Cantillon Kriek 100% Lambic

Brewer's Notes

Blend of Lambics and sour cherries at a ratio of 200g per litre.

A beer with a tart red fruit flavor and subtle almond notes.
Kriek will be at its fruitiest when enjoyed young. Aging allows the Lambic to fully express itself, sometimes at the expense of the fruitiness.

Notes on the bottle
A blend of the world's greatest Lambics, with whole cherries fermented right in the cask. The authentic Kriek Lambic! 

Beer Advocate
Blend of Lambics and Morello cherries at a rate of 200g per litre.

A beer with a tangy taste of red fruits and subtle almond flavors.
Kriek will be most fruity when enjoyed young. Age allows the Lambic to fully express itself, at the expense of the fruit.

Our certified organic sour cherries come to us from Türkiye.

The fruits are blended with a Lambic aged on average 20 months, at a rate of 200g of fruit per liter. Since morello cherries are a powerful fruit, we need to choose a Lambic with enough character to harmonize with the fruit.

After a maceration of two to three months, the Lambic will have extracted colors, aromas and flavors from the morello cherries.

It will then be blended with a one-year-old Lambic, which will provide the sugars necessary for the second fermentation in the bottle.

We work exclusively with fresh fruit, and just like wine, Cantillon beers have a vintage effect.The weather plays a major role in the ripeness and quality of the fruit, which is why a fruit beer will vary slightly from year to year.

Tasting Notes

20290405 Bottled date = 20250127. A great beer but a titch more sour and less tart and the cherry was a titch heavy.

Rating = 6.5 glasses

20251118 Bottled date = 20240716. What a difference a year in the bottle makes. A fantastic tart beer with a solid but not overbearing cherry backbone.

Rating = 7 glasses

202508 Bottled date = 20250127. Too sweet and too much cherry for my taste. I felt like I was drinking a fruit drink.

Rating= 2.5 glasses.

Cantillon Gueuze 100% Lambic

Brewer's notes

Assembly of Lambics of different ages.
Beer with a tangy and fruity taste, woody and delicate aromas, long finish on the palate.
Long-life beer with evolving taste.
Brasserie Cantillon Lambics are called “young” after one year of aging and reach full maturity after three years. Young beers contain the natural sugars necessary for second fermentation in the bottle. The three-year-old beers bring their bouquet and finesse.
Gueuze is the fruit of a complex blend of Lambics of different tastes and ages, preserved in oak barrels. The most important role of the brewer is taste. He will have to taste around ten Lambics from different barrels to finally select five or six. This is how Gueuze 100% Lambic is made, carrying the original character of the beers from Brasserie Cantillon. Each blending vat will give birth to a different Gueuze. The natural elements available to us do not allow us to manufacture a "standard" product.
Arranged horizontally in the cellar, the bottles will remain there for an average of one year to allow the transformation of sugars into carbon dioxide (second fermentation in bottles). The saturation of the beer occurs slowly and naturally. When Lambic becomes sparkling, it is called Gueuze.
In the 18th century, a Benedictine monk, Dom Pérignon, discovered champagne by blending different non-sparkling white wines. A century later, a Brabant brewer mixed several Lambics and caused a second fermentation in the bottle. La Gueuze was born. Until the 19th century, the people of Brussels and Brabançons drank mainly two beers, Lambic and Faro. The appearance of the glass bottle and the contribution of Dom Pérignon will revolutionize the small world of Brussels brewers. Gueuze then became the symbol beer of Brussels.

BeerAdvocate

Tasting notes

December 06, 2024

A recent purchase from Corks and Kegs. Any apple flavor was subdued. Tart with a good dose of bitter lemon zest. It earned a small upgrade in the rating.

Rating = 6.5 glasses

March 8, 2024
The second bottle has about 1.5 more years in the cellar. Similar reaction as below - tart but I wanted more and the apple flavor is not my favorite. Something about Belgium yeasts may be at work. St. Bernardus Abt 12 has a similar note. Downgrading rating to 6 glasses.

Nov. 25, 2022

First of two bottles scored from Corks and Kegs a few months ago. More apple-cidery and less lemon-vinegary and tart than I remembered or wanted. 

Rating: It is still wonderfully complex and refreshing with enough je ne sais quois for 7 glasses but I am downgrading it to 6.5 glasses.

(0911): A bottle at SD21 in NYC. Nice and tart and complex. A tiche milder than I remembered. Girardin rules.

Rating: 7 glasses 

Click here for a previous review. 

Cantillon Saint Lamvinus

Wow!. St. Lamvinus is a fruit lambic. It is wonderfully tart with a musty slight sweetness from grapes. It resembles Kriek, but uses grapes instead of cherries. Here is the description of the beer from Cantillon:

"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.

It was rated on BeerAdvocate.com as one of the 100 best beers in the world on 29 December 2005, 01 March 2007, and 09 October 2013. 

Rating = 7 glasses.