Kriek Noir
AC Golden Brewing Company

 

 

 

 

 

Big cherry, nice notes from the wine barrel aging, which makes for a very fruit forward pucker up sour. I do not taste any of the bourbon barrel aging, any layer that was meant to add has been overwhelmed by the cherry. Very enjoyable.

 

 

 

this series of beers just keeps getting better, and while the framboise noir still probably remains my favorite, this is amazing in its own right. harder to find than some of the others have been too. looks like a slightly red cognac in the glass, not much head or bubbles, great clarity, some viscosity with nice legs on the edges of the glass. it smells sensational, intensely sour for one, lactic acid all the way, but with a nice tartness from the cherries too, which appear authentic and robust. i smell a ton of red wine too, a lot more than i do of the bourbon, although i suppose i get some of its oak and alcoholic heat later on. the fruit is first in the taste, sweet and ripe cherries as well as the puckery pie cherry element, obviously aggressively proportioned, and probabaly given plenty if time to mellow in here and flavor this beer. the base sour brown might be a touch thin, i dont get a whole heap of chocolate malt or anything, but its sourness is insane. not quite as gnarly and caustic as the apricot or peche were, but this definitely is sharp and not for the casual sour dabbler. drying and puckery, mouthwatering, small doses for sure. the fruit has a touch of sweetness, and it pulls some of the fruitiness out of the wine barrels too, i taste that more than i taste bourbon by a long shot. very little carbonation, at first i dont mind it, but by the end it is a weakness to me. all this acid needs a little life to push it forward in my opinion, and its a noticeable omission. great use of barrels here, tannic red wine and light vanilla from the whiskey. tons of cherries all the way through. a really impressive beer overall here, one of my favorites in the series, and well worth the steep asking price and the tricky hunt for it. yummy!

edit: much less clear from the bottle, murky and woody and dense, yeasty, not as pretty, but the flavor is just as good. i expect this will age incredibly well as well. bomb!