The name ’Timmermans Kriek’ was once very simple, and represented only one beer, an artificially sweet kriek in the style of Lindemans Kriek. Nowadays there are at least four Timmermans Krieks, and if I am not mistaken, this is one of the more recently added ones. Based on the ingredients list (fruit juice, and not only sour cherry but also elderberry and even apple, as well as E300 which is nothing less than ascorbic acid), I expect another sweet and compromised ’kriek’, trying to look serious in a 37.5 cl bottle. Audibly crackling, off-white, somewhat creamy but thin head consisting of tiny bubbles and retaining well, over a beautifully deep vermillion red robe, cristal clear till and including the last drop (filtered!) with quite some fizz. Aroma of damp cellar, elderberry syrup, cherry jam, some moist wood, stewed and sugared apples but also some apple peel, hints of cinnamon, ruby port, lemonade and red cabbage (not in a DMS way) - but nothing convincingly lambic-like, apart from the woody notes. I even get a hint of the typical, cooked smell of pasteurisation, so this is in no way reminiscent of a true ’oude kriek’. Soft sourish onset, spritzy and even a bit overcarbonated perhaps, ’mals’, soft mouthfeel, very fruity but in a sweet, sugared, jam- and candy-like way, like the red fruit sauce my grandmother poured over vanilla ice cream. The sweetness fortunately remains tolerable to some extent, there is a certain mild acidity, but this seems to come more from the lemonade-like ascorbic acid than from natural lambic acids. Supple, smooth but rather thin middle phase, a tad wheaty and a bit bready, leading to a sweet finish with cloying red fruit jam and fruit candy along with the ascorbic acid, distracting from the important things, such as a very soft lactic lambic acidity and subtle retronasal woodiness. I do not see the point in this: this is another compromised, sweet kriek in all respects, though admittedly it has retained a certain, albeit wafer thin lambic character - making it fall between two chairs, as the French say: true lambic afficionados will not like this, and the less discriminating sweet kriek consumer will find it a bit odd and not sweet enough, I’m afraid. Drinkable alright, but redundant and far less ’retro’ or ’Breugheliaans’ than the label wants you to believe, this is just another ’industrial’ kriek in disguise, filtered, sugared, pasteurised and ’lemonised’ with ascorbic acid (always a horrific thing in beer), but still a slightly better option than the Timmermans Tradition Kriek Lambic and certainly that awfully sweet Timms Kriek.

Pale red. 2 finger head. Cereal. Fermented wheat nose. Sweet taste. Too much almost. Raisins and cherry pie

Imported from my RateBeer account as Timmermans Tradition Kriek Retro Lambic (by Timmermans (John Martin)):
Aroma: 7/10, Appearance: 3/5, Taste: 7/10, Palate: 4/5, Overall: 14/20, MyTotalScore: 3.5/5

21/IV/14 - 37.5cl bottle from de Lambiek (Alsemberg) @ home - BB: 19/X/12 (apparently they sold this to me one or two months before it went bad, never noticed of course) (2014-378)

Clear ruby red beer, aery light pink head, little stable, bit adhesive. Aroma: sweet cherries, bit metallic, cork, bit of basement, more metallic. MF: ok carbon, medium body. Taste: little bitter, sweet cherries, little sugary, lemony, citric acidity. Aftertaste: citric, bitter touch, metallic, sweet cherries, bit sugary. Not bad, but definitely not the best Kriek they ever made. If age should have changed anything, then it would have been by making it more sour, and having the brett eat the sugar. So I'm wondering if they pasteurize this beer...

Das Bier ist braun-rötlich im Glas und riecht nach Kirschessig! Der Geschmack hingegen ist sehr vollmundig-fruchtig, aber leicht wässrig. Der Hauptteil ist säuerlicher werdend mit leicht übertriebenen Kirsch- und Fruchtaromen. Nicht unbedingt künstlich, aber zu viel! Der Nachgeschmack ist leicht sauer-angenehm ohne chemische Noten - ziemlich natürlich.
Aber insgesamt schmeckt das Bier für mich zu "Überfruchtsaftet" - ein bisschen weniger hätte dem Ganzen ganz bestimmt nicht geschadet. Zum Schluss noch die aufgelisteten Zutaten: "Wasser, Fruchtsaft (Kirsch 9,5%, Apfel 2,6%, Holunderbeer 1,2%), Gerstenmalz, Weizen, Zucker, Hopfen, Aromen, Antioxidationsmittel E300".
Test vom 16.3.2008, Gebinde: Glasflasche Noten: 12,10,12,7,12,10 - 10,15

375 c&c from Bu11zeye. Pours clear ruddy copper with no head. Aroma is very tart cherry. Med body or nearly. Tart enough to cause a shudder upon it hitting my mouth. But then some "sugar" came out. The next quaff was tart enough to cause a shudder. Involuntary, understand. It’s still possible to get some "sugar", but it is quite tart overall. I think it’s quite underrated. Nice, tart, kriek.

Bottle: Clear, ruby-amber coloured, small pinkish head, cherries and grains in the mouldy-sourish nose; moderate sweet-sour flavour, pretty light bodied; light to moderate sourish-sweet finish, surprisingly with cherries and a lingering tartness in the aftertaste. Quite O.K., even though not overly convincing…