3 Fonteinen – Oude Kriek Lambic (750ml)

Lambics are the beers of this region in Belgium, and are among the world’s rarest: they are beers fermented with wild, airborne yeast – no yeast is added by the brewers. Lambics come only from the Senne River valley, near Brussels – a region about 15 by 75 miles in size. The unusual, demanding, and unique flavors that come from multiple yeast strains are unmatched in the world of beer.

The 46th blend of the 2019-2020 season. This Oude Kriek is typified by a long maceration of six and a half months on oak barrels. While most of the sour cherries were macerated on toasted oak, the blenders decided to blend these to an Oude Kriek rather than a Robijn (a more robustly toasted barrel version) as the toast characteristics were deemed more subtle.  Five different barrels of lambic from seven different brews. 3 Fonteinen blenders let this Oude Kriek, which has 32% fruit intensity, settle for well over a year before releasing it. This way, the weighted average of this bottle is well over 30 months when released.