Shenandoah Cherry Lambic

Formerly brewed at Shenandoah Brewing Company
Style: Lambic - Fruit
Alexandria, Virginia USA

Serve in Flute, Stem glass, Tulip, Tumbler

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UPDATED: MAR 11, 2008 12oz bottle, purchased from the brewery. I know, I understand, I get it, this is hardly an authentic lambic, but it succeeds in ways aside from this: it’s essentially a fruit beer, and it would likely get more love from future raters if it were labeled a fruit beer. But that’s how we roll. This is really the first beer I’ve had in a while that reminds me of Iron Hill’s Cherry Tart, which I absolutely adored. A beautiful pour: hazy, pinkish-ruby red in the glass with a very lightly pink head: just amazing, glistening lacing that holds tight to the side of the glass and glistens like crazy on the way down. Just nice. Sweet cherry juice and a touch of vanilla in the aroma: not exceedingly sweet, and it certainly doesn’t have the density of something like Belgian Red, but just pleasant and generous and lovely. The mouthfeel isn’t entirely seamless with the aroma and look: a bit of dustiness at the front soon disappears, leaving a soft doughiness and light cherry juice at the core, actually quite reminiscent of the maraschino cherries I ate way too much of whenever my mom was baking cookies; nothing sticky or oppressive, just a generous fruit beer with a nice doughy core that seems to appear in most of the Shenandoah beers I’ve tried. A bit of doughiness and lightly toasty dust in the finish, with plenty of cherry juice. Some people will knock this for not being an authentic lambic, as I figured I would, but it really succeeds as a general fruit beer. I could drink way too much of this.

Thanks to hopdog pours a lightly hazy golden amber with a smaller bubbly off white head. Aroma of tart cherries, floral notes, Belgian yeast spiciness, Flavor of tripel like yeast esters, bread, cherry skins, floral notes...nice spicy/fruity mix.

12oz bottle acquired in trade with kmweaver (thanks!). Poured a medium and lightly hazy amber color with a smaller sized off white head. Aromas of cherries and yeast. Tastes of lighter cherries and some bready pie crust. Lightly sweet with a light tart and dry finish.

(12oz bottle) Large off-white head atop cloudy amber body. Aroma is medium sweet, spicy, some cherry. Taste is medium sweet, dusky/spicy, some cherry. Some cherry astringency, lightly tart, minimal cherry sweetness. Light-medium body, light effervescence. Strange to call an extract beer a lambic, perhaps even stranger that this wasn’t the disaster one might expect it to be with such credentials.

12 oz bottle. Pours a hazy amber color. Aroma is a slightly sweet and tart cherry one. Flavor is sweet fruit, berry, which is slightly tart. It is okay, but I wouldn’t say it’s something I’d search for to try again, at least not if there are other beers available at Shenandoah that I prefer.

12oz Bottle, courtesy to kmweaver. Enteric, rubbery nose again. Bad yeast products. Pours a rosy peach, with off-white head. Flavor first carries a little light cherry sweetness, nothing to really sink one’s teeth into but it helps obfuscate the underdeveloped funk. Acidic. Ugly. This is a little cleaner, but the plastic, dust and bad bugs carry through. Slightly better than the other renditions.

Slightly medicinal. Aroma not that strong. Seak on the fruit essence. Nice and bubbly white fluffy head. Slight funky and a little tart. Very dry and bretty.

Courtesy of kmweaver. Hazy light amber with a small off-white head. The aroma is plasticy, spicy phenolic yeast with some cherry. The flavor is fairly dry, lightly tart with cherry, plastic, dust, and dough. Medium body is rough with moderate carbonation.

12 oz bottle, shared by kmweaver. Pours a hazy amber body with a fizzy white head. A little cherry in the nose, but still the ever present band aids like the other two. Some minimal cherry flavor and slightly sweet, this is the best of the bunch, but it isn’t saying too much. A little bit more of a lambic character to it than the others. Mouthfeel mirrored the other two I had, a little doughy with moderate fizzy carbonation. Overall, a little bit of an improvement over the strawberry and boysenberry, but still glad I didn’t have to put down a whole bottle by myself.

UPDATED: FEB 23, 2008 12 oz. brown, longneck bottle. From brewery. 2007 batch. Poured out a weak cherry juice color, with a huge cream colored head. Once I stirred it with a spoon, most of the extra carbonation came out of it. Aromas are of cherry pie, crust and all. Some yeast in the background. Nothing in the way of hops in aromas or flavors. Flavors are of sweet malts, mixed with cherry pie tartness. Decent beer overall, but no lambic by any stretch. Finished sweet & tart at the same time.