8

Appearance - 8 | Aroma - 8 | Flavor - 8 | Texture - 8 | Overall - 8

Bottle. Color: Hazy purplish red, purplish pink head. Aroma: A lot of stable-like funk, tart cherries, oak wood. Taste: Light to moderate tart cherries, stable and rural funk, chery pit, tannins, wood. Notes of sour plum and some lemon. Sweetish hints. Medium body, below average carbonation. Lightly foamy mouthfeel. Very nice.

7.8

Appearance - 7 | Aroma - 7 | Flavor - 8.5 | Texture - 8 | Overall - 8

Tilquin may have become the lambic world's most diverse fruit specialist (or one of them at least) and allegedly did not initially intend so, but has always deliberately avoided the most classic of all fruit lambics, 'oude kriek', for some reason; this is now all in the past, however, with the arrival of this kriek - not with ordinary sour cherries, mind you, but with the noble Schaarbeekse variety, which has always held a special subsegment in 'oude kriek' for its history, richness and fleshiness and as such is always explicitly mentioned in the name. Needless to say, I was very curious about what 'fruit lambic specialist' Tilquin has done with this vexed fruit variety. Loudly crackling, pale off-pink, moussey, medium thick head quickly opening but retaining around the edge until completely gone, over a misty deep scarlet red robe with dark fuchsia tinge and minute bubbles everywhere, hardly visible but frantically raging through the mist. Aroma of obviously lots of sour cherry but in a somewhat 'stewed' and overripe kind of way, cooked red plum, 'soup meat' or beef broth (quite strong actually), swimming pool chlorine (vague), old storage apples, stale blood orange juice, damp tree leaves, wet oak wood, cherry stones, braised red cabbage, some background 'putteken', an odd perfumey accent - lavender almost but very volatile, sour fruit yoghurt, hints of armpit sweat, wet farmland, old balsamico, damp earth. Crisp onset, lemony at first - even a tad puckering, but mellowing after a while and not overly 'neig', though still more on the 'neige' than the 'malse' side; lots of tiny-bubbled, yet very stingy carbonation (perhaps a bit much even) piercing through a deeply tart red stonefruit effect from the sour cherries, juicy and astringent at the same time, with some of that typical Schaarbeekse fleshiness to it - but perhaps not quite as much as I was hoping for (but this is a minor detail). Rounded, quite full body, with this astringently sour fruit effect joining a fruity, vivid lactic acidity, maintaining those sharper lemony edges through a bready core and moderately tannic finish - the wood and cherry pit tannins come through easily, but this is where the 'fullness' of the Schaarbeekse 'griottes' comes in, adding a fleshy counterbalance as well as a lovely retronasal cherry wine scent, almost reminiscent of some supple Sangiovese wine. Lemony sourness lingers in the finish, a combo of the lambic's natural sours with the sour cherries I suppose, while the rest slowly fades. Rich in fruit acidity, but a bit less so in the creaminess, fleshiness and vinosity I expect from a Schaarbeekse kriek - even if those elements are certainly present, they seem a bit less developed than in the greatest Schaarbeekse lambics I had to date; do not get me wrong, this is a mighty good cherry lambic, but the stakes are high here, considering Schaarbeekse are used and considering Tilquin's specialism in fruit lambics - so for me, it does not entirely live up to my expectations. Still, as said, a great lambic of course (as expected) and one I will probably revisit if more batches avail.

7

bottle at Borefts 2024 Saturday ..deep hazy red ...soft tart berries ...soft funk cherry nose ..big dry cherry ..tart fruit ..long cherry

7.5

Appearance - 8 | Aroma - 7 | Flavor - 7 | Texture - 8 | Overall - 8

@ BXL Beerfest. Hazy red colour, white foam. Nose of almond, tart cherries, a bit lemony.

7

Hapu, happeline, kirss, kaneel, kuiv. Ok.

7.5

Appearance - 8 | Aroma - 7.5 | Flavor - 7.5 | Texture - 7 | Overall - 7.5

Bouteille 75cl @ BXLBeerFest’24 – jour 2.
Tout comme sa version ‘draft’, cette mouture de Kriek propose des cerises de Schaerbeek venant de la région e St Trond où un jeune agriculteur s’est remis à la production de ce type de cerises.
Couleur bourgogne oscillant sur l’acajou, col léger fin rosé.
Arôme est marqué par l’apport fruité – ici, une cerise au nez ayant tous les marqueurs d’une Kriek – rétro-nasal sur un bouquet généreux de cerise – rien à redire, c’est juste un tantinet moins frais avec cette volupté du bouquet que sur la version pression. A cela s’ajoute tout de même le caractère de la gueuze avec ce léger funk/citrique.
Palais est bien sur la cerise – cela reste aussi un cran en dessous de la version pression sans enlever au caractère plus complexe de la gueuze. Petite note un peu tannique de la cerise avec une longue sécheresse – finement poiré avec le côté noyau.
Version sympa en format vieille gueuze mais ma préférence reste pour celle à la pression.

7.9

Appearance - 8 | Aroma - 8 | Flavor - 8 | Texture - 8 | Overall - 7.5

Bottle at borefts. Pours pinky red, nose is cherry, funk, little balsamic, almond, taste is funk, zesty, cherry, spice.

8

Appearance - 8 | Aroma - 8 | Flavor - 8 | Texture - 8 | Overall - 8

Hazy pinkish red beer, no head. Aroma of tart red berries, cherries, grapes, funk. Taste of sour red berries, grapes, funky.

7.6

Appearance - 8 | Aroma - 7.5 | Flavor - 8 | Texture - 7 | Overall - 7.5

Angenehmer säuerlicher Beginn, natürlich, Kirschen. Dezente Essignoten, die Kirsche bleibt dabei präsent. Spritzig, weich, langer Nachhall. Konstant, lecker. 12/11/12/10/11/11