Felix Kriek

Brewed by Verhaeghe
Style: Sour Ale/Wild Ale
Vichte, West-Vlaanderen, Belgium

Serve in Snifter, Tulip, Tumbler

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(Bottle, 2001 vintage) Pours a cloudy brown body with a thick beige head and excellent lacing. Aroma of fresh morning dew on the lawn, cherries, marzipan, and light oak. Flavor of sour cherries, earth, and almonds. Refreshing warm weather beer.

1972 vintage bottle at home. This was closed with only a cork and is one of the original unsweetened bottles that used to be produced until the 1980s. Label reads "Felix Kriek Speciaal". It had held up extremely well considering it’s 40 years old! Reminded me of Rodenbach Grand Cru crossed with Goudenband. The cherry profile had mostly disappeared, however there where hints of the fruit throughout. The sourness was strong and certainly equal to the Rodenbach. Carbonation was low but even when new im guessing it was low as the cork was not clamped down or caged but just put in like a bottle of wine. Possibly the best conditioned vintage beer I’ve tried.

20 year old bottle at DRBM. The aroma has some marzipan, fruits, cork. Murky brown coloured beer with an off-white head. The taste is quite sweet, light sourish and has some caramel, light cork tones, cherries. Bit oily/sticky mouthfeel. Well kept, is quite a nice desert beer.

2000 Vintage (supposedly – the bottle had a best before strip dating from ‘88 – ’92) 75 cl. bottle shared @ Kulminator – brewed at Clarysse – A: murky brown with a hazy musty red hue, small rusty white head, mysterius brown sediment – S: this clearly had some sweetness in it before (actually going by the taste it was probably pretty damn sweet & still quite is) – smell is not that good due to the aging and this, not much of a factor for me but everyone else found it revolting, pure cobwebs, lots of rotting cellar, rotting cherries & most of all rotting aspartame – T: glazy, thinned out arpartham cherries coated with cherry grenadine mixed with cellar, musty, rotting touch, fermenting cherries in the finish, lots of cobwebs & very dusty in the end – B: dusty really with some medium glazy qualities – Aging beers like this remains mostly the work of a madman for me & a typical Kulminator thing – curious & curiosity

About 20 years old, still from Clarysse
Red brown colour, small beige head. Bit of a gusher. Aroma of cherry, madeira, cellar, light sour notes, raspberry and slight cork. Flavour light tart, light sweet, cherry, madeira, raspberry. Finish somewhat tart with sweet madeira. Very nice, great in it’s age.
(75cL bottle @ DRBM, courtesy of PotjeBier)

Bottle @ DRBM. Many years old as Oudenaards Kriekenbier. A clear red/brown colored beer, with a beige head. The aroma of cork, fruits. Also a kind of cellar flavor. The taste is flat, fruits with cork. More raspberries than cherries. The aftertaste of fruits with cork.

Bottle @ DRBM 2011, from my own cellar, about 20 years old (from the original Clarysse brewery). Murky brown color. Very lively, beer came gushing out of the bottle. Aroma was, alas, quite corky, mouldy. Flavor, however, was amazing, nice sweet ’n’ sour, with notes of raspberries, I wouldn’t have thought it was 20 years old.

75cl Bottle at DRBM, as Felix Oudenaards Kriekbier, BBF ’92. Hazy amber brown colour, thin off white head. Aroma of cork, mould, fungus, basement, sourish, cherry pits, raspberries. Flavour is light sour, sweetish, raspberries, light malty, sour finish that fades fast. Light bodied. Not bad actually..

Bottle at UDRBM. 20 years old as Oudenaards Kriekenbier. Aroma full of raspberries. Flavor is bready, somewhat sour and a bit thin. Still well aged.

2001 vintage @ kulminator

head: thin, off white, creamy
colour: red/brownish
smell: cherry, raspberry, jam, peachy, yeasty, sour
taste: almunds, cherry, raspberry, sour, malty, end is bitter sweet with a oud-bruin soury end , very good !

UPDATED: FEB 11, 2010 [9/5/09] Bottle at Kulminator in Antwerp after LCRBM. 2001 bottle. Dark ruby color with a pinkish-beige head. Aroma of cherries, berries, caramel, malt and wood. Sweet-sour flavor of berries, cherries, caramel, sugar and oak. Medium-bodied. 7/4/8/4/15=3.8
[9/5/09] Bottle sample at Kulminator in Antwerp after LCRBM. 1980 bottle. Brown color. Aroma is oxidized, but had some cherry and oak. Sweet-sour flavor of caramel, malt, cherry and a bit of cardboard. 6/4/7/3/13=3.3