Boon: Kriek: Mariage Parfait (Belgium: Fruit Lambic: 8% ABV)
Visual: Large fizzy bubbles for a black cherry yogurt coloured head. Dark black cherry body.
Nose: Lightly tart. Wet oak. Tart apples. Sour cherries. Musky. Lemon cleaner air.
Body: Black cherry yogurt. Sour cherries. Sulphur. Fizzing texture. Charring. Tart apples. Wet oak. banana yogurt under notes. Cheese boards.
Finish: Drying. Wet oak and sour cherries. Malt biscuits. Oats. Tannins. Slight peanuts.
Conclusion: This is an interesting mix, or marriage if it will, and it seems they will. This really pushes a proper sour cherries and wet oak character, something that feels like it should be very deep and still, and yet it is played over an invigorating, fizzing lively main body.
The flavours and textures are remarkably complex in the body, it uses tartness, but the main character has such a solid weight that keeps it a much more restrained beer. There is oak and nuttiness that grounds it, so the tartness is used more to create refreshing edge into that drying lambic feel. Yet for all that it still sparkles and shimmers, it manages to mix dark depths and decadent dances of style, contrasting each other then diving into each other.
It is nowhere near the sweetness over those syrupy fruit lambics, nor that sheer mouth breaking sharpness of the hardcore lambic crowd. It is almost yogurty fruit in how it uses that lovely thick flavor that contains multitudes.
This, for me, ranks up with the greats of the fruit lambics. There isn’t any twist, trick, or gimmick to its quality they have just worked out to take the style to its natural apex, emphasising each characteristic without making any one the overwhelming focal point.
This is a beer that needs time and dedication, it never hits the easy pleasing buttons, but instead creates an overall experience of an excellent beer.
Background: Regular readers will know that Michael Jackson’s “Great Beer Guide” is one of the few beer ticker books I have time for. This is one of the beers from it, found at Brewdog’s Guest Beer selection. So I was excited. This is the 20111 bottling, drunk 2014. This is, according to that book, a mix of fresh young lambic, and a large proportion of older lambic, which is then aged in the bottle. Drunk while listening to Rise Against: Endgame. Holy shit that is a good album – I seriously don’t think there is a bad track on there.
