Speling van het Lot XIV.ii: Langste Nacht 2019 - Krieken en Kruiden op het Koelschip
Brouwerij 3 Fonteinen

We have got to be getting down to the end of these two dozen or so drie3 lambics from the greatest tasting ever. Here's one I really dug.

A burnt orange pour similar looking to the ibu wars dipas. Difference being even with all those hop oils, they still held a head better than this one, it just disappears after pouring. But it is carbonated. The aroma is a nice blend of cherry and wheat in particular standing out here. Usual lemon sourness. I even grabbed a hint of that coriander and other "winter spices" I presume. Had a wet sherry wood feel.

The taste pushes the cherry to the forefront. Slightly different from the regular kriek. Less grams per liter I'd guess. LIght cinnamon and clove impact. Interesting feel of woody cherry pit and wooden barrel in the mouthfeel. Thankfully less acidic and boozy than some in this series. Its a very different variation with the spices element, closest thing I can think to compare it to is if you blended some vignerone with oude kriek and knocked something off the spice rack that fell into the blend.

A 750ml corked and caged bottle, blend°45, season 20/21, bottled on 13th April 2021, bottle number 0914/2331. Poured into a Tilquin stemmed glass.

Appearance: A hazy golden dark orange colour with a thin white head that disappeared almost immediately while leaving only sparse to no lacing.

Aroma: Candied cherry, orange peel, herbal notes, and a touch of cinnamon.

Taste: Tart, lightly sour, cherry, orange, wood, cinnamon, herbal, cough medicinal notes.

Mouthfeel: Medium to light bodied with soft carbonation.

Overall: Light and refreshing. Aroma was ok, but not great. Luckily the taste did mostly make up for this. I do prefer carbonation in my beers more than not, but this seems to be the second beer in the Langste Nacht 2019 series with soft to no carbonation, that I felt worked well despite the lack of carbonation.

amazing to drink the three beers in this series in the same sitting with the homies, super fun and rare obviously, but none of these rank among the best of what this epic brewery produces, just feeling lucky to have had access. this is labeled number two, but i dont think there was a one, if there was, i have not seen it and didnt find anything online about it, weird. anyway, this one is done with sherry barrel staves, cherries, and winter spices, its pinkish orange, hazy, and without much head in the glass even though there is some carbonation. never seen a handwritten side label on one of these beers until now! nose is tart and tangy but somehow less mature than their best, cherries are piquant like cranberries, i get mandarin orange, vanilla, old grain and cardboard, faint sherry, white pepper, golden raisin, chamomile, and cinnamon, wintery for sure, but strange, and without the amazing ferment i am used to in their beer. the flavor follows, a raspberry note with the cherry, but this isnt super fruity as they go. woody, even a sawdust element oddly, tangy and acidic without the usual funk, white wine sharpness, and more of the spices as it warms, almost peppery, peachy, oxidized, weird as they come, definitely pretty full bodied too. more of the sherry stave character would be welcomed, but its not invisible either, and its neat with the cherry. a cool project, but maybe my least favorite of the three beers in this little run, just seems so much less refined than how i know their beer to be, all three of them do to some extent...

Foggy peachy-amber with a short, slightly slanted khaki head that fizzles out to a mostly smooth surface.

This may be the first winter-spiced Belgian beer I've drunk in a decade, most especially lambic, which was likely a Fantôme. Making for a very drying swallow, those spices consist of very faint but present qualities of cinnamon, cardamom and clove, otherwise accenting the naturally cinnamon-like qualities of sour cherries along with notes of black pepper, supreme oak tannin and a moderate acidity. At times this all seems to develop into floral characteristics of plum.

To this Longest Night, on which this beer was inoculated 3 years ago to the day.

 

Bottle pour into a taster glass.
Murky orange amber color with minimal head. Really unique. Cherry skin, oak, wine, and soothing spice. Moderate mouthfeel and carbonation.