BEER TALK Belle-Vue Kriek About the beer: Starting with a lambic (openly fermented wheat beer) that has been aged for three years in oak barrels, the brewers add cherries and age it an additional year. Just the facts: 4.2 percent by weight, 25 IBUs, available nationally.
This beer has a lovely garnet color, almost like Cabernet Sauvignon, a delightful bouquet, and a good sweet-sour palate, albeit a bit sweet for style; it will do well in this country, quite an enjoyable beer.	The cork-finished bottle opens with a lively pop, revealing a brownishred beer with a sustained blush head. The nose is pure cherry, and leads to a balanced sweet-and-sour cherry palate with a touch of malt, drying out to a tart finish. The aftertaste hints at the complexity of the underlying iambic. A pleasant dessert beer, though without the sublimely challenging character of more traditional krieks.	Powerful sweet cherry aroma. Smooth body. Sweet cherry and vanilla ice cream flavors against a background of tart, acidic fruitiness. More traditional examples have more acidity. I have seen whole cherries in casks at Belle-Vue's Molenbeek brewery, near Brussels, but surely syrup is also used. A relatively gentle introduction to the Belgian fruit Lambics.
This beer was reviewed for the January 1996 issue of All About Beer Magazine. © 1996 Chautauqua Inc.