Hanssens Oude Kriek

Bottle. Pours the color of a ruby grapefruit with a wispy but bubbly head. Aroma is sour, with tart cherries, and green grapes. Flavor features strawberry and crisp green apple in the front-palate, with a prickly mouthfeel. Flavor ends with firm tartness, strongly reminiscent of red grapefruit and lemon juice. This style is not for the faint hearted, but I loved it.

Bottled, older, but of unknown vintage. Poured red berry-tinted caramel with just a dusting of swirly head. The aroma opened with strong, musty, almost moldy raspberries (in the best way possible) with notes of lemon tartness, wet blankets, and other assorted funk around.. well-presented. The flavor had a lot of the same components (raspberries and vinegary tartness were most prevalent), but also picked up a bit of sweetness that detracted from the experience a little.. still funky, but the sweets masked some of that. Medium-bodied and tart overall on the palate with a dry final impression.. again the sweetness wasn’t unpleasant in and of itself, but it didn’t work too well with the beer. I’ll gladly drink this again.

2000 batch at the Woodshop Quad. Nose of sour cherries and oak. Copper red with a small off white head. Flavor was light cherries and tartness.

2000 batch, poured beautiful ruby with a touch of brown and no head. Huge nose of tart cherries and wood. Same in the flavor but even more intense. Lasting woody finish.

As sour and intense as any kriek I’ve ever had. This bottle might have a bit of age on it (BB 8/2027) so that might make it an August 2007 bottling. If so, cellaring time has not mellowed this beer one bit. Colour is a very illuminated blood orange with a faint brown tinge. Aromas are piercing and painful with vinegar, salt and maybe just a faint fruity touch. More salt, acid, sour citrus fruits drive the flavours although they broaden mid-palate before kicking me in the pants on the finish, although not quite as much as I would have expected. Easy to wax lyrically about a beer like this.

bottle into wine glass. Great clear ruby red body with a small white head that took some effort to stir up via a very aggressive high pour. Aroma is great. Very traditional Kriek with great sour and slightly funky cherry and oak notes. The flavor is just as good and even drier. The cherry character on the flavor is very fresh and not jolly-rancher-like, as many lesser quality krieks exhibit. Super dry and tart, mouth-puckering and mouth-watering. The palate is perfect: just enough carbonation; not overcarbonated like many lambics. The carbonation is like a blend between a highly carbonated lambic and an uncarbonated unblened lambic - minimal and fine. Most full bodied lambic I have ever had. Overall: I have been very into lambics for the past half year or so, but have primarily appealed to geuzes and not fruit lambics; however, this is one of the best lambics I have had. It is by far the best kriek (or any fruit) lambic I have had to date. Great shit! P.S. my girlfriend just said it smells like barbecue!!!. (RE-RATE) Same vintage as last rating + 1 year. Less than aggressive, but not totally uninspired, pop of the cork. Same awesome body color - crystal clear ruby red with a descent white head that fades to a ring. Bumping the flavor up from an 8 to a 9. Nearly perfect cherry quality with just the right amount of sourness. Some extra funkyness would bump this up to a 10. Still a great body. Overall: jesus, I could drink this stuff all day. (10 minutes later) Getting funkier, but still not wuite enough to push the score to 10. Quite spicy on the back of the throat with the sourness. Great stuff, way underrated!

Pours a dark cherry/ ruby red with thin pink head that quickly dissipates. Funky sour aroma with sweet cherry juice, cherries and syrup. Very puckering and vinuous. Sweet cherry syrup flavor that stays sour throughout with a very dry and way too acidic finish.

Thanks to my bro for sharing this. Pours a nice reddish tone with light pink thin head. Aroma is of sour cherries, light wood, horseblanket, and must. Taste is much the same. The sourness and the fruit all play wonderful together which makes for a terrific lambic.