One of these new beers under John Martin’s Waterloo brand, no idea where this is brewed, as is often the case with this terrible contract brewer. Lightly lacing, off-pinkish, moussy head of medium thickness, slowly dissipating; cristal clear vermillion red robe with somewhat pinkish hue, no visible fizz. Aroma reeks very strongly - i.e. from a yard distance - of sweet, sticky red candy (’poepegatjes’ and the like) more than anything else; other, fainter impressions include white sugar, nougat, candied lemon, iron (and not in a natural way), plastic, grenadine, a lot of fusel alcohol, melting rubber and - perhaps - sugared stewed rhubarb. Only when trying very hard, the faintest echo of the sweetest of the Timmermans Krieks seems to appear. Extremely sweet onset, cloying and red candy-like, with a very artificial and one-dimensional candied cherry flavour - but still the sticky red candy character dominates. Carbo is medium, a tad minerally, mouthfeel is ’full’ and rounded but suffers from the sugary stickiness; some ascorbic, lemonade-like sourishness cannot bring any relief and underneath lies a very caramelly, simple malt sweet backbone. The ascorbic acidity gains force towards the finish and struggles with the red candy stickiness but since both are horrible flavours in beer, I do not care which one wins; both aspects go down ingloriously and leave little truly ’beery’. Hops are as good as absent apart from a very vague, virtual bitterish touch far away at the back and to make things worse, wodka-like alcohol shows up in the very end, balancing on the brink of astringency. Cloying red candy sweetness gets the last word - and I passionately hate it. I admit that there are weak traces of Timmermans Kriek in the end, but in all, this is again one of those extra strong and simple sweet ’kriek’ beers which seem to appeal to a younger audience in especially French-speaking Belgium and northern France, a completely useless addition to the already depressing league of Delirium Red, Gauloise Fruits Rouges or Kasteelbier Rouge. This is almost like a lighter version of that repulsive Gordon Xplosion Red Fruit, aimed at a different audience, and equally abhorrent. John Martin would not exist anymore today if it weren’t for their strong, cheap lagers which are consumed in large quantities by alcoholics, but has not contributed anything to Belgian beer culture in the past thirty years. I hate them, I hate one-sidedly, sugary sweet beers, I hate John Martin’s contempt for the more educated beer consumer and I hate this strong Kriek with a passion. Avoid at all time.