Cellaring Fruited Lambic

I can't say I've held any for longer than a few years (really it's more that they don't show up on our shelves until they are a year+ old) but my experience has been that the more you like the fruit to.be front and center.then the fresher you should drink them. I don't have enough experience to comment on which fruits might hold up longer than others but everything I've had that was 3+ years old has been dominated by funky lambic flavors with any fruit present in a very marginal flavor role

 

I think the oldest Kriek I've had was a 1996 Cantillon opened in 2012. Just had a 2014 last Thursday. The 2014 tasted fresh and vibrant, the 96 was quite noticeably transformed. Aging will vary from beer to beer, bottle to bottle and storage conditions will matter. But you should have multiple years of runway on any of the beer you mention.

 

I think aging depends a lot on the fruit. Some fruits have the tendency to get super acidic with time. Even with the most ageable fruits you’re still rolling the dice, but when they’re good, they’re really good. For example, I had a 2005 3F Schaerbeekse Kriek that was hands down the best fruited beer I’ve ever had. Anyway it seems cherries and wine grapes age particularly well, and plums and stone fruit tend to get quite acidic. Raspberries fall somewhere in the middle.

 

This doesn't match my personal experience. In-bottle aging seems to be much more dependent on the malt/grist & bugs than the added fruit -- though adding fruit certainly can introduce new bugs.

 

I think that he meant that different fruits will age differently. Specifically that cherries and grapes hold up their flavor well with age while stone fruits tend toward a simple acidity with age

 

Dunno too much about cellaring, but I've heard should cellar Cantillon laying down to prevent the cork from drying out. But then I read that Cantillon corks seep into the cap and create mold (though the drink itself is totally fine to drink).

 

Iirc, some have 20 year drink before by dates. Shrugs.

 

I once had a kriek that was 20-something years old and it was still pretty vibrantly cherry. And a great, great drink. So don’t be put off by some age on a fruited lambic, I say. I do try to hit them as soon as I can but have never noticed a steep dropoff of fruit character within 3-4 years.