Kasteel Kriek

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

Bottle at ultimage glasgow tasting. Aroma is very cherry, noteably fake but still very nice, quite sweet and yeasty with spicey hints. Taste is similar, very drinkable for the %, lacking body somewhat but still a belter of a fruit beer.

Bottle… Clear crimson ale with a mid-sized, creamy, pink head. Terrific retention. Sweet, black cherries with accompanying notes of vanilla and cinnamon fill out the nose. The flavor is mostly sweet, tart and medium bitter… tannic, medicinal and a touch boozy. All this adds up to an odd type of balance. Full-bodied and creamy with medium carbonation. Tangy, bitter-sweet finish.

Bottle 4/2001: Pours a rich dark ruby brown with a somewhat thin, at least for a Belgian beer, off-white head. Aroma is sweet and sour cherries with some Belgian yeast. Syrupy sweet cherry body has nice oaky complexity and mild tartness which hide the alcohol very well. Well balanced and enjoyable, a great fruit beer!

from Au Grain d’Orge, labelled Kasteel Rouge - fully cloudy reddish-brown colour with a firm beige foam; strong aroma of cherries and marzipan, very sweet and full-bodied, juicy with some acidic tartness; long sweetish cherries aftertaste - strong and very sweet yet quite enjoyable

Bottle. Marzipan and glace cherry in the aroma. Flavour is sweet, yet the relatively high alcohol of 8% seems to make the sweetness less candy-ish, and the finish is quite warming, and a little more fuller. Still, this is a bit too sweet for me.

Small to medium dirty pink-ochre head, fast gone, over deep-red beer with a cold haze. Intense cherry (sweets) smell. Sweet, if not overly so, very fruity, and a deeper background nose, a bit vinous, wood and definitely quite some malt. Again a first impression of cherry syrup or concentrate, very fruity, halfway natural-artificial. The positive side, again, is the background: a heavy, potent maltbeer, that is advantageously set off against the ever so slightly sourish fruit flavours. Cherries, also plums, some alcohol, like a potent plumwine to mull. Quite full bodied, near chewy, but the faint fruity sourness enlightens it. You’ve read it: I expected the worst, and got much better in return. I cannot in all honesty destroy this beer; it certainly has its merits. The only thing that annoys me no end, is the silly "Kasteel Rouge" moniker. What is this koeterwaals , something to colour my cheeks with???

Bottled. Rose coloured amber with pink head. Sweet and definitely cherry, syrupy but with a slight sour finish. All too much for my palate, overwhelming.

Bottle, thx to fonefan. It pours a clear, glowing ruby body with a nice pinkish head. Almond and cherry dominates the aroma. The flavor is much the same, with some sourness added. Fizzy and sticky mouthfeel. Slightly sour finish with cherry and almond. This one didn’t impress at all. It’s way too fizzy and lacks complexity. Not that it has to be complex, but a little bit more would have been nice. (080412)