The sweet ’kriek’ from Wilderen, made with lambic from the Omer Vander Ghinste brewery (why didn’t they keep the simple name ’Bockor’?), so a Western Flemish variant of lambic. Bubbly, moussy, pale pink, lightly lacing head, slowly dissipating in the middle; cristal clear, deep vermillion red robe with ruby hue. Aroma almost one-sidedly dominated by sweet red candy (those horrible ’poepegatjes’ or something red from Haribo), heavily sugared industrial cherry jam, soda pop, soap, a faint whiff of slurry pit which fortunately quickly fades to as good as nothing, stewed apple and even a hint of wood tannins deeply buried underneath, but very, very faintly so. Sugary sweet onset, a lot of overripe sweet cherries (the ’natural’ side of it) along with cloying red candy sweetness (the ’industrial’ side), sticking to the teeth. Carbo remains altogether soft (perhaps some more fizziness could distract from that awful red candy sugar sweetness in this case), resulting in a slick, sticky mouthfeel; some vague hints of soapy wheat and very vaguely bready barley remain recognizable underneath, but the red candy sweetness keeps drowning any attempt from other components to stick their heads up. Ends expectedly cloying and sweet too, with a mild sourish touch which reminds me a lot more of ascorbic acid (soda pop, in other words) than of lambic. Surely some of Bockor’s lambic - its ’lambic status’ being a bit doubtful as it is - has been used here, but I’m guessing it has been mixed with Wilderen Goud or another bland ale and then expertly made unrecognizable with not just the cherry juice, but a truckload of sugar and ascorbic acid, in an attempt to create something along the lines of Vander Ghinste’s own Kriek Max, thus trying to surf on the latter’s commercial success in a more local setting. Sticky cherry candy in liquid form - Wilderen has always aimed at the wider, uneducated audience and this approach clearly does not do the Belgian (or even Limburg) beer culture any good. This brewery is about making money with clichés that will not shock the average Belgian consumer more than anything else. I never trusted them and this red candy beer obviously will not make me change my mind about them.