So I’m officially in charge of reviews of sour beers and I’m a bit of a slacker (It’s not like I don’t like sours but she’s so much better at describing them). If you could see the list of beers that we’ve drank that need to be reviewed and/or posted you’d notice that Austin gets things done and I tend to let them sit for a while. I’m going to tell myself it’s the perspective I take on beer and has something to do with my enjoyment of beers that require significant aging periods. You might have other ideas.
We cracked out Transatlantique Kriek over a week ago after I got back from defending my dissertation. It’s a blend of a lager produced by New Belgium and a spontaneously fermented beer with real Polish cherries made by Boon’s Brewery in Belgium. Yep, that’s right. Fruit beer. Good fruit beer.
This kriek almost glows red when light shines through it. It has just a touch of head that settles down to a skiff of tiny bubbles. It smells sour with a hint of cherry. It’s not as sour as I expected from the aroma and has an authentic cherry flavor, not a fake cherry flavoring flavor, a real cherries kind of flavor. It’s tart. Reminds me of a cherry Jolly Rancher. The carbonation makes it tingly crisp, . The flavor becomes more sour and less cherry as is warms.
Prost!
