3F Schaerbeekse Kriek 2005

Not that rare. That was in the shelves all over the place back in the day. Kinda high price too. Fresh bottles are around 35 here. This is not the best canidate for aging either. The thing that makes this beer so special iand expensive are the Schaerbeekse cherries. The cherry flavors will falll off quickly. It is so much better fresh IMHO.

If you have never tried it go for it. I personally would try to get a fresher one.

 

Some people on this site would strongly disagree but I firmly believe that any fruited Lambic should be drunk as fresh as possible. Even the Lambic brewers themselves say so. Why any would cellar something like Fou Foune or Lou Pepe Kriek for years is beyond me....

 

I'll agree that on a whole they're usually better fresh, although I like them with about a year on them too when the fruit fades just a bit and the lambic is a little sharper.

 

How about Framboos 1999, Soleit de Minuite or Don Quijote? They continue to get great reviews so all the people rate them don't know anything about fruit lambic?

 

If you were thinking tradewise, sure but to drink it that beer is awesome, its just too readily available to have much trade value.

 

Really? Ive had 13-14 year old Cantillon Kriek and Rose that I enjoyed much more than a fresh bottle.

 

With aged fruited Lambics over time the fruit flavors fade so that the character of the base beer really shines. At 10 years you get a light perfume from the fruit but what you really taste is the Lambic, in the case of 3F and Cantillon where the unfruited beer is splendid then it really holds up. An Oud beersel, not as much...

 

Honestly, I think the regular Oude Kriek is just as good as the Schaerbeekse. Plus, it's like 1/3 the price. I couldn't really taste the "rarity" of the Schaerbeekse cherries.

 

I've had a couple bottles of the Schaerbeekse and I think the Oude Kriek is superior.

 

Do the regular Oude Kriek and Schaerbeekse share the "same" base beer? Is it safe to assume that the "same" base lambic also goes into the Oude Gueuze?

 

My understanding is that it is not the same "base" blend. I know that in some cases, the base of a fruited lambic is very different than the same brewery's gueuze. It would make sense to use a good blend in a gueuze and a less favorable blend in a fruited lambic, which will be covered up by the fruit.

 

To the OP, its worth the price if the beer has held up well

Best Krieks I've ever had have been 2008 Scharbeekse and relatively fresh 2009 LP Kriek. I also enjoy more fruit forward and balanced sweet/sour in my lambic though.

 

I am gonna take Mr Van Roy's opnion on this one guys. Straight from his mouth. I have also had delicious aged fruited Lambics in the past but after talking to the real experts on this and my more recent experiences I would not reccomend aging fruited Lambics. Epecially those where you are paying a premium. I recently had the last batch of Fou Fone 6 months apart and it was crazy how different the beers were. The real fresh one was exploding with Apricot flavors, to the point where you could smell it as soon as poped the cork. The 6 month old bottle was much more sour and the Apricot was conciderablely more muted. Good but not as spectatular as the very fresh bottle.

To each his own but I stand behind what I said above.

As for some of other ones mentioned above (Framboos 1999, Soleit de Minuite or Don Quijote) do you think that anyone who reviewed these beers had them fresh? Yeah they were probably great beers but can anyone really say how a Framboos tasted compared to a fresh one at this point?

When Vinnie from Russian River says to drink Pliny fresh would you age it 5-10 years? No you wouldn't. Cause what makes that beer a premium beer is the hops which fade very quickly. Same with most fruited lambics in my opnion.

 

I've had about 4 of these since August. Same year, 2005. I really enjoyed all of them, but I would have passed at $42 for it. The bottle shop I went into had them at $20 a piece, which was a steal. I wouldn't pay more than $30 for it.

 

I stumbled into a 2009 Lou Pepe Kriek today and a 2010 Cantillon 100% Kriek. I'll be drinking both within the month. If they were unfruited, they may sit in my cellar for some years.

 

I just had a LPK'09. I wasn't overly impressed with the fruit flavor. The aroma was, however, amazing. Once it settled down, I thought I was shoving my face in cherry pie.