Cantillon 100% Kriek Lambic Bio

Cantillon 100% Kriek Lambic Bio. 5 % ABV.
Brasserie Cantillon, Brussels, Belgium.

Ah, Cantillon! The true lambic, where sour beers started. (The Belgian tradition, I mean, not Cantillon specifically.) Why can't I find you anywhere?

It's slipped my mind: did the importer pull out of distributing to our state, or have these bottles  become so rare and expensive that they don't wind up on the shelves of the stores that I visit? Or do I see them and pass based on the price tag? This brewery has appeared in the Nib exactly once before. It was seven years ago, after a friend brought a bottle of St. Lamnivus to my birthday celebration. And I referred to my notes from nine years prior. It just seems insane that in 10 years of this blog, I haven't come across another bottle.

Until the other week when my friend Julie tossed a bottle of the kriek lambic my way. The cork says 2017, so I need to ask her some questions and clear up these mysteries. I had a bottle of this way back in October of 2004, and make these scribblings, and I present them now in 2020, after consuming the bottle during a ZOOM session with friends last Friday night, here in our time of the COVID-19 quarantine.

pinky crimsony coloration...light, negligible head...

nose is funkalicious, big fruitalacious, but not moreso than this overpowering funkadelicaliciousness...cherry-sweet, berry-licious...

Taste? ...ooo, wee! yeah, the cherry's there...but the funk is in control here, this is a distinctive taste, not for everyone... hey, maybe not even for me, at least not every day...whoa, again, I say...big, fresh, cherry taste, but yeasty ...meaty...huge mouthfeel, never ever feels like getting off the couch...pretty damned delicious, but , oh, so unique....

I put these words to electronic pen and paper, while 1/2 a bottle remains...fierce flavor, full, lush, impressive.

I'll let my 16-year old notes stand. Here's what the brewery says:
Beer with a slightly acidic taste of red fruit complemented with subtle almond flavours.
Kriek brings out its maximum “fruitiness” when drunk young. With age the lambic will take the upper hand, but this is at the expense of the fruit component.

Color :
crimson red
Alc:
5.5%
IBU:
25
Serving Temperature:
15 °C/59 °F
Bottle size(s)
37,5 cl (12,5 oz) (currently available at the brewery)
75 cl (25 oz) (currently available at the brewery)

There's always something different in the Belgian brewery's descriptions. Almond? Okay...

Wild Mind Spontane' 2018-1 & 2 Year Blend

Wild Mind Spontane' 2018-1 & 2 Year Blend.
5.4 % ABV. 5 IBU. Wild Mind Artisan Ales, Minneapolis, MN.

This bottle's been in the fridge far too long, and would be celebrating it's 2nd birthday, if I waited too much longer. After a brief struggle with the cork, the beer is free and ready for the glass. Pours clear, bright gold, with a slim, soon-gone head.

In the nose: Straight up funk from the start. Traces of stone fruit and a touch of citrus surround the sides. Wild and wooly.

In the mouth: Blast of sour greets the palate. Lemon and lime mixes it up with apricot/ punk and some definitive Belgian-Style lambic funk. Thin-bodied, with a long, sour finish. Sour hits the lips and smacks the tongue, time after time. Glimmers of fruit offer strains of sweet, quickly subsiding and finishing dry and crisp.

A very admirable version of the Belgian lambic style. Wish I could have snagged bottles of the fruited variants. Ah, well, there will be more. Must try a little harder to get my hands on them next time.

Spontané 2018 is a blend of one and two year old spontaneously-fermented wild ales that were brewed using our custom-built coolship, where the beers picked up loads of flora and bacteria to create a funky base. After aging in barrels and foeders, beers were chosen from several different batches to create a complementary blend of funk, acid, and tartness. The blended sour was then refermented in the bottle to help round-out this complex, truly spontaneous ale.

Boon Geuze Mariage Parfait

Hey, I haven't had a geuze in a while, have I? I do enjoy them, from time to time. And why not go back to one of the classics. It's been years and years since I've had this, so long ago that I can't find notes anywhere. And I know I've had it. So, here we go, notes ahoy!

Frank Boon (pronounced: Bone) Geuze (Pronounced: Grrr-za. I think.) Mariage Parfait  ("perfect marriage")2010. Oude Geuze. Gueuze a l'Ancienne. Old Style Gueuze. Lambic ale aged in oak casks. Boon Brewery, Lambeek, Belgium. 8% alc., vol. Bottle conditioned. Best before end 2033. Batch #: see cork.

Appearance: highly hazed, straw yellow coloring, slim white head.

Aroma: That's the stuff right there. Earth. Lemons. Must. Funk. Vinegar. Feet. Freshly soiled kitty litter box. All those good things and more. Cow comforter. (Yeah, I'm tired of "horse blanket", too.)

Taste: Intense sour and puckering at first sip. Grips the palate with a scouring dryness that rounds out the palate. This  funky flavor turned out by crazy Belgian yeasts, cranked up to wilder levels by time in the casks. Don't stop 'til it's really weird. Turns fairly mellow, but never stops being strange. Lightish, medium-y body, long, funky finish. Wild, man, wild.

At times, I look at the notes and wonder if I missed anything. Did I cover it all, was there a stone unturned? Complex as it is, that stuff above does it all.

"Traditional Belgian Oude Gueuze. 100% spontaneously fermented lambic aged for a minimum of three years in oak barrels. Refermented in the bottle. Tart, dry, exceedingly complex aroma."

Cantillon St. Lamnivus lambic

An incredible Belgian lambic consumed on my birthday with 5 friends, including Matthew Janda, who brought it to the party. My notes from March, 2006 commence:

Brasserie Cantillon St. Lamnivus Lambic. 7 % ABV. Brasserie Cantillon, Anderlecht, Belgium.

Rosy top in the look here, deeper burgundy beneath, under absolutely no head...par for style, though...

Aroma: bracing, yet invigorating, a blast of cherries and grape, twisted by sour...musty, rank, and deep...liking it...a deep well, dominated by fruit. Delectable.

Taste it, already! Oooo! Weeee! Owww! Bold, huge, fat puckeration,...ooo, ooo, ooo! Takes hold of the mouth and doesn't let go! A blend of dark fruits, cherries, and berries, and grapes. Luscious. Sour and flavorful. Mellows a touch, gets easy as we go, gets easier to take..

Not for everyone, but a particular treat for demanding palates, constant play on the tongue that is rewarding for some, punishing for others.

Hard to compare this to anything else on earth. Far beyond any other lambic, a definitive sui generis classic.

2004 bottling. too young? who's to say. worth the $33 spent? probably...

Everyone knows some of our best friends are wine growers from the Libourne region in France, more specifically those who make Saint Emillion and Pomerol. They respect the tradition and let their wine ferment in a natural way.

Fermentation, origin and vintage are still kept up.

Our collaboration resulted in a product uniting the best of their wine and of our beer : the Saint-Lamvinus.

The grapes, of the merlot and cabernet-franc varieties, are soaked in Bordeaux barrels containing two to three years old lambic. The beer is not blended before the bottling. The foam is caused by the addition of a liquor which starts the fermentation.

Chapeau Faro lambic

Faro. What the heck is "faro", is that like King Tut? Let's see what Michael Jackson has to say...
Well, that didn't tell us much. But, maybe there isn't much to say, either?

Here are my notes from December, 2007, of the Chapeau Faro from De Troche:


Pry off the cap, pop out the cork, and into a snifter it goes...

Prune-skin brown, small, soon-gone head, light cola color.

Dark fruits, especially raisins and prunes, in the nose, slightly sour, ...and then, a touch of sweetness, a hint of cherries. Funky, weird...I like it.

Taste: cherry syrup. Tartness grips the buds, then sweet rides over it. Tart, sour, tart, sour, doin' the two-step faro.

Moderate carbonation, fairly medium bodied, soft, fruity finish.

I haven't had enough faros to know how this compares, but it was okay, though it lacks any complexity or really interesting character. Most likely won't return to this one.

Van Honsebrouck St. Louis Framboise Premium Lambic

As you may have noticed, I wrote the last entry while at the Acadia Cafe, Cedar & Franklin Avenues, West Bank, Minneapolis, one of my favorite spots in town. (Formerly the home to the Riverside Cafe, whose slogan was "the electromagnetic center of the universe.) I was getting ready to take off, and then the rain started. So, the beers start again, and I chose something very different from anything they have on their 28 taps, a Belgian raspberry lambic from the makers of the Kasteel line, Brouwerij Van Hounsebrouck.

And for the purposes of this entry, we look back ...or, I do, you don't, and I don't have a mouse in my pocket...and see that I had it for the first time way back in May of 2005, on tap at the Blue Nile. Here come the notes:


My first taste of this stuff is the first pour from a freshly tapped keg.

Clear, deep rosy red appearance, perfectly pink head of full, fluffy foam.

Aroma: all raspberry, nothin' else, tart, but not too much beyond what comes with that fruit's flavor.

Taste: Puckeration right at the start, just a pinch of mouth-gripping tart, then it all rounds off. A fruity affair, but clean and neat on the tongue, after that initial bite. A tasty tango in the mouth, but mostly smoothness owns the day. Lip-pursing continues with consecutive sips, as the tartness hangs in there.
Very light in body, though, with a long, tangy, fruit finish.
"Like soda pop!" said someone (with zero familiarity with the lambic style)who sampled this with me. Yeah, yeah...it is a commercial lambic, of that there is no doubt, but it makes for adequate dessert sipping, and isn't really bad at all.

Brewery Van Steenberge Cherish Kriek lambic

Cherish. Authentic Belgian Kriek Lambic, Brewed and bottled by Browerij van Steenberge, Ertvelde, Belgium.

Deep ruby coloring, nearly purple, pinkish head settles into a tight ring.

Mix of tart and sweet cherry notes in the nose, leaning on the sweet, heading into CandyLand, like a SweeTart, or, actually cherry kool-aid. Not much beyond that.

Taste: starts with a sour spank on the tongue, quickly matched with a cloying, almost sickening sweetness. Then, it vanishes. Poof! Gone, with only a little bit of lingering. Light bodied, with little character beyond this sweet/sour sensation. 

A passable dessert beer option, especially if you find it at a nice price, but steers clear from being breathtaking. Clearly a syrup is involved here, we're getting little real cherry flavor, and none of the complexity of the great lambics.  I'm being nice. It would be very easy to just say, "it sucks." You won't find that very often here at the bitter nib. 

Just call me disappointed.

Oh, well.

Lindemans Cuvee Rene Gueuze lambic

Along with the Hanssens, I picked up another gueuze recently, unsure of whether I'd had this one before. Of course I had, back in June of 2005. And it's another great one. Here's what I wrote then, and Lindemans Cuvee Rene:

My first time with this beer, scared away through the years by the higher price tag. Well, I've plenty more expensive beers since, so there's no excuse for putting it off. Here we go! 

Pale peach hue, flush carbonation, rushing up the glass, with a sturdy, off-white head...a very appetizing glass of brew. 

Aroma, sour and citric, a little spicy, super funky, that unique smell that only comes out of a gueuze. 

Taste, oooh! Puckering, then lip-smacking, sour bite at first, then all is mellow...big lemon rides through the flavor, with yeast character right behind. 
Interesting. Tartness is king in this, dominates the feel, but in a gentle, delicious way. Very sophisticated stuff, and, past the powerful tartness, especially approachable.

Hanssens Oud Gueuze lambic

I lied. The Imperial Stout will wait. I just had to have a gueuze, and this one was Hanssens. Here are the notes:

Hanssens Artisanaal, sinds 1896, Oud Gueuze Lambic (each bottle matured for over three years) Ale, product of Belgium. Brewed and bottled in Dworp, Begium.

I woke up this morning with a craving for the funk. I had to have something lambic-y, something sour, something gueuze-y. Haven't had this one in a little bit, so away we go, with Hanssens.

Straw yellow color, hazed, under a slim, white head. 

Aroma: it's all there, the barnyard, the horseblanket, the urine-soaked hay. All that delightful sensory assemblage in the nose. Ahhh….sour, lactic, and weird.

Tasting it…ooo, pucker, pucker, ow, sour, sour, lemon, and piss and vinegar, mmm, mmm. This is lambic in it's rawest, no fruit, no wine barrels,(but some aging) nothing, straight-up and undiluted, wild, weird, and utterly refreshing. Sour as heck, and with just a tingle of bitterness. Malt is there to do it's job, it's the yeast that drives the amazingly uncommon flavor of this thing. It's an experience above all, not for the week, not for the timid, not for the mild or unadventurous. Strap in tight for this one. 

This one grips the tongue and palate, grabs hold, delivers what is an unusual deliciousness, a long, and quite refreshing finish, and a flavor experience not found anywhere else in the world of beer.

Oud Beersel Framboise (raspberry lambic)

Oud Beersel Framboise, another one that I know I'd had before I started reviewing (there's a label on one of my notebook collages, I'm sure of it), but never got around to reviewing until I tapped it last fall. (Unless it's one of those that fell off the truck over at BeerAdvocate.) Oud Beersel Framboise was part of Belg-a-Rama #1, back in November, before I started doing this. Got another keg for that Belg-a-Rama 6 1/2 event for Craft Beer Week. Now, it's back on tap, replacing the Timmermans Framboise. I was very glad that they were both briefly on tap together (late Tuesday, early Wednesday) so that I could compare for myself. Yeah, as raspberry lambics go, it's pretty damned great. Here's what I wrote back in November.
--------------------

Fresh off the tap!

Rosy red, clear, bright, with an amazingly pink head, puffy, pillowy, large, lace-leaving, slow to crumble.

Bold aromatics, sends the sweet/tart raspberry-ness far and wide. This is the nose that hits the guy on the other end of the bar, whether he wants it or not. I'm going to pull it up to my nose...
There we go, real raspberries, tart and sweet, weird, fresh, and funky. Love it.

Taste: soft, then zesty, then sour, next flush with fruit. Mmmm, pucker, then the sweet, then the sour, then the zippy refreshment, and the smiles. Funky, funky lambic time! Mmm, delicious. This is the right stuff, never too sweet, the right mix of fruit and funk!

Tassss-teeee!!! Way to go, Oud Beersel, this is the stuff! Good as they get!

Timmermans Framboise raspberry lambic

Beer #4 of the Belg-a-Rama #7 beers. A raspberry lambic from Timmermans, a brewery I know very little about. But, hey, we have to try them, right?

Fresh on tap, one of the most expensive kegs I've ever heard tell of...the bottles are pricey, too. Is it worth it?

Pink, pudding-ish head, rosy, raspberry-y appearance, clear at the bottom, darker near the top.

Aroma: sweet, ever-so-slightly tart. Very raspberry, only slightly cloying, not quite in Kool-aid land, but dangerously close.

Taste: Intense flavors on first sip, very puckering, but the tart mellows out with a quickness. Raspberry flavor is fast and furious, then smooths out and leaves the palate quietly. Raise the glass again, down it goes: rapsberry, tart, but, as it says on their website, ""faithfully reflects the colour and flavour of ripe raspberries with no trace of the acidity of lambic."
See, that acidity is something I could actually go for, especially in a fruit lambic. What's left is certainly flavorful and consumable, but rather uninspired.
Fairly flat and one-dimensional, but I hear that's what sells these days.
If you're looking for a more authentic version, look for Oud Beersel, Cantillon, Drei Fonteneine, Boon, or elsewhere.

Ommegang Three Philosophers Belgian-style Blend

Enjoying this on tap at the Nile lately (Almost gone!), but I have to reach back to August, 2003 for my first notes on this one:

 "Appearance: dark plum to eggplant in color, with visible "floaties" swimming about, a bit lighter near the bottom and around the sides, so far a very good approximation of the trappist abbey dubbel look, with a small, dunnish head, settling swiftly into a negligible collar. Aroma: sheer intoxication, the first sniff brings such myriad complex flavors that I have to reel back from it...rustic, raisins, cured meats?, dark spices and fruits, soft leather, moss...deep, dank, and transendently indulgent..oh, goodness, oh, WOW!...so much going on here, that's it's extraordinarily difficult to pretend to be detached or objective, this beer unfolds and envelops me, it knows it has me where I want to be had! ..now, how about a taste of it? Simply amazing! A sweet, treacly dose of fruit (grapes, plums, cherries) welcome hops, and a thick, powerful malt backbone, pulling it all together. Can't quite taste the "dried apricot in the nose" and "pear on the palate" as noted on the label, at least I can't claim to have discovered it on my own. I now relax, sit back, sip, savor...full-bodied as can be, long, rich, residing finish...no, "finish" is incorrect, for it never leaves the mouth, and I would never wish it to! A beer so powerful and seductive it consumes every sensory receptor, every inch of the head, all across the brain, down the fingers and toes...I nearly want to "cut & paste" my review of Westveleteren or St. Bernardus, for this experience so closely resembled that which I had with those fine Trappist ales." This is a fresh tapped keg, vs. a bottle shipped from across the country, so no "floaties" on this one.