Kasteel Kriek

Brewed by Brouwerij Van Honsebrouck
Style: Fruit Beer
Ingelmunster, Belgium

Serve in Flute

Tasting sample at beer fest. Thick and red with thin pink head. Aroma - cherries. Taste - cherries with a slight medicinal tinge and very sweet. Somewhat sour and tart finish. Alcohol disguised. I actually really liked this but I can’t imagine drinking a lot of it at one sitting. It’d be nice functioning as a liqueur in the right setting.

330ml bottle.
Pours a dark purple-red with very fizzy soda-like carbonation -- almost indistinguishable from something like Cherry Dr. Pepper. Aroma is of lovely tart and sweet cherries -- pleasant, but one-dimensional. Flavor is just like the aroma -- strong on cherry but not much else. At least it tastes natural and not like candy. Some grassy hops come out if you look for them but this is all about the cherry. Tingly palate that grows a bit cloying as you approach the bottom of the glass. This is pleasant enough and better than most ham-handed attempts at a fruit beer from breweries who don’t know what they’re doing. But it’s still miles behind pace-setting fruit beers like those from New Glarus.

Pours dark red with no head. Taste and aroma is sweet with cherries, but nicely balanced with a tart, vinegar-like sour finish. Dry, satisfying mouthfeel. Very drinkable and enjoyable.

(Bottle, 0.33 l) Poured deep red and almost clear without any head. Aroma contained strongly cherries and hint of malts. Palate was medium bodied with medium carbonation. Flavours were cherries and more cherries, sweetness and mild bitterness. Aftertaste contained cherries. Alcohol was very well hidden.

UPDATED: AUG 1, 2011 Bottle. The aroma (should say WOW) was overwhelming with the scent of cherries, but did have mild notes of a light bread malt and a nice sweet doughy yeast. It tasted sweet and malty with a very strong note of cherries from the start to finish with a light sourness appearing at the end. The flavor lingered on the taste buds for a nice long while allowing full enjoyment of the fruity nectar. Mouthfeel was medium in body and a little watery yet nice and creamy in texture with the carbonation being somewhere between medium to moderate. Overall an extremely tasty Fruit Ale, although it is more like a Lambic than an ale. This is the perfect beer to enjoy at the end of the day with a nice creamy dessert.

Pours a golden yellow color. Aromas of cherry, breads, and a scattering of hops. Flavor is subdued cherry, not as bold as the aroma. Crisp dry finish.

Pours clear red with white head, aroma is big cherries with some oak. Taste is very much a fruit syrup base, no sour notes. Taste is cherries up front leading into some oak and vanilla and finishes sweet with more cherry flavor. Not bad, nice and smooth.

330 mL bottle from Total Wine in Chesapeake, VA (listed as Kasteel Rouge, bottled August 6, 2009). Reddish-brown pour with a thin light pink head. Aroma of sour cherry, oak, and Earth. Good tart cherry flavor with a nice mellowness from the oak. Comprable to Lindeman’s Kriek but less artificial tasting and smoother given the oak flavor. A very good fruit beer.