I brought two of my LP variants to a friend’s place last night. We had some delicious smoked fish, grilled steaks and corn on the cob. My friend contributed the ’08 Kriek and I brought the other two. It was a great time and lots of fun! I didn’t take photos of the beers themselves because we were too busy having fun but here are the reviews. I have reviewed two of these before but updated them with the variations between vintages.
Cantillon Lou Pepe Pure Kriek
AROMA 9/10 APPEARANCE 5/5 TASTE 9/10 PALATE 5/5 OVERALL 18/20
adamjackson (502) – Canaan, New Hampshire, USA – JUL 22, 2012
A – Exceptionally ruby red cherry appearance. Hazy and consistently dark with a half finger head produced on the pour but faded quickly.
S – Very mild kriek scent on the nose. Slight hint of walnuts. Jammy and funky.
T – Wow. Excellent cherry jam taste. Up front tart and sour taste with an acetic finish of big gorgeous cherries. The taste is very fresh. It tastes like these cherries were picked yesterday. Very barnyardish and up front funkiness.
M – Swishing this around I get almost no carbonation. Light body. Perfect Cherry pulp finish
O – I have an ’05 Kriek in the cellar. This beer only makes me want to try the ’05 more. This is great but needs to age for a while. Fresh, it’s not very good. I want this with a few years on it. That’s the key.
Update: 2008 Bottle shared with friends:
Smell was more Jammy and up front cherry than the last bottle. Taste was more tart with a subdued cherry compared to the 2009. Carbonation was in line with the 2009 and same finish. Without looking at my old review, I gave the 2008 a lower rating as the 2009 at 4.3.
AROMA 9/10 APPEARANCE 4/5 TASTE 8/10 PALATE 4/5 OVERALL 18/20
A – 3 finger slightly yellow head. Faded to one finger then stuck around vanilla color yellow gold. Crystal clear
S – lemon seeds and coriander. Pepper and distiller water. Minor dry yeast scent
T – dry honey. Some biting spices. Oak and a tad bit of cloves. Creamy lemon pie
M – 35% carbonation on swish. Dry and fleeting. Medium body
O – lives up to expectations but maybe too much spice. 94/100
Update: Had an ’05 Vintage with friends last night.
No head on the pour with a small bit of lacing. Still bright and orange as the ’09. Smell was a lot more funky, less spices and more fecal in nature. Taste is mind blowing strong. Still hints of lemon and spices but the funk dominated more. Some mahogany and oak at the finish. Totally mouth puckering mouth feel still very dry. Slightly lower rating (4.1) in my notes versus the 4.3 I gave the newer vintage. Just a personal preference that I like this one fresh versus with age on it.
Cantillon Lou Pepe Framboise
AROMA 8/10 APPEARANCE 5/5 TASTE 8/10 PALATE 4/5 OVERALL 19/20
adamjackson (502) – Canaan, New Hampshire, USA – AUG 1, 2012
A – Hazy murky purple. Dark red. Cloudy. Nice pop of the cork. Borderline brown appearance.
S – Very light scent. Raspberry is there but weak. Very sort of grape jelly sent. Funk and tart.
T – Intense jammy raspberry taste. Lots of wood and some honey. Very acetic and funky. Some mustiness and mold. But it’s weak. Intensely tart.
M – 50% carbonation. Medium body. Huge gigantic sour tart finish
O – I really enjoyed this above all of the other bottles we enjoyed that night. Looking forward to having this again.
I finally got to try a bottle of Cantillion Gueze while I was in Philidelphia. At Monk’s Cafe. Definitely great, better then the more commonly available Boon Gueze, but not by a land-slide. Boon Gueze has this somewhat harshness that I’m not fond of. It’s not astringency, hard to explain. The Cantillion had this but much more subtle.
You should try homebrewing your own sours. They’re actually really easy, they just take a lot of time. But if you keep the temp warm, you can have a decent sour ale in as little as six months.
Wild Brew is in the planning stages. I’m really wanting to get a barrel for this one and do it properly (barrel = more places for the yeast to get oxygen and propagate) so you should get a more balanced beer. Just what I’ve heard. I have the yeast for it, just need to get a barrel. You can re-use them as well.
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Glad you got to try the classic Gueuze. If you can find it, (hunger mountain co-op often has it), the 3 Fonteinen Oude Gueuze is hands down my favorite. $12 for a 375ML. Side by side to Tilquin, Boon, De Cam, Cantillon and 3 Fonteinen, I like 3F the best..
If you ever come down and we get to taste some beers, I’d love to do a side-by-side! My GF can make a delicious berry pie.
for reference, was thinking something like this – http://www.napafermentation.com/catalog_i11212468.html?catId=354253. You can re-use it and the yeast sort of populate all of the nooks and you have wild yeast in the barrel for the next one so each brew should get better if you hit the right efficiency. So that’s what I’d like to get for the wild beer.
Yeah, a barrel would be awesome for doing wild beers, you can just keep on putting in more beer as each batch completes. That would take about a year per batch, though.
MoreBeer also sells them, they just started getting in 5 gallon barrels.
http://morebeer.com/view_product/19669//Vadai_New_Hungarian_Oak_Barrel_-_20L_53gal
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On Cantillion Gueze vs 3 Fonteinen, I like the 3 Fonteinen much more, as well. It has a more pronounced oak flavor and has very little harshness. Boon is the most harsh out of the three.
If I were to do the project, I’d probably do this one – http://morebeer.com/view_product/19651/102198/Wine_Barrel_-_Refurbished_Oak_French_-_15_Gallons.
French Oak that once held one is the choice for a lot of brewers. Maybe do a Saison in the first batch (2 batches of homebrew would fill the 15 gallons) then I could use it immediately to throw in a batch of wild beer…throw some crazy yeasties in there and just wait.
I’d do a 5 or 10 gallon barrel but to wait 1-2 years..I would have wished I had more than 5 gallons when fermentation was done. Might as well do 15. Still manageable (you’re not doing 10+ batches just to fill it up) and you get a lot of 750s out of it.