Kriek
Brouwerij Hof Ten Dormaal

Shared 330 ml bottle. Hazy red colour. Intense and lovely aroma of sour cherries and cherry kernels, notes of almonds and marzipan. Lovely sour flavour of cherries and cherry kernels.

 

 

Kriek from Brouwerij Hof ten Dormaal. Purchased 11/10/20 for $ 10.18 (Including tax) for 11.2 oz bottle ($ 0.909/oz) from Shangy’s in Emmaus, PA. Reviewed 12/4/20.
“Batch 2016” and “Best before 28/02/2019”. On room temperature shelf at store and stored at home at 42 degrees. Served at 47.2 degrees in a hand washed and dried Jester King snifter. Final temperature 53.4 degrees.
Appearance – 3.75.
First pour – Red, clear.
Body – Burgundy, almost opaque, precipitate. When held to direct light, carmine and nearly clear.
Head – Average (Maximum three cm, aggressive center pour), baby pink, high density, and fizzy, short retention, rapidly diminishing to a five to eight mm crown and a complete cap.
Lacing – None.
Aroma – 4 – Moderate cherry, no hops, no malt, no yeast. Lasts.
Flavor – 4 – Begins tart with cherry syrup flavor. No malt, no hops, no yeast. Ends slightly sour with cherry and a hint of aldehyde. No alcohol (6.5 % ABV, as marked on container) taste or aroma. No dimethylsulfide or diacetyl.
Palate – 4 – Medium, watery, lively and aggressive carbonation.
Final impression and summation: 4 Decent, particularly when you consider that it’s a year past outdate. Price point is rather high.

I think elrogish brought this one camping in 2018 as well.

Pours a good red color indicative of belgian kriek, but from a regular 12oz crown cap bottle, don't see that every day. Its a bright color and its pretty, but there isn't much in the way of head formation. A sour cherry aroma that has as much vinegar acetic acid to it you'd think you were drinking a flanders without the earthiness.

Taste imparts a darker cherry alongside the tart one(s) noticeable in the nose in solitude. Perhaps it simply has a stronger malt bill giving the feel of a variety of cherries. The sourness definitely pushes through, I thought from the nose it was gonna be more tame, but this cuts with a level of sourness that all the big boys seem to have these days from that neck of the woods. The wood proportion is significant here. This is a nice woody kriek. I wish I could find some of these bottles, I've never seen such a thing on a shelf, so definitely glad I got to try it.

Little head. Nice cherry aroma. Sour cherry flavor.

 

 

 

Batch 2016

Pours cloudy ruby rose red with a pinkish off-white foam head. Huge aged brettanomyces profile with prominent leather, rubber tire, bandaids, diaper, some cherries, cherry pie, wheaty malts, cinnamon-esque sweet spice, clove, with floral earthy hops. Feels medium lighter bodied, creamy with smooth moderate high carbonation. Overall a nice kriek ale aged with sour cherries.

 

 

Intense both in look and flavours, this kriek delivers an almost completely flat lambic with huge amounts of sour cherries. It lacks a bit of balance and shows some trouble in fermentation

on draft

clear, dark red in color with pinkish highlights, white head. nice tart cherry aroma. taste is full of the cherry flavor without much sweetness, not like the cloyingly sweet mass produced fruit lambics. medium bodied, lively carbonation.

 

 

 

It is becoming a rare pleasure for me to have a first sample from an authentic Belgian farmhouse brewer. (This may be my first new brewhouse in several months.) Hof Ten Dormaal website is effectively simple. Their Kriek is elegant.

Looks like the real deal. Smells and Tastes, genuine, too. Both come in pleasantly tart and funky, though not over-bearing. The ale lets the malt in to play so it can finish consistently with its teasing, gentle pucker. Had this before food (as it was Indian; but this dried my mouth to prepare for those active spices.) It was worth experience for the $10 paid.

I give this brewer extra Overall points for carrying on the Belgian farmhouse tradition of its region and its farm-to-table and sustainable intention. For my next bottle, I promise to have it with appropriate food. I will look for their Blond.

 

 

L: Poured from a bottle to a snifter glass. Had a deep, ruby red color and a thick, cloudy consistency. There was a thin, off white, foamy head that quickly dissipated. Not much lacing to speak of.

S: A very nice aroma of cherries, Belgian yeast, citrus, and a funky quality.

T: Tasted of a tinge of citrus fruit (lemon, in particular), a bit of funk (not too much), a ton of sour cherries, a good amount of Belgian yeast, and light malt. An incredibly well done flavor that's extremely tart and sour. It has an odd complexity to it; the cherries mix well with the funkier elements of the taste.

F: A solid amount of carbonation with a lively finish. Medium-bodied.

O: A very enjoyable lambic. Light, lively, and tasty, Drinkable.

Bottle. Purple raspberry color. Lots of cherry pie filling with a medicinal funk and some tartness. A bit acidic. Very lambic like and you’d have a tough time telling otherwise.

Poured a dark, ruby color with a small, pink head of foam. It smelled of sour black cherry with subtle notes of lemon. Sweet cherry notes with a puckering sourness. Some maltiness, too.

 

 

 

 

Look: Dark berry red, slightly hazy. Off-white head with pink highlights and excellent retention.

Smell: A complex mélange of barnyard funk, sour cherries, and damp hay.

Taste: Sweet yet dry, with waves of sour cherries. Vinous tannins, and a pleasant, lingering fruity, earthy finish.

Feel: Medium body, medium-low (for the style) carbonation.

Overall: Excellent kriek. I used the dregs for a sour of my own; 18-24 months from now, we'll see how it turned out.

 

Poured from 330mL bottle into a tulip.

Appearance: rich, deep, dark red hue with no haze and a finger of charmingly pink foam. Impressively red.

Smell: sweet and malty with an almost medicinal cherry aroma. I like it, and the medicinal nature does not bother me at all.

Taste: sweet and tart with plenty of cherry and more of that phenolic medicinal taste. I like this beer, but I want to like it more, and that taste is getting in the way.

Mouthfeel: medium-light body with a moderate carbonation and a refreshing fizziness.

Overall: it's a decent kriek which is a style I love, so obviously I like this beer, but if the medicinal element could be toned down a little it would be even better.

 

 

Reviewed from notes. Poured from an 11.2 oz. bottle into an El Catador teku glass.

A: Pours a fairly hazy burgundy, with a half-finger of pink head that really doesn't last too long. A good amount of visible carbonation though.

S: Earthy funk and tart berries. Cheesy, feet and barnyard, with lactic tartness and sour cherries. Light cracker malts underneath. I’m not sure if this was aged in a barrel, but there are some vanilla notes, like you would get from some oak. As it warms, there are more vinous and acetic sour notes that arrive. It's a pretty complex aroma, and appealing.

T: Sour cherries up front. Then a mixed lactic and acetic sourness, and fairly acidic. A tannic vinous dryness stays over the cracker malt underpinnings. The cheesy and earthy funk again here, though not quite as much as on the nose. Then some more tart cherry pie filling. A dry fruity tartness in the hang.

M: A medium body for style, and low alcohol presence. The carbonation sensation is a bit on the low side.

O: Good, but not great. The depth of funk is just a bit lacking, and it doesn't have the completely natural juicy fruit flavors to make up for it. The fruit profile tastes like they may have back-sweetened it with sugar a bit? But either way, it's tasty - especially for something in a small-format bottle on the shelf.

 

 

From a bottle.

I thought this was a very satisfying beer. Listed as a fruit beer but this brew really tastes more like a lambic - 4.5

A - Pours a dark red, a bit mahogany, with a very small pinkish head that dissipated quickly to form a film around the edge. 4.25

S - Sour cherries, like the ones I used to pick from my grandmother's sour cherry tree. 4

T - Sour, tart cherries. 4.5

MF - Dry finish with a medium light body. Refreshing. 4.5