Review: St Louis Kriek Lambic

Today is National Beer Day in USA, to celebrate the end of prohibition, as well - Session Beer Day, celebrating beers that are under 4.5% ABV. I decided on the Belgian St Louis Kriek Lambic Fruit Beer, which has a low ABV of only 3.2%! Belgian breweries brew beers at such low and high ABVs to give the drinker a true drinking experience while having the beer, not to get a person a buzz or whatnot. St Louis Kriek is mainly a sweet and cherry beer meant to be savoured as a dessert after a long feast.

Appearance: Looks like the Cranberry-Grape juice I have in the fridge. A very ruby red with a bit of a purple grapeness hue to it. There's a thin layer of beige foam lining the side of the glass, but no foam to be found elsewhere.

Aroma: Very much a sweet and sour cherry sort of beverage, it doesn't have a beer taste to me, it's more of a cherry juice flavour. That's all it smells like, cherry juice, no bitterness, maltiness, etc to be found. Am I actually drinking cherry juice?

Taste: VERY sour, if you like sour candy AND fruity beer, you will enjoy this, it has the whole cherry aspect there, but it's dominated by a sourness that's hard to describe either than by reminiscing about all those sour candies we would eat as children. Works well as a dessert beer, and flavourful for being only at 3.2% ABV. It leaves a slight filmy/bitter/cherry aftertaste that just won't go away, like when you drink a can of Coke and it leaves that aftertaste for a long time afterwards.

Overall Thoughts: Sour cherries. That's what it is, in a bottle. The end. I recommend this for a sweet/sour post-dinner treat where you want a beer, but not something too heavy or too light, while at 3.2% ABV, it still has a kick thanks to the sourness of the cherries. It costs $2.80 before tax/deposit for a 250ml bottle, so it's a bit pricey, but it's a nice treat to have waiting by when the time's right.

www.belgianfamilybrewers.be/en