Devil's Cuvée Kriek
Double Mountain Brewery & Cidery in Hood River, Oregon, United States 🇺🇸
Flemish Red / Bruin Regular|
Score
7.45
|
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Belgian Style Sour Ale with Cherries Aged in Oak Barrels
Holy shit this beer is good. Like, really fucking good. It really is the red wine drinker’s gateway beverage, and I mean that in the best of ways. It’s so oaky and tannic and complex that it really encourages you to sip and ponder everything that is going on in that glass. I especially love the color that the Devil’s picked up from the barrels, it’s so much darker than its straight-up counterpart. Remember, these beers take *over two years* to make, and they are absolutely worth the wait. I’m thrilled to have them on draft this year and already can’t wait to see how next year’s turns out.
Cuvée loosely means that it is a product of higher quality, much like wine makers use the term “reserve” to designate a special batch. This beer is indeed special. All of the 2017 Cuvée vintages sat on brand new oak, which is also a special thing. Most breweries don’t do this—in fact we’re the only brewery that Demptos (company that makes our barrels) has ever worked with. This also means that these beers are definitely oak-forward. Fortunately, the high alcohol and complexity of our sours means that they hold their own, balancing nicely with the oak character.
Yeast: Abbey, Kolsch, Brettanomyces lambicus, natural microbes from fruit
Hops: Sterling
Malt: Pilsner, Wheat, Crystal, Roast Barley
Holy shit this beer is good. Like, really fucking good. It really is the red wine drinker’s gateway beverage, and I mean that in the best of ways. It’s so oaky and tannic and complex that it really encourages you to sip and ponder everything that is going on in that glass. I especially love the color that the Devil’s picked up from the barrels, it’s so much darker than its straight-up counterpart. Remember, these beers take *over two years* to make, and they are absolutely worth the wait. I’m thrilled to have them on draft this year and already can’t wait to see how next year’s turns out.
Cuvée loosely means that it is a product of higher quality, much like wine makers use the term “reserve” to designate a special batch. This beer is indeed special. All of the 2017 Cuvée vintages sat on brand new oak, which is also a special thing. Most breweries don’t do this—in fact we’re the only brewery that Demptos (company that makes our barrels) has ever worked with. This also means that these beers are definitely oak-forward. Fortunately, the high alcohol and complexity of our sours means that they hold their own, balancing nicely with the oak character.
Yeast: Abbey, Kolsch, Brettanomyces lambicus, natural microbes from fruit
Hops: Sterling
Malt: Pilsner, Wheat, Crystal, Roast Barley
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7.8/10
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Appearance 6
Aroma 8
Flavor 8
Texture 6
Overall 9
On tap at brewery. Pours murky ruddy brown. Aroma has dark cherries, raspberries, vinous red wine notes, and wood. Flavour has juicy dark cherries, raspberries, smooth oak, and some grassy stems. Fantastic dark fruit sour ale.
Tried
from Draft
on 12 Aug 2024
at 04:51
6.8/10
—
Appearance 6
Aroma 6
Flavor 7
Texture 8
Overall 7
Pours a muddy reddish-brown from a bottle, slightly pink head with medium sized bubbles dissipates quickly to a thin layer, no lacing. Leathery cherry aroma becomes more of a oaky wine with significant vinegar as you breathe deeplier. Flavor starts off tart, but the tartness fades and leaves a slightly sweet cherry juice. Good beer.
Tried
from Bottle
on 03 Sep 2018
at 22:25
7.8/10
—
Appearance 8
Aroma 7
Flavor 8
Texture 8
Overall 8
Courtesy of Matt; Devil’s Kriek 2014
Dark brown color. Strong aroma of cherry yoghurt; the secondary aroma is a very fruity wine, almost strawberries. Moderately sour, fruity, definitively milky, yoghurt-like, but pleasant.
I guess that there has been some weird yeast here, but the result is nice.
Dark brown color. Strong aroma of cherry yoghurt; the secondary aroma is a very fruity wine, almost strawberries. Moderately sour, fruity, definitively milky, yoghurt-like, but pleasant.
I guess that there has been some weird yeast here, but the result is nice.
Tried
on 21 Oct 2016
at 01:04
7.9/10
—
Appearance 8
Aroma 8
Flavor 8
Texture 8
Overall 7.5
375mL bottle, pours a deep dark pinkish mahogany with a small pinkish head. Aroma brings outs tons of tart cherry skins, followed by oak and wood. Flavour is massively woody and vinous, with a lovely red wine character dominating upfront, with tons of wood, oak, and tart cherries. Finishes with a lovely mix of tart cherries and oak. There's a yogurty quality on the finish as well. Excellent.
Tried
from Draft
on 21 Oct 2016
at 00:50
7.6/10
—
Appearance 8
Aroma 7
Flavor 7
Texture 8
Overall 8.5
Bottle. Pours a dark ruby brown with small beige head that lasts. The aroma is cherry cheesecake and a hint of butter. Thin mouth, nice tartness, cherry pie, buttery crust, light finish, very nice.
Tried
from Bottle
on 26 May 2016
at 21:39