Schaarbeekse Oude Kriek
Brouwerij Eylenbosch (2019 - ... ) in Kobbegem, Flemish Brabant, Belgium 🇧🇪
Lambic Style - Kriek Regular|
Score
7.53
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Appearance - 6 | Aroma - 8 | Flavor - 7 | Texture - 6 | Overall - 7
Hazy reddish colour, thin layer of foam, disappears quickly. Tart, vinegary, fruity cherries, even a bit salty. Not very well balanced, too tart.
Appearance - 8 | Aroma - 8.5 | Flavor - 7.5 | Texture - 7 | Overall - 8
Bottle at home. Deep ruby with short lasting fizzy pink head. Tons of cherries up front with light spice and almonds, but not a massive cinnamon bomb like some Schaarbeekse cherry beers. Lactic and even a bit citrus sour, oak, light herbal and leafy and a bit of red currants. Quite sour, lighter sweet. Medium bodied. A bit sharp and not super complex but overall pretty decent.
Appearance - 8 | Aroma - 8.5 | Flavor - 7.5 | Texture - 8 | Overall - 8
The most recent addition to the renewed Eylenbosch range (not to be confused with Boerenerf Eylenbosch as I noticed is already happening here and there), with 459 grams of the famed Schaarbeekse cherries per liter lambic (of 8 and 20 months old), macerated for nine months. Medium thick, pale lilac-tinged pink, fizzing, tiny-bubbled head, quickly settling as a dense, open, thin and eventually completely dissolving ring around the edge; initially clear, deep wine red robe with ruby glow, turning deeper purple-ish wine red and misty further on (with the bottom of the bottle containing dark red-brown grit from the fruit). Aroma of sour cherry juice and skins, dark green tree leaves and bitter garden weeds (typically De Troch), green walnuts, almond, redcurrant, swimming pool chlorine (but not too 'heavy'), unripe plum, wet oak wood, unripe orange, crumbling dry earth, raw beetroot, lemon flesh, dust, spring water, vague touch of Limburg 'zuurvlees' faraway in the background. Crisp, sour onset, lots of sour cherry astringency but also fleshiness, bit puckering at first with sharp lemony and redcurrant-like edges; accents of wild apples and rhubarb as well, all fizzily carbonated with minerally effects. Dry mouthfeel, rounded and full, tad vinous but mostly astringent from the combination of lactic acidity, fruit acidity and heavy tannins from the fruit's skins and pits, accompanying a bready 'soil' to a fruit-fleshy, long finish where the wood from the barrels further accentuates the tannic astringency of the fruit's skins and pits. Minerally and 'swimming pool' effects abound, and briefly but unmistakably, that rich almond-like aroma of this sour cherry variety pops up retronasally. Sourness remains generally strong, matching with the dry and astringent character of this kriek, but the fleshiness of the fruit does add some balance to that as well. Deeply situated 'old hop' bitterness is noticeable too, though briefly so, and hard to set apart from the bitter aspects brought by the fruit; some horse steak-like proteins also subtly linger at the back, and a thin lemony edge refreshingly remains on the tongue after swallowing. The typical fleshy and almondy 'Schaarbeekse' character is there, but not as thickly, intensely and convincingly so as in the best Schaarbeekse cherry lambics by longer established producers; still, a solid and credible lambic offering from this producer. Suitable as a kind of 'introduction' to Schaarbeekse kriek, perhaps?
Appearance - 7 | Aroma - 7.5 | Flavor - 7 | Texture - 8 | Overall - 7
Pours an intense, deep dark red . pinkwhite head. Scent is wet cherries, full on , candy-like intensity. Taste is full, lots of almond-like cherry pits, but also very fruity. Acidity is fairly simple, little to no finish. Full fruityness on a fairly dry back. Medium to medium high carbo. Decent. Fairly high on what seems like lactic acid, surprisinlgy low on complexity in acids for a lambic.