Lindemans Kriek

Brewed by Brouwerij Lindemans
Style: Lambic - Fruit
St Pieters Leeuw-Vlezenbeek, Belgium

Serve in Flute, Tumbler

First some foil wrapping to take off, then a bottle top and then a cork. Wow that’s like taking the Krypton Factor of bottled beers. My bottle says 3.5% not 4% by the way. Smells like a cherry-drop sweet that’s been spat out and left to fry in the sun. Big tart bite. Not very sophisticated tartness but nice none the less. Bit of tart cherry skin on the finish, hint of sherbet in the middle of the mouth. I think I’m beginning to like Fruit Lambics, although I have a nagging feeling that they’re just the Belgium equivalent of lager and lime.

375ml bottle for the Belgian Styles tasting in class. This is really a tough one. Everyone gets a two ounce sample and talks about how great it tastes; tons of cherry, nice balancing tartness, great almond aroma etc... But then I ask "Could you drink this whole bottle?" No one could own up to that one... I absolutely love traditional kriek, with its dryness and overpowering acidity, but I recognize that most people can’t get into that flavor without some practice. I also completely object to their use of artificial sweetener, which has absolutely no place in beer, I don’t care what your reasoning is. so we have on our hands an artificially flavored and sweetened beverage that has some lambic in it. Is it a good lambic? No way in hell! It’s horrible at that, to be honest. Is it a decent soda-like fruit beverage with alcohol? I guess on flavor alone, I would have to say yes. I could see this mixing well with a roasty stout. All my scores reflect a reasonably objective assessment of the beer in the glass, but I’m letting the overall reflect how I feel about the beer in general.

31st December 2005
Early amateur rating warning! Fabulous fruit and tarty cherry beer, sweet as well.

Bottle.Deep reddish colour with small pinkish head.Aroma is sweet of berries and sugar fruity and with slight note of marzipan and acid.

Here’s a different one. Bottle pours a hazy ruby color with a monster fluffy white head. Warm tart cherry flavor, silky texture. All the carbonation went to the head.

Bottle: Fluffy rose foamy head. Color is clear dark red. Smell a lot of cherries, also candy sweets and hints of sour and yeast. Taste is pretty sweet with fruit (cherries), hint of sour (more in the taste than smell) and hint of yeast. Well balanced, light to no carbo, but pretty full body.

Bottle. Poured a pale red with an average sized fizzy pink head and had good lacing. The aroma was strong of black cherries with a mild sweet malt and sweet yeast scent. It tasted robustly sweet of cherries and slightly acidic at first and finished mildly sweet with a nice black cherry flavor that stayed with you for a nice duration. Mouthfeel was light to medium in body and dry in texture with a nice soft carbonation. Overall an excellent Lambic!!

250 ml bottle. Rated @ 2.12.2009.
Red colour with a pink head. Fair amount of cherries on the aroma and also on the flavour. Sugar comes through too much and makes this way too sweet.