Double Mountain Rainier Kriek

Brewed by Double Mountain Brewery and Taproom
Style: Sour Ale/Wild Ale
Hood River, Oregon USA

Serve in Snifter, Tulip, Tumbler

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Doesn’t look like much, a slight sour body with a slight Rainier taste but not a great sour overall.

Sampled on tap at PIB, pours a cloudy yellow with an orange tint and a small white head. Aroma of lightly sour fruits, and fuzzy stone fruits (like peach). Flavour of light fruits, vanilla, lots of tartness, though not as much as the Devil’s Kriek - just enough sweetness to balanced. Decent, but not as complex or enjoyable as DK.

Draft at SIBF. Hazed yellow, white head. Crisp sour nose, big sour coming off this. Puckering sweet, medium body. Yeasty, wild. Very tasty, but not top.

Tap at SIBF 2012. Golden pour, with very little head. Cherries on the nose, with some barnyard funk. It’s a bit dusty, but very juicy. Nice brew, if a bit "wet" -- this is much like one of New Belgium’s sours.

Palest kriek ever. Hazy yellow. Super hazy. Smooth and refined on the nose with a light, golden cherry note. In the mouth it is tart as all hell with a dense, creamy carbonation.

Draft @ Double Mountain. Pours an unclear yellow/blonde with a touch of ruby with minimal head. Aroma is lactic acid with some cherry and sour white grapes. Taste is a mix of white wine and big tart cherries with some light booze notes. Dry finish. Lots of sour cherry flavor with a slight malt sweetness and a touh of alcohol showing in the finish. Certainly a different take on the beer for me with the sourish white grapes adding to the profile.

Very good sour. Unfortunately, it’s too big for its own good and, probably because of that, there’s a light buttery note. Good sour cherries with a distinctive taste from the Rainiers. Light gold with a little head. Strong pucker. A bit of funk complexity but it’s mostly just a laco sour cherry. Good beer, but it suffers from its strength, a fairly common problem for American sours.

Tap at the brewery. Light yellow pour with a spot of white head. Tart cherries blast into the sinuses, mixed with lemon and some white grape. Very sour cherry/lemon taste with lacto and light grain. A mouth puckering delight.

Growler shared at the September iteration of the Santa Cruz tasting series. Pours a pure gold color, strange for a kriek until you remember it’s made with Rainier cherries. Small fizzy white head conveys a solid acidity. Aroma is floral/perfumey in its cherry character with a solid lactic tartness. Flavor is a little more ambiguous. I don’t get a lot of cherry, maybe a little fruity sweetness but it’s not explicitly cherry-like. The sourness is similarly not related to the natural tartness of cherries, but rather a straight-up lemony sour note with a nice graininess. Big lactic character with an almost kefir-like finish. Very drinkable, no indication that this is 9%. A pleasant surprise from a brewery I had never heard of.

Growler. Hazy blond color with the slightest blush tint but nowhere near the color you would expect from a cherry beer. Some white foam but really not much of a head. this growler has been through a lot though so I’ll let that slide. Big sour cherry and lactic acid aroma with some lemon and general sour fruitiness. Lots of sour cherry flavor with a slight malt sweetness and a touh of alcohol showing in the finish. Dry in the finish with lingering sour and almost no cherry beyond acid. Rounded and smooth without much funk but lots of clean sour flavor. This is dangerous stuff that you can almost drink like a Berliner or something. Nicely done.