ABV: 6.5%
Origin: Kobbegem, Vlaams-Brabant
Website: http://www.mort-subite.be
De Keersmaeker Mort Subite Oude Kriek
This is an expanded review of a beer that featured as a fruit beer on the bottled beer review page in the August 2010 issue of
BEER magazine, sent free every quarter to CAMRA members, who can also view it online. The magazine is also available in selected newsagents.
Belgium is the country most associated with fruit beers but its reputation has become a little tarnished thanks to a glut of oversweet commercial varieties dosed with artificial fruit syrups. So it’s pleasing to see a subsidiary of one of the world’s biggest brewers, Heineken, working hard to produce a beer that complies with the EU-recognised designation of Oude Kriek (“old cherry beer”), a category originally lobbied for by smaller producers to protect the most traditional and artisanal spontaneously fermented cherry lambic beers.
The brand name might mean “Sudden Death” (derived originally from the name of a pub game played at a famous Brussels café) but this bottle conditioned beer, from De Keersmaeker brewery at Kobbegem in the heart of the lambic country of the Pajottenland west of Brussels, is life affirming. It’s made to a traditional lambic grist of barley malt, unmalted wheat and aged hops, and matured for a minimum of two months with a 25% proportion of fresh cherries.
The result is a hazy warm cherry red with a fine pinkish head and a plump cherry skin aroma with a sour lambic touch and a farmyardy note. A beautifully balanced palate has obvious natural-tasting cherry fruit and a dry, sour, foamy, slightly cidery and woody lambic sting, but it’s not overtart, with broader malt than some. There’s more juicy but sour cherry in the long finish which turns oaky with lovely lightly vinegary tart notes. It’s an authentic example that’s less challenging than some and a good entry point if you’re new to the style.
Buy this beer from AlesbyMail.com as part of a special pack containing all the beers featured on my beer review page in BEER this month. BEER readers receive a special discount by entering the voucher code shown in the magazine.
To download BEER if you’re a CAMRA member, see http://www.camra.org.uk/page.aspx?o=beer.
To find out more about CAMRA membership, see http://www.camra.org.uk/page.aspx?o=joinus.
Read more about this beer at ratebeer.com: http://www.ratebeer.com/beer/mort-subite-oude-kriek/56718/
Sounds good, I’ve been hankering after this badboy since reading the original review. I love Cherry in a beer but find it hard to find a well-balanced one.
[…] this little piggy up a further notch was matching it with Mort Subite Oude Kriek. I gleaned from Des de Moor’s useful review of the beer that its name means old cherry beer and the brand name translates as Sudden Death – but […]