Better to drink Cantillon Kriek old or young?

Switch took place earlier, somewhere around 2002-2004ish and it doesn't seem to be a clean break exactly...

 

A few years ago I would have said that I prefer some age on them when that funk and sourness starts to come through and that when I'm in the mood for fruit forward and bright I'll crack open a fresh one. Like I said, that was a few years ago. Now that money is tight and I can count the Cantillons in my cellar on two hands, I seem to be drinking them younger. First world problems.

 

No I'm referring to the regular kriek. The Lou pepe series has always been stronger in fruit with a more subtle lambic base for me too.

 

I am very inexperienced with cantillon, have only had the classic gueuze once. I just scored a bottle of 2010 LP Kriek, 2009 LP Gueuze, and a classic gueuze (uncertain about the year). Any have any insight on these particular LP vintages? I intend to drink them all sooner than later.

 

They'll all be delicious and I am mad jelly. Where in CA are you?

 

Wasn't in CA unfortunately, acquired while out of state for work...from a place I regularly frequent that received a very small amount and were holding them back for their regular customers only.

Why can't we get any in CA?

 

We do every few months in the Bay Area...

 

We do it just comes and goes really quickly, and LPG is hardly ever one of the beers.

 

Ah, that makes sense then! The regular Kriek is like a punch to the face after a year or two (or at least it was back when I used to drink it, I stick to LP-K now).

 

Drank a 2007 Classic Gueuze a week ago. According to our group of 6, it was a step ahead of Golden Blend and Beatification; a step below Duck Duck. Also had a 2002 LP Gueuze a year ago that was amazing. I say age the gueuze, drink the fruit lambic.

 

It actually really depends on the vintage (on the previous year climate). I've had a 2007 LP Kriek side by side with 2010 recently. 2010 had no interest, the fruit was gone very quick from the palate, it was far more powerful in the 2007 (which was an excellent year for the cherries). Do not fear to drink it with age, kriek hold very well, it will only gain more complexity, probably some funk and length on the palate.
But if you have never had one, drink it fresh to know what was the brewer intent (in particular for the raspberry, LP Framboise can be spectacular less than a month after the release, very sour but the sourness doesn't come from the lambic but from the fruit. The fruit can also fade quickly in Rosé de Gambrinus).

 

Just about to pop open a 2004 Kriek Bio then a 2002 Lou Pepe Kriek! Yummy!!

Honest answer is that Cantillon Kriek is great at all ages for different reasons. Young it's fresh with fruit and old (say older than 5 years) the fruit begins to drop off. Both are great for different reasons.

I personally prefer my Fruit lambics with 10-15 years on them. This is the sweet spot for me.

 

Just about to pop open a 2004 Kriek Bio then a 2002 Lou Pepe Kriek! Yummy!!

Honest answer is that Cantillon Kriek is great at all ages for different reasons. Young it's fresh with fruit and old (say older than 5 years) the fruit begins to drop off. Both are great for different reasons.

I personally prefer my Fruit lambics with 10-15 years on them. This is the sweet spot for me.

 

Interesting to see Cantillon uses Keller cherries for their kriek these days. I always thought Noordkrieken were used for kriekenlambic. The advantage of using Keller is that they grow faster and bigger (also cheaper?), and are more resistant to rain (it makes cherries burst, and we can have a lot of rain over here). On the other hand, they're less sour than the original Noordkrieken...

Anyway I like kriek with a few years on it With old bottles it's hit or miss, sometimes it can be a cherry bomb, sometimes it's just a flat lambic.

 

when i was in belgium a few months ago i had a 2011 kriek out of the bottle and the "cuvee moeder lambic" version that was on cask at the bar of the same name (which i presume is far younger). the moeder lambic version was like a completely different beer. it was all funk and very little tartness. the bottle, on the other hand, was very tart like i would expect.

also, keep in mind cantillon recently (within the past year or two) changed to higher quality corks so that may affect the aging profile of newer vintages. edit: applies only to 750ml size.

edit for citation: https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?....119797978072187.59028.110627652322553&type=1

 

The cask kriekenlambic at Moeder Lambic is sweetened a little bit, the bartenders just tell you honestly Good to hear they switched to different corks. The ones they had for a few years were an utter waste of money. They costed something (I'd guess the cheapest on the market though) but they wouldn't seal any bottle properly. If they were so cheap on corks they better could have left the bottles capped but not corked, as the beer is going next to the cork to the cap when laying bottles down. Nice to know they have higher quality corks now!

 

The problem with Cantillon's caps is that they don't have the soft plastic that forms a seal. If you look at one closely when you take it off and compare it to any other cap, you'll see that. So you get this awesome combination of corks that fail some huge amount of the time and caps that aren't even designed to seal, and you get the fact that Cantillon leaks more than any other beer (that I know of, at least). I'm glad they switched to longer corks, but I think that using real caps would work much better.

 

Do you mean 2009 sticker or cork? And what's wrong with the 09 compared to the others?

 

2009 sticker. I opened one bottle so far and I didn't like it at all, flavour was muddled and all over the place. I have a couple of more to try but haven't gotten around to doing so yet. I made a post about this on ratebeer and someone else chimed in that they had a simular experience doing 2009 .vs. 2008 (sticker), tasting like completely different beers (with 2009 doing so in a "not good" way). I don't know if it's just a single batch or what...

 

Interesting, I'm glad I have an 09...