All Reviews by Matthew Backus
Oud
Beersel Oude Kriek Vieille
For this beer review I picked something a little different than your average
beer. I choose a Belgian Lambic, cherry lambic to be specific, which is what
kriek means. Cherry beer you say, yea but this is not your fruity Mich ultra
pomegranate raspberry, or even your all so popular Sam Adams cherry wheat and
definitely no fruity cocktail or fruit wine cooler. This beer is amazing with
its cherry flavours.
Lambics are an old Belgian style beer that is fermented by catching the wild
yeast out of the air. They are fermented in big open vats so the yeast can be
trapped in the wort and ferment it. This lends special characters to every lambic
produced. This is by far one of my favorite styles of beer.
The beer pours a gorgeous dark red hue with a good lasting pink head.
The aroma is sour and tart a good characteristic of lambics because open fermenting allows different bacterias in. then the cherries just blossom in your nose. The tartness is very nice and leaves your mouth watering, slight amount of sugar comes through to almost balance the tartness. The flavour is excellent with sour cherries and tart acid yeast, then a wonderful flow of almost burnt brown sugar comes through. The beer finishes with a good dry palate and hints of the sour cherries. The taste leaves you thinking you may have just had grandmas sour cherry pie.
Lambic are a wonderful experience for any beer drinker to have. Dont be discouraged if you dont like them it may take many times of trying before you have that perfect lambic, but once you do you will always want more. So if you like anything on the sour side please give this old time beer style a chance and support the people who are doing such a wonderful art.
Dupont Avril
A Belgian Saison Table Beer
Well it is summer again: sweltering heat and humidity like swimming in a fish
tank. So it could not be a better time to drink a Belgian saison beer, or sometimes
called farmhouse beer. Traditionally brewed in Belgium by farmers at home for
the harvest season, saison means season in French.
Dupont Avril is the newest arrival from the Dupont brewery in Florida. It is the perfect beer for our hot summer days weighing in at a whopping 3.5 % abv. It can be drank all day without becoming shickered too quickly.
The beer pours with a beautiful large billowy pure angel white head, sitting on top of a cloudy golden hay coloured body with plenty of tiny champagne like bubbles.
The aroma comes off as a bright yeasty wheat, slight spiciness hiding under that and some barnyard hay aroma that is very pleasing. The wheat malt provides some clove and banana like aroma also. The flavour is full of wheat and very drinkable. The spice from the wheat malt comes through very well and leaves a nice clean finish on the palate with the slightest bitterness from the grassy hops, a perfect summer time beer, that is delicious.
I know this may be a new kind of beer to most, but I would recommend seeking out a farmhouse or saison ale for the hot summer months. You will be satisfied.
Cheers.