This is sooooo good.

Kriek lambics, and in fact kriek beers in general, are often hit and miss with me. As we know, they often fall into the category of extreme sourness or extreme sweetness. They can also have a rather delicate relationship with cough medicine. This beer, for whatever reason, hits the perfect balance for me.

The pour is perfect. A stunning, raspberry (yes raspberry) red pour, with a decent head and some lace. Nose is an unmistakable, strong cherry; no more, no less.

Tastes are a perfect balance of the strong cherry and the black pepper. I always think that descriptions are sometimes difficult to pick up specifically in some beers, but here ‘the black pepper is the black pepper’. The pepper is mid to strong, very present, and does an amazing job of dialing back any extreme sweetness or cough syrup notes.

There’s also a lack of sourness here, BUT the beer still hits perfectly and with balance. Some will ding the beer because it isn’t especially lambic-like, nor is it a sweet, fruit infused bomb that some kriek beers are. It definitely falls between two stools, but for me that’s its strength.

Very impressed, not least of all because I wasn’t expecting to like this as much as I did. Cracking beer.