Cherry Beer?

St Louis Kriek

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Tuesday, May 25Th 2010


More often than not, when a "fruity" beer is on the line there tends to be a common following: a fizzy, medicinal, sugar-packed spritzer that is as easy to drink as microwaved 7-up. On the other end of the spectrum there are again "fruity" beers that are heavily dossed with too much of one certain flavor with no overall balance that makes the beer almost as refreshing as drinking Vermont's finest maple syrup on a hot day. So where can you find the "in-between?" A beer that is brewed with fruits, but not jammed with sugar? Well if cherries are the fruit you're looking for then look no further than St Louis Kriek from Van Honsebrouck in Belgium.


Being a traditional Kriek, St Louis' base is a Iambic: a unique beer made by using spontaneous fermentation involving airborne yeasts and bacteria native to the Senne Valley. The Iambic is then fermented with sour cherries mainly from Brussels. Although the original type of Morello cherry is still used, it is difficult to find in such amounts thus breweries are also using other types of sour cherries to complete the brew. The end result is a well balance beer that offers unique tart cherry notes on the nose and a distinctive "liquid cherry pie" drink, one sip of this beer and you'll be looking for the cherry pits at the bottom of the bottle(don't bother I tried looking, they're not in there). With all the flavor and body that this beer has it still has a great overall drink experience: not overly dry or sweet, great on it's own or with some medium dishes, and with a great price, St Louis Kriek is a brew that as the summer days hit you'll be reaching for it again and again.




Salute,
Casey Capper

Posted by Mark Fetter on May 27th, 2010 | Permalink