Aged Belgian lambic refermented on whole fruit — traditionally Schaarbeek sour cherries (for kriek) or raspberries (framboise), though peach (pêche), blackcurrant (cassis), apricot, grape, and other fruits are also used. Typically 5.0–7.0% ABV, ranging in color from pink to deep red to orange depending on fruit. The classic traditional (non-sweetened) style is intensely tart, dry, and fruit-expressive — the antithesis of the sweetened commercial “kriek” mass-market style.
In the glass
Origin
Refermenting lambic on fruit is a long-standing tradition of the Senne valley and the Pajottenland villages outside Brussels, a way to add a new dimension to an already complex beer. Kriek, the original and most popular of the fruit lambics, was traditionally built on the Schaarbeek cherry — a small, intensely sour variety with a large pit, once grown only in a limited area around the village of Schaarbeek. The whole cherries, pits and all, are added to lambic that has aged in oak for roughly a year or more, where the dormant yeast and bacteria revive and ferment the fruit sugars. The longer the beer sits on the fruit, the drier it grows and the more almond-like bitterness it draws from the pits before being racked off and, often, blended with young lambic for a final bottle fermentation. The Schaarbeek cherry became scarce as the orchards around Brussels gave way to development, and traditional producers have since worked to bring it back: Cantillon planted its own cherry trees at a cooperative farm in Anderlecht in 2018, and 3 Fonteinen has planted hundreds of fruit trees with the long-term aim of returning to all-Schaarbeek kriek. The other classic fruit is the raspberry, yielding framboise; peaches give the less traditional pêche and blackcurrants the dark cassis, and modern brewers have pressed almost any fruit into service. As the category grew commercially, much of the market moved to sweetened, pasteurized fruit lambics made with juice, essence, or syrup rather than whole fruit, while a smaller group of producers — Cantillon, Boon, 3 Fonteinen, De Cam, and others — kept to the traditional unsweetened “oude” method.
Notes
“Oude Kriek” or “Oude Framboise” on the label signals the traditional, unsweetened style fermented on whole fruit; an unmodified “Kriek” or “Framboise” usually means a sweeter, pasteurized commercial version made with juice, essence, or syrup. The two are very different drinks — one bone-dry and funky, the other closer to a fruit soda. Whole-cherry kriek carries an almond note from the pits that fruit-syrup versions lack. Cantillon’s Rosé de Gambrinus (raspberry) and Saint Lamvinus (grape) show how far traditional producers have ranged beyond cherry. Kriek is usually built on lambic, but the cherry-beer idea has also been applied to Flanders red and oud bruin bases.
Defining examples
Cantillon Kriek·Boon Oude Kriek·3 Fonteinen Oude Kriek·Cantillon Rosé de Gambrinus (raspberry)·Lindemans Kriek (sweetened, commercial)