Belgian Challenge – Beer 41
The Oude Kriek by Brouwerij Boon is one of the more serious Kriek or Cherry fruit beers Belgium has to offer, many others being sweeter to make them more palatable to a wider drinking audience.
It pours a deep ruby red colour with a pink lively head which quickly subsides. The first smell you get is vinegar and cherries, a bit like a quality red wine or fruit vinegar. The taste though is full on CHERRY fruit which is complimented by the expected lambic acidic dryness in the finish.
Don’t be put off by the mention of vinegar and acid though, as the Oude Kriek is still one of the easier drinking beers of this style.
Tasting notes from the Boon website:
Oude Kriek Boon is a spontaneously fermented beer, made from old and young Lambic of Lembeek matured in oak barrels. Quality is guaranteed by the exclusive use of real cherries (25%), was originally produced by a barrel Lambic of 6 months of age or older to add cherries, creating a new ferment in the barrels. After another 6 months the result is a fresh, sour-sweet, non-foaming and red beer with the taste of cherries.
Kriek was not necessarily made in the brewery. Many inns had Lambic barrels are manufactured their own cherry. Like cherry lambic was originally from the barrel in the typical stone jars. Afterwards they went in for bottling.
Original cherry-lambic was prepared by adding Schaarbeek cherries. Since this variety has become rare, other varieties are now used, especially cherries. Of real cherry, no added sweeteners.
According to the European rules of “guaranteed traditional specialty, GTS is a sour cherry beer produced by blending different types of lambic. It contains between 10% and 25 cherries (fruit, juice or juice concentrate). The difference between an old and a Kriek Kriek Fruit Lambic or between one or Old Fruit Lambic, among other lies in the fact that the Oude Kriek / Old Fruit Lambic has undergone a secondary fermentation and bottled on yeast.
Beersay 