Limitedly produced version of Oud Beersel Oude Kriek made with only ’Schaarbeekse griotten’, an old school sour cherry variety which has become increasingly rare and therefore expensive, though it is being gradually reintroduced lately thanks to the lambic revival. Warning: the muselet already broke when I opened this and a second later, the cork, without even having been touched, shot right out of the bottle with a loud bang and literally hit the ceiling - I had other cases of 75 cl bottles releasing their corks with violence, but never to this extent (fortunately I had just turned my head when it happened); gushing followed one second later but I managed to capture the beer in my tasting glass without spilling one drop. A light pink, bubbly, rosé champagne-like head is formed upon pouring, very loudly crackling, only to dissolve to as good as nothing in a few instants. Never mind: this is authentic lambic, in which head retention is not such a big deal. The colour of this kriek is truly stunning: a misty, deeply bright rosy, fuchsia-hued ruby red, glowing from within the glass. Aroma, though somewhat restrained, bears all the richness and funkiness of any good ’oude kriek’: a ton of fresh sour cherries of course, but also impressions of red raspberry, sweet cherry tomato, moist wood and cherry pits, sour yoghurt, musty barnyard, horse meat and horse sweat, red wine vinegar, moldy lemon peel, wry grape peel, unripe green plum and a hint of stale urine as in many other lambics, and as in many other lambics, fitting in well. This whole array of impressions explodes in the mouth, which is immediately bombarded with an unusually copious amount of sour cherry tartness, through which a more puckering lemony and wine vinegar-like acidity pierces and which is adorned with estery impressions of wry, unripe and ’still hard’ nectarine or peach, sour gooseberry and redcurrant, all set in a fiercely carbonated environment but in the good sense, i.e. busily and pleasantly stinging the tongue like a vividly sparkling rosé champagne. Lactic tartness, as in sour yoghurt, shows up after the lemony acidity begins to calm down a bit and along with the overload of sour stonefruit, they work together to completely dry the mouth cavity, on a bed of soft soapy wheat and bready barley - both of which are buried under so much tartness. The dryness is further increased in the finish, when cherry pit and wood tannins get to play along, eventually rounded off by a late but very noticeable, earthy, ’dim’ old hop bitterness mingling nicely with the lambic and fruit sourness, as is the case in their regular Oude Kriek as well. High degree of sourness indeed, but remaining very bearable if you are used to artisanal lambic beers; ’Schaarbeekse krieken’ are very tart and lack most of the sugars present in many other sour cherry varieties, but if used properly as is obviously the case here, they do add body and fruit ’rotundity’ as well as utter dryness - and that is what elevates this version above Oud Beersel’s already very accomplished regular Oude Kriek. This probably gets even better with age (bottle is only about one year old now). A luxury lambic for sure, up there among the greats in the sour cherry lambic segment, hopefully they are planning to do this every year from now on...

750 ml. green bottle. Same design style as the green walnut. Bottle states limited edition 2015 (it has been released just now). Bottled 19/01/2016. Both the green walnuts & the sour cherries that were used here were handpicked by the breweries in the same garden in a village in Pajottenland in 2014. Pours massively bright ruby red, very nice, head is an incredibly deep pink but sadly fizzes away almost instantly leaving almost nothing. Nose is puckering sour yoghurt cherries, heavy on the skins & pits and a sourness that is reminiscent of traditional yoghurt with a dash of lemon peel, lightly fizzy, could have been a tad richer. Taste is rather puckering, lemon peel acidity, strong, sourness is limited to that, not funk, massive branches, cherry leaves, sour cherry skins, cherry pits here, interesting quite woody, everything but the actual fruit flesh it seems. Interesting profile. Acidity is very sharp. Beer is a bit too fizzy, touch empty. Very faint metallic touch in the finish. Interesting profile with all the leaves, branches its, cherries are good, strongly puckering but it feels a tad empty and fizzy. Overall good but could have been even more, very big step up from the regular Kriek looking at my score (I haven’t had that one in years). Overall a very good effort & very nice beer that could have been even better from these guys. The price point is very steep, Oud Beersel’s stag at the high end market remains an interesting move, if I wasn’t that big of a sucker for lambiek, this one wouldn’t be worth it but yeah I am & these guys know it. Going by their other beers, I can see bottles of this standing in the store for at least another year. If you disregard the price & love the style this is an interesting, fun and good beer.