Kriek

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Kriek is a Belgian beer fermented with cherries. Kriek is the Flemish word for a small, dark, bitter type of cherry found in Schaarbeek. As the Schaarbeek cherries have become more difficult to find, some brewers have replaced krieks with other types of cherries, either partly or completely.

Traditionally, krieks have been made with either a base of lambic or Flemish brown ale to which cherries (with the pits) are added. A lambic is a sour Belgian beer, fermented spontaneously with airborne yeast native to Brussels. When a traditional kriek is made from a lambic base, it is very sour and very dry. The cherries are left in for a period of several months, causing a refermentation of the additional sugar. Typically no sugar will be left so there will be a fruit flavour without sweetness. There will be a further maturation process after the cherries are removed.

More recently, some lambic brewers have added sugar to the final product of their fruit beers, in order to make them less intense and more approachable to a wider audience. They also use cherry juice rather than whole cherries and are matured for much shorter periods.

Kriek is particularly popular in Belgium and the Netherlands.

Framboise/Frambozen is a similar Belgian beer, fermented with raspberries.

Liefmans makes a dry and sour non-lambic Kriek using Flemish brown ale, but using whole cherries and matured for two years it is made in a traditional style. In the 1990's, Liefman's introduced the Glühkriek style of beer, which is a spiced Flemish brown ale kriek beer, which has sugar added. Like the German Glühweins from which it takes its name, Glühkrieks are intended to be served hot.