lots of small bubbles in this pink, clear body. Passion fruit, cherry candy, dried yeast and some funk. Smoother than expected body, revealing some sweetness at first and an interesting, tasty sour fruitiness later on, which sticks to the tongue and challenges. Mind you it’s not overwhelming, but rather a journey into flavours from fruity sweets to sour sharpness and into a bedwelming balance that characterizes Cantillion while reaching an epiphany without extremes in this. Keeps you grasping for more and sticks with you. Maybe not the most refined, and a bit sweet, but an absolute have to try. (375ml bottle, dated 2008, 5,00 EUR)