Lindemans Kriek Cuvée René

Aroma: 4 | Appearance: 5 | Mouthfeel: 2 | Flavor: 3 | Overall: 4

75cl bottle. Red with short lasting red foam head. Aroma is cherry, nothing else. Yeast floating in bottle, clearly unfiltered. Aroma is sour, sour cherries. Taste is bitter sour. I have mentioned this with every kriek, don’t think it is my kind of ’beer’, either too sweet or too sour. Had my son-in-law finish the bottle. (Rotterdam 201212)

Aroma: 6 | Appearance: 7 | Mouthfeel: 7 | Flavor: 8 | Overall: 7

Part of a SAQ private import. Pours a hazy red colour with particles floating around. The head is pink-red coloured, fizzing away quickly and with no lacing at all. Aromas of cherries, wood and sourness. The sourness is more present in the taste lasting the hold way. The cherry taste is kind of hidden, but the wood is still there. Hint of plastic in the flavours. Bottled June 7th 2011 with a best before date of June 2017. 2010 edition and No. 05108 written on label. Not a bad Kriek, but nothing exceptional.

Aroma: 9 | Appearance: 9 | Mouthfeel: 9 | Flavor: 8 | Overall: 9

Bottle: Poured a deep bright red color lambic with a large pink foamy head with good retention and some good lacing as well. Aroma of tart cherries is overwhelming and quite enjoyable, light sweet touch is definitely natural and not from sugar added to the mix. Taste is also a dominant mix of very tart cherry with a refreshing zest and a lightly sweet finish. Oak and light funky barnyard notes are also noticeable though very hard to decipher. Body is quite full with great carbonation. Very well done overall and as good as some of the most famous traditional lambic kriek producer.

Aroma: 7 | Appearance: 8 | Mouthfeel: 7 | Flavor: 8 | Overall: 8

750 ml capped and corked bottle, courtesy of Cardinal Pub & Bar, Stavanger. ABV is 5%. Vintage 2006, bottle No. 01761. Bottled 21.12.2006, BB date 21.12.2012. Red coloured beer, slightly hazy. Fizzy pink head, initially big, rapidly diminishing. Aroma of sour cherries, funk and marzipan. The flavour is very sour and tingling, nearly tart, with notes of sour cherries and lemons. Fairly dry. Lovely sour finish and aftertaste.

Aroma: 8 | Appearance: 8 | Mouthfeel: 8 | Flavor: 8 | Overall: 8

December 2006 Bottle Vintage, Sampled May 2008
Pours with a pink tinged, light tan colored, frothy, initially three-finger thick, fairly quickly disappearing head that shrinks to a persistent, 1-mm of crowning foam. The beer is a bright, red color that shows a stunningly, brilliantly clear, red hue when held up to the light. The aroma smells more of funk than it does of cherry, but it definitely smells of both. Light cherry syrup notes dance around underneath aromatic notes of musty, sweaty horse-blanket, woody mushroom notes, and an only light tartness. There are also notes of lightly toasted oak and toasted, breakfast-cereal like grain here towards the finish. Not the funkiest of Lambics, and the lack of tartness in the nose is a bit unusual; still this is funky enough to be interesting & I like that the cherry aromas play a supporting role. As the beer warms up the sourness becomes much more noticeable in the nose.

Much more sour than the aroma would have suggest; it is even a bit bracing in its acidity. The carbonation is quite pleasing in its frothy texture, though it is not overly carbonated (on the high side for a standard American Beer). This is almost bone dry, so much so that the cherry flavors are actually fairly muted. Lactic acid notes dominate, both there does seem to be just a touch of some sharper acids here. Sour cherry fruit notes, with some tannic cherry skin flavors and a hint of juicy cherry pulp join the more traditional Lambic sour-grapefruit-like fruit flavors. A touch of grassy, crushed-wheat like grain character just kisses the taste buds towards the finish. This predominantly leans towards sourness in its funkiness, but there are some musty, damp earth flavors, some light and some almost clean, barnyard notes. There is also a nice foundation of wood character here that contributes a tannic-influenced heft to the mouthfeel, some toasty, woody-oak flavors, with just a touch of spiciness in the finish.

A fresh pour from my 750ml bottle really accents an aromatic note of funky, woody, earthy mushroom note that even leans a bit towards toe-cheese (that wonderful, funky gunk found in between your toes after a long, hard working, sweaty day in shoes). This doesn't seem to manifest itself in the flavor though.

While the cherry character is fairly soft here, this is much more traditional tasting than I was expecting. I think it is even more traditional than recent examples of the Gueuze Cuvée René. Really, I think the fact that this is bone dry has really helped this along; it doesn't really have much of a funkiness to it, but the fact that it does not have any sweetness (sweet being the antitheses of a decent Lambic), makes this all the more palatable. Even the nose is not overly funky, it just was a bit more noticeable at first because of the slight cherry influence and minimal sourness at first. My biases are definitely showing, but this is definitely an enjoyable beer to be drinking right now.

Aroma: 6 | Appearance: 8 | Mouthfeel: 6 | Flavor: 7 | Overall: 7

Hazy ruby red colour, big pink head which vanishes quite fast. Aroma is sour cherry along with some dry and sour berries. Flavour is cherry along with dryness. Slight papery hints.