De Troch Kriek Lambic
Brouwerij De Troch

 

375 ml bottle into tulip glass, no bottle dating. Pours fairly crystal clear deep orange/amber, light red/copper color with a small dense light pink head with great retention, that reduces to a thin cap that lingers. Nice spotty soapy lacing clings on the glass, with a fair amount of streaming carbonation. Aromas of big juicy/tart/tangy red/black cherries, fruit skin/pits, lemon, lime, orange, peach, plum, pear, apricot, red/green apple, red grape/wine, oak, hay, straw, grass, candi sugar, wheat, and white bread; with light notes of pepper, leathery/musty/lacto funk, and yeast earthiness. Damn nice aromas with great balance and complexity of cherry juice, sugars, pale/wheat malts, and light-moderate fruity/funky/acidic yeast notes; with big strength. Taste of big juicy/tart/tangy red/black cherries, fruit skin/pits, lemon, lime, orange, peach, plum, pear, apricot, red/green apple, red grape/wine, oak, hay, straw, grass, candi sugar, wheat, and white bread; with light notes of pepper, leathery/musty/lacto funk, and yeast earthiness. Light-moderate fruity/lactic tartness, fruit tang; and light yeast/oak spiciness on the finish. Lingering notes of juicy/tart/tangy red/black cherries, fruit skin/pits, lemon, lime, orange, peach, plum, pear, apricot, red/green apple, red grape/wine, oak, hay, straw, grass, candi sugar, wheat, white bread, light pepper/leather/musty/lacto funk, and yeast earthiness on the finish for a while. Great complexity, robustness, and balance of cherry juice, sugars, pale/wheat malts, and light-moderate fruity/funky/acidic yeast flavors; with a great malt/sugar and tart/tangy fruit balance; with no cloying/puckering flavors after the finish. Light-moderate increasing dryness from lingering tart/tangy fruit and wild yeast notes. Medium carbonation, and medium-plus body; with a very smooth, creamy/grainy, fairly acidic/tangy, and lightly tannic balanced mouthfeel that is great. Zero warming alcohol as expected of 3.5%. Overall this is an excellent sweetened fruit lambic. All around great complexity, robustness, and balance of cherry juice, sugars, pale/wheat malts, and light-moderate fruity/funky/acidic yeast flavors; very smooth and refreshing to drink with the mellowly acidic/tangy/drying finish; great soft feel, and mellowly lactic. Great balance between juicy/jammy cherries, candi sugar, and pale/wheat malts; with solid Brett/Bacteria complexity. Not overly sweet/heavy from lingering dryness. A really enjoyable offering, and impressive style example. No complaints.

 

 

12.7 oz bottle served in a goblet.
Pours with a clear red body and an ephemeral head.
A nice mix of cherry flavors with faint bready notes. There's some tartness here, but this is relatively sweet for style. It's also lower in alcohol, acidity and complexity.

Time for a fruit Lambic.

Pours a cloudy red with, strangely, a white head of foam.

Smells of sweet cherry goodness. Nuff said.

Totally one dimensional taste...sweet cherries and I dig it. Sometimes simplicity in a beer is more than adequate.

Good mouthfeel, good fruit beer.

 

 

 

 

Simple, appealing label on a green bottle. Priced at 6.95 for 12 ounces, which might have once struck me as unreasonable, but since it was sitting next to a regionally brewed beer priced at 15 dollars per 12 ounces, I was more inclined to buy.

(I think the price spike in middling domestic craft ales has led directly to my finally getting around to try all these Belgians I had previously dismissed as being too expensive. Bully for the Belgians, I say. They're still kicking our ass on the whole, especially when it comes to consistency.)

Anyhow, this one opens up and before it's even poured, woah nelly, we got ourselves quite the burst of big, natural cherries. About as close to pure cherry puree as any beer I've come across excepting maybe New Glarus' Belgian Red.

Pours very dark and thick-looking with minimal fizz--again, much like cherry puree, but the appearance is less appealing than the aroma.

Post-pour, the aroma is still lively but not as complex as I was hoping. Fresh cherries dominate with no yeast or grain complexities. It's still quite nice, just not as good as the initial whiff led me to hope for.

Tastes... like cherry puree. Very sweet, very nice, but very one-dimensional. Even with the green bottle, the funk and complexity is minimal, with only the smallest hint of acidity on the very back end and just a wee bit of Belgian yeast on the finish.

This would be a great choice if you thought Lindemann's framboise was too adventurous. Which isn't to say that it's bad, just very sweet and straightforward.

 

From a bottle at Pizzeria Paradiso in Alexandria, VA. Poured into a stemmed tulip. $13 for 375 cc.

De Troch uses cherry syrup and in my opinion they use too much. Almost no sour or lactic flavors. Put more carbonation in this beer and it might taste like a cherry soda. 2.75

A - A nice opaque cranberry color with almost no head. Almost still. 4.25

S – Sweet. Cherry candy. 2.75

T - Sweet cherries. Like a cherry lifesaver. Very low lactic flavors. 2.75

MF – Smooth with a medium light body. Sweet finish but not cloying. 3.25

Poured from a bottle into a pint glass at the World of Beer in Columbia, SC. The appearance is a murky reddish color with a large white head. The aroma is full of cherries. The taste is all sweet cherries. A very good lambic.

 

 

 

Look: cloudy Crimson pour, somewhat fluffy head lingers.

Smell: lots of bright Cherry, almost like a new glarus fruit beer. Heavy sweet pie filling with faint funk (almost more like a light B.O.)

Taste: all sugar, very sweet, mild acidity, slightly tart in the corners of the palate but it's almost like dessert. Long finish, little to no complexity. Faint bandaid.

Feel: low carb, somewhat rich with sugar content. Slightly astringent from the cherry.

Overall : pleasant, one note, nothing offensive but not what I am looking for in a Kriek personally.

Pours an opaque super dark crimson with a foamy reddish-khaki head that settles to a partial film on top of the beer. Foamy streaks of lace form around the glass on the drink down. Smell is slightly sour with black cherry, cherry juice, cherry candy, and earth aromas. Taste is much the same with sweet and slightly sour black cherry and cherry juice flavors on the finish. There is a mild amount of acidity on the palate with each sip. This beer has a lower level of carbonation with a slightly crisp mouthfeel. Overall, this is a pretty good beer that is way more sweet than sour, but still has some nice black cherry qualities that are better in the smell to me.

Serving type: bottle.