Lindemans Kriek Lambic

Hmmm...yet another gem from Lindemans. Fonnie and I have a strange draw to these fruit beers. They're not amazing by any stretch of the word - but they sure are interesting.

Pours almost blood red with a huge, pink head. It is kinda opaque though - a little weird. It smelled of sour cherries...that's it. Were you expecting something else? And the taste was a huge surprise...not. Cherries! Sour and tart at the same time - interesting combination. Texture was very smooth but no body whatsoever to speak of. It was just flat, cherry, liquid.

Not a huge surprise from this fruit brew. It has it's highs and lows and makes tradeoffs in normal brew focuses for amazing smell and taste. Great if you're looking for a gimmick; I sure loved it.

Appearance - 3.5
Smell - 4
Taste - 3.8
Texture - 2.8
Overall - 3.53/5

Lindemans Kriek Lambic

And up next is another Lambic courtesy of Lindemans, this time it is of the Kriek (cherry) variety. It pours a dark red with brown hints throughout and the actual pieces of the fruit can be seen floating around in it. It also has a large pink frothy head which lasts throughout almost the entire tasting process. The smell is exactly what I was expecting: tart cherries. I kind of wish that the taste was more like the smell but unfortunately it has a distinct artificial/fake taste to it. Overall it is a nice smooth Lambic but there is just something missing: I'm hoping to hit the Lambic jackpot one of these days.

Appearance - 3.6

Smell - 3.8

Taste - 3.9

Texture - 3.6

Overall - 3.73/5

Brew Tasting the Twentieth

We picked up another gem of a lambic to test out for this week. I feel like this may become a trend to do one of these every once in a while. They are a nice break from the normal heavyweight brew we try and they are oh-so-delicious. Listing after the break.

1) Lindemans Kriek Lambic

Southern Tier Back Burner

We said before that we would be trying a lot more from Southern Tier, and the Back Burner is the next one up. I also believe that this is our first, maybe second, barley wine that we have had so this should be interesting on multiple levels.

It pours dark brown with a off-white head and and has a strong aroma of dark malts and fruits with a good presence of alcohol. The taste is far less strong than the smell and has a solid base of dark malts, fruit, with a warm alcohol flavor at the end. The smoothness is intoxicating (you see what i did there?)

Appearance - 3.6

Smell - 3.8

Taste - 4.0

Texture - 4.2

Overall - 3.85/5

Southern Tier Back Burner

Ahh...Southern Tier...we meet again. Time to touch on a category that we don't venture into too often - barley wines. Let's see how it fares.

It pours an opaque, golden color with a slight red hue. It has a simple head that collapses in a timely matter. It has an extremely alcoholic smell. With strong tones and roasted malts. It reminds me deeply of the World Wide Stout. This does not taste nearly as strong as it smells though. It's very ale-ish and reminded me and Fonnie of the ReJewvenator 2008 which was an American Strong Ale. It had bits of dark fruits, hops and malts in it. Very intriguing taste. The texture was very smooth with a hint of carbonation at the beginning. Surprising for a 10% brew, there is almost no alcoholic bite - impressive, Southern Tier.

Overall, this brew started off not seeming too promising. But, thankfully, it came back with the taste of a hearty American Strong Ale. Great brew - good job again, Southern Tier.

Appearance - 3.8
Smell - 3.5
Taste - 4.2
Texture - 4.1
Overall - 3.9/5