Kriek

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Kriek is a bright ruby colour.

What is Kriek?

Kriek is a Belgian sour beer flavoured with cherries. "Kriek" means cherry in Flemish.

Kriek is sour, slightly dry, refreshing, crisp, and spritzy, with notes of cherry from the fruit, almond from the cherry pits, and complex earthy aromatics from the natural fermentation.

Although nowadays other varieties are also made, traditional kriek is based on spontaneously fermented lambic beer. To make kriek, lambic beer is aged in oak for 12 to 18 months, then the cherries are added with the pits intact. The cherries are left in for several months. The cherries commonly used for this brew are an extremely sour and tart variety called Schaarbeek.

Many less traditional kriek brands on the market are not made from lambics, generally taste much sweeter, and use syrup or essence instead of cherries.

Origin Story

Kriek dates to the end of the 19th century and was originally brewed in and near Brussels using Schaarbeek cherries, a rare Belgian Morello cherry variety.

While the beer was initially popular only locally, it became more well known after the style was displayed at the 1897 World’s Fair in Brussels.

During and shortly after WWI, soft drinks grew in popularity. In response, brewers began sweetening and colouring kriek to make it more appealing to consumers.

As Schaarbeek cherries became harder to find, they were replaced with other varieties of sour cherries, both domestic and imported. Some modern versions of kriek include added sugar to make the beer more approachable. Cherry juice or syrup is also commonly used in place of whole cherries, and modern kriek beers are aged and matured for much shorter periods than traditional kriek.