Kriek Lambic Tradition

New rendition of the classic Mort Subite Kriek, which has, with the introduction of this one, been split up in a more ’commercial’ (i.e. sickly sweet) version now called Mort Subite Kriek Lambic and this allegedly more ’traditional’ (sour) version, seemingly inspired by Timmermans, which, under John Martin’s, made the same division within a number of their former beers. From a 37.5 cl geuze bottle. The ingredients list mentions, except from the usual suspects, cherries, cherry juice, (supposedly cherry) aromas and sugar - an ominous sign. Off-pinkish white, bubbly but dense, regular, stable head leaving cobweb lacing, vermillion red robe with somewhat ’dark orangey’ hue. Aroma sadly does not remind me of lambic at all: sweet industrial cherry or even red berry jam, even a lot of red candy (Haribo and the like), red cabbage cooked with brown sugar, honey, plastic and the unmistakable cooked smell of pasteurization, ’bessenjenever’, sweet ketchup, soggy sandwiches or even ’mastellen’ (a Gent delicacy), heavily sugared stewed rhubarb, rubber. Relatively spritzy onset but fortunately not too overcarbonated, immediately sticky and sugary sweetness clinging to the teeth, artificial ascorbic (lemonade-like) sour accent trying to counter it but little of the promised sour cherries - sweet cherry jam at best; supple, smooth mouthfeel, malt sweet core with caramelly touch but overpowered by the sugary cherry jam flavor, very vague dryish woody hint all the way at the back, but no actual lambic character worth mentioning. The red candy sweetness, something I passionately hate, sticks to the teeth for a long time. Smells like an industrial, pasteurized, ’fake’ beer and that is basically what this is: the plastic odour and the sugar kept bothering me throughout while at the same time, there is no trace of lambic complexity or even funkiness. I remember the Mort Subite Oude Kriek, limitedly produced years ago, was quite authentic (though not entirely - and certainly not up there with the great icons in the style), but this one is far removed from that: this is totally redundant. Granted, it is just a tad less sickly sweet than that ’Kriek Lambic’ version and a tad less horrible, but that is a matter of detail: I expect something totally different when I see ’tradition’ on the label of a 37.5 cl lambic bottle with cork. This edition has more to do with marketing, trying to evoke the original version of Mort Subite Kriek before it was split up in two, but like its predecessor, it belongs in a time when beer consumers were less educated and when sweet sugary krieks were commercially popular. Apart from the flavor as such, which I find utterly unpleasant, I am maybe even more bothered by this opportunistic commercialism in which the consumer is lead to believe he is going to receive something true to the authentic Brabant lambic tradition. Big boo for Heineken, the ultimately responsible entity for this... thing. Avoid both Mort Subite Krieks that are currently on the market!