à l'Ecossaise
Brasserie Cantillon

 

I'm going to start off by saying this lambic was incredible. Incredible. Cloudy red color, smells like cherries and cake, no whiskey that I could detect but smells great. Flavor was cherry jolly rancher, candy, lambic, much sweeter than it was sour. Probably the best Cantillon kriek I've ever had, better than Lou Pepe?

 

 

 

the purists may not think so, but this might be the best iteration of kriek i have had from cantillon, double listed here on BA i think as whiskey barrel kriek. its mature lambic aged in a whiskey barrel on cherries, and while the whiskey isnt over the top, its a unique sensory element in this beer, not sure i have ever seen that done before, and as weird as it sounds on paper, its epic in the glass! bright ruby hued and with an airy but lazy looking head. the nose is shocking, lambic first, old and woody and funky, with the almost medicinal tart cherries right there, acidic and bright, new against the maturity of the whiskey, no real vanilla or any sweetness to it, but lots of oak, a little low end char or earthen depth, and then the whiskey itself, which accents the cherries beautifully. the flavor is crazy, even more intense and refined than it smells, the cherries explode, natural but also like the one little slice of cherry you get in the canned fruit cocktail, sort of broken down, given up its flavor, but still obviously cherry, if that makes sense. the barrel has a lot of wet wood to it in the taste, nice against the acidity of the lambic, funky for days at the end with the wood lingering, and just a kiss of decent whiskey there too. the acid hits right at the apex, and the mouth waters even when there is beer in it, a crazy and uncommon sensation. enormously flavorful, not overdone with the whiskey, but a curious and delicious layer of complexity. neat that it sounds like they didnt use already made kriek for this, but used aged lambic and then added the cherries to the barrel, so its not barrel aged kriek but barrel made kriek, if i understand it correctly. outrageously unique and delicious.

 

 

Had on tap. Oh how I love globalism sometimes. Getting cantillon into some bourbon barrels, oh yes this is good. The cherry still has the funky, tart and sweet taste as expected, but the bourbon gives it some dark depth, smoke, earthiness, and richness like a liqueur, plus a body that rounds out into a darker realm that really lets the lambic farm features shine. Little syrupy as a result, but the taste tradeoff is completely worth it.

 

Whiskey barre kriek. On tap. No head. Vibrant ruby red. Classic Cantillon kriek. Tons of cherries and some cherry pie filling with brown sugar spice. Very flavorful. I wouldn’t be able to tell this was aged in whiskey barrels, however.