Oud Beersel is a tradition lambic brewer in Belgium. Lambic beers are fermented in open containers letting the wild yeast in the air ferment the beer. As opposed to normal brewing where yeast is added to a close fermenter and great care is taken to keep the wild yeast out of the beer.
Sour cherry aroma and some earthiness are the smells of this beer. The color is a very dark red or mahogany, it has to be held to the light to really see the color. The foam is pink and starts very thick, it fizzes down to only a light covering.
This is an incredible sour beer. It tastes like cherries and lemon juice. The sour taste is so strong it is making me wince with every sip. There is some earth notes to the finish, but thats the only thing I can taste other than sour.
I've mentioned before I don't like sour beers and this is an incredibly sour beer. I know lambic can be on the sour side, but this is over the top. I dread ever sip because I know there is more sour flavor coming.
3 comments:
I enjoyed this lambic. I think a little colder, and out of a chalice rather than a bottle would have made it spectacular (I get Willie's leftovers after he pours it into a bottle)
This beer had the sour taste of cranberries. Not the cranberries with the aluminum can shape, but the pure ones that have just started popping on the stove.
A very nice beer if you have it in a proper condition, and one of my favourites in the category (and if stored properly not sour at all). How old was is, and how was it stored? Kriek Lambic should always be kept at cellar temperatures and not be allowed to be over 14~15 degrees C.
Actually the name is a bit misunderstood as well. In Belgium (being bilingual) both Flemish and Wallonian are on the label (although merged). The Flemish name is "Oude Kriek", whilst the Wallonian name is "Kriek Vieille" (hardly really Wallonian however, as "Kriek" is still much more Flemish). In English it would be just "Old Cherry [Lambic]" (or whatever more accurate translation there would be for Kriek, as they are merely a sub-gender of cherries).
I have no clue how old the beer was, the bottle looked a little rough so I would suspect some age, being a less well known brewery the beer could have been old. I got that from a store that keeps most of the beer in a fridge. If the beer is older it might have spent some time in warmer conditions that 15C (50F).
The beer that I drank was incredible sour, I'm a little disappointed to know that my bottle might have been bad.
Thank you for explaining the name of the beer. It is not uncommon for me to be confused by the Belgian beer bottle. And with some Belgian beers I can't find any websites in English when I try to learn more.
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