R&D Kriek
New Glarus Brewing Company

500ml bottle at share. Clear red pour, thiin pink head. Aroma is cherries, smells like fresh of the tree. Taste brings a mild tartness, more of the deep cherry flavors, wine like notes. Excellent on all levels.

This one pours a dark reddish color, with a small head, and a little lacing.

This smells like musty oak, black cherry, tart red wine, port, lemon, and musty funk.

This is a pretty old bottle, but has held up quite well. The cherry is musty, but simultaneously still jammy and sweet, with a mild acidity. There’s some breadiness, some lemon, and lots of wine barrel.

This is light bodied, refreshing, and not overly sour, with a nice drinkability.

It’s pretty nice how well this has held up over four years or so.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Pours a gorgeous deep red with a slightly pinkish head. Smell is sour cherries, funk, oak, and vanilla with a hint of cinnamon. Taste is similar. Although the oak is a little bit too strong (lots of tannins), this is still a delicious beer. The New Glarus coolship/sour/fruited/open fermentation program is second to none.

 

Hard to believe this 500ML bottle has been resting in my cellar since August 2018, but here we are. Split with my wife.

Looks like straight-up red wine after a few moments to let the head settle down to nothing. The nose is the expected cherry port.

New Glarus Kriek confirms that I’m just about done with sours, because this is a good one, & my crank remains at six o’clock. Lovely tart cherry, acidic without being truly sour, mineral water, touch of oak, with the mustiness of my grandpa’s upstairs…the room that we slept in that was closed up & left to the mice & spiders the balance of the year. Light, spritzy, but half the bottle is all that I need.

Being objective, this is a really good beer, though short of the BB Kriek & Wild Peach. I’d expect no less out of an excellent brewery.

Dark red body with rose tinted foam. Smell has a good amount of must in it from the wood and wheat, but in general a wild lambic complexion, funky, with those lovely door county tart cherries piercing through. Taste has the tart cherry up front and finishing, but in between they are washed in waves of oak, funky grains and yeast, flowers, soil, orchard fruit, and hay, all good but a little heavy on the balance for a kriek lambic. Feel is spot on in that it has the tartness of the cherry but not overly so, good sweetness, with massive wood, wild, and funk influences in the body.

 

 

I've never been a big lover of cherry beers - stouts, sours, IPAs, etc. But, krieks seem to buck the trend for me for some reason. This is certainly no exception, thankfully.

R&D Kriek is just a bit funky with light cinnamon. It's sweet and a slightly tart and sour, but those are definitely not the most forward elements. It's mostly just a pleasantly cherry cinnamon beer. Quite nice and well done.