Kasteel Kriek

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

A tasting at Three Cellars Milwuakee. Deep Red. Very Cherry and very crisp. Not overly sweet. This is a great holiday beer. Maybe the best Fruit beer I have had.

Definitely darker than I expected. Still red, but dark, blood read with pink head. Head didn’t hang around very long. Was hoping for a more sour beer, but the beer tasted just like Ludeman’s cough drops, which is actually really not a bad thing. I think it’s achieved what it’s going for, but not loving it. Liking it quite a bit, though. Surprised to realize that it’s 8%; doesn’t taste like it.

Pours a super dark amber with a bright pink foamy head. Aroma is all cherries. Flavor is the same, but nicely tart and crisp. A great example of the variety.

750, corked, baled, and foiled. Pours opaque, nearly black, with the faintest of dark amber highlights in the very corners. Thick, foamy medium-pink head that falls quickly away, leaving virtually no head and just a little lace. Huge sweet cherry nose. Not much else in there, and it’s a very sharp, sugary, juice-concentrate-like fragrance. Not that it smells synthetic at all, just that it’s so intense. Medium body, some tiny carb to provide a bit of tingle but nothing to write home about. Mid-palate has a nice blend of the sweet and the sour from the cherry world. Tastes a bit like a cherry pop, the fruity sweetness is so dominant and pronounced. This is a really yummy beer but, I must confess, the first one I’ve thought would be best served for mixing with other, darker stuff.

I loved this beer. It’s wonderfully strong flavours are sour and tart, one of the most crisp beers I’ve had. It’s very sour and extremely fruity, super fruity. Will buy again.

Pours a warm red cola brown with a quickly diminishing pink head. Big brash cherry nose. Sweet and round with just a hint of tart and some suggestion of fruity sour beer notes. Very light acidity. Light smalled bubbled body, easy to drink. Sweet with strong cherry notes. A bit sour to tart, from the fruit, with more than a passing resemblance to Liefman’s Kreik. Bigger alcohol. Some astringency, maybe tannic, maybe from the cherries? Acidity like a cola lingers!

It’s hard to rate this as a beer. The cherry flavor is too strong to taste the beerieness to this. That being said, this beer smells like fresh cherries, pours a nice shade of purple/red, and tastes great. Almost like a cherry wine would taste, but there is plenty of sweetness left in the mix also. For an alcoholic fruit drink, this would probably be aces across the board, since I was rating a beer, not so much.

Cool looking beer with a distinctive red color, reddish head, and a delightful aroma of cherry wood. Only knock is that it became slightly bitter but this was an enjoyable beer.