Sour beers/Dawson's Kriek

Northern Brewer General
1

So I watched the Brewing TV episode about sour beers and I got curious. I’ve never really had one before the other night when I got a glass of Duchesse de Bourgogne at the bar and loved it. Now I want to make one but have no idea where to start so I thought I might just try out Dawson’s Kriek from our host.

Anyone make this kit before? What’s it like? Any advice on doing something like this?

2

Yes, its very good. Not as malty as the Ducchesse which is a Flanders red, but still sour with a great pie cherry and funk character. You kind of need to let it sit for a year for it to be a real sour, but it won’t dissappoint.

3

Yeah, I was figuring I’d really need to wait until next summer. I was wondering about bottling half of it and blending the rest with another beer and maybe pitching yet another beer onto the yeast, bacteria and cherry leftovers like Dawson did in the video.
Maybe I’ll just make it and think about all that stuff later. I have a year or more I guess.

4

You could brew something like a Belgian dubbel recipe and pitch it on the yeast cake and have yourself a Flanders red as well.

You don’t bottle these beers right away either, they have to stay in a carboy for several months while the bacteria and wild yeast go through their progression.

I’d say you might be able to drink the kriek after a couple of months and it’ll be lightly sour and with a hint of funk, mostly a cherry beer. It takes the extra time to become the true kriek.

5

Dawson’s was our New Years brew this year, its been sitting in the corner since then, covered and ignored. We’re going to give it a sample on June 1 to see where its at, but we’re fully expecting to keep it aging well past that.

6

duchesse is very sweet, I believe it is back sweetened.
Personally I can’t stand it it is so sweet.
A kriek is going to be vastly different

7

Try a Cantillon kriek for a good example of that style.

I like Ducchesse OK, I didn’t notice it being terribly sweet or at least the pronounced sourness balanced it. And of course these beers get more sour with age so you can find a range of flavors in them.

8

[quote=“tom sawyer”]Try a Cantillon kriek for a good example of that style.

I like Ducchesse OK, I didn’t notice it being terribly sweet or at least the pronounced sourness balanced it. And of course these beers get more sour with age so you can find a range of flavors in them.[/quote]

drink a lafolie or grand cru next to it and you will notice how sweet it is

9

I wasn’t that impressed with New Belgium’s LaFolie. I really like Rodenbach Grand Cru. They’re all too darned expensive, which is why I like to make them.

10

^I’ll second that! I found a Ducchesse four pack for $24!!! I’ll be making another sour in six months from now which is when I’ll rack the one I just brewed. At least that is the tentative plan. I think the next will be something similar to the Dawson’s Kriek kit, maybe just a variation of so I can kinda call it my own.

11

Get yourself a second set of plastics to be on the safe side. Drie Fonteinen is my favorite kriek at this point, followed closely by Cantillon Lou Pepe. Hanssens Oude Kriek and Oud Beersl Kriek are also great beers that are bit easier to come by than the Cantillon or 3F. Pick yourself up a bottle of any of those and decide if you like a good sour kriek. I agree with grainbelt, the duchesse is pretty sweet for a sour beer. Lambic is going to be much more intensely sour (unless you buy the Lindemans stuff).

12

Rodenbach is one of the more reasonably priced sours.
Same with Cuvee Renee. Anything else is quite expensive

13

Nice list Sean, I haven’t had Lou Pepe or their other more expensive brews. Said list would set you back over $100. I do buy them occasionally just to keep a stock of the nice bottles.

I will say that anyone can make something in the same class as any of these beers with a little patience. I wouldn’t make a lot of batches, I don’t find myself reaching for them on a real regular basis. But putting one on every six months or so, will give you stuff to blend with as it gets older.

14

if you want a cheap lambic (gueze actually) go get some Cuvee Renne, it is the cheapest around.
It is not a Kreik but it will show you how much different your talking about from a sweet bomb like duchesse.

Cantillon is so hard to find now days and when it comes around it is gone in a day or two.
I have talked to some reps from shelton brothers in my area and they are trying to get that around everywhere because of such high demand. Couple years ago I could find Cantillon every day and a wide variety of them, now I am lucky to find one kind every couple months.
If you cant find anything you could always order online if your state allows alcohol delivery

15

I’ll have to make a reference list from this posting and head to the liquor store to pick up two or three of them to do my research. Even though mine is bubbling away in the basement I really have no idea what I’d like it to taste like. The only two I’ve had are the Ducchesse which I liked but was pretty sweet and La Roja which was very sour at least for me. I guess I’m aiming somewhere in between there right now for my homebrew but need a better reference point. And usually I hate homework I have to do over the weekend…

16

for a lambic you will probably have to blend then, so your talking a lot more time I dont know of a lambic that is not sour dry and tart.
Besides Lindemans fruit stuff but that isnt a lambic, kreik, framboise or whatever else they have IMO

17

Yeah, Cantillon flies off the shelf here these days. I did manage to get a bottle of the Fou Foune when it came out this last time which is awesome stuff. The 3F is flying off the shelves too, I regret not stocking up when it was widely available.

18

Bumping an over 2200 days old thread. I just bottled a Dawson’s Kriek clone. IKR, sounds crazy to clone a NB recipe but it wasn’t available when I wanted to brew it. It’s available now.

  1. It’s nerve racking waiting 6 months (secondary) to see if something you made turned out ok.
  2. Because I was not beholden to what NB sent me I used one can of sour cherries and one can of sweet. Promising.
  3. I went with plastic Big Mouth bubbler this time for aging instead of glass. I cannot say I notice a difference at this point (drinking bottling bucket dregs). It has been said a bit of oxygen migration during aging is a good thing.
  4. I followed some advice and put .25 pounds of Maltodextrine in for a present to the Brett alone. Seems to have work well.
  5. Drinking bottling dregs makes me write in list form.
  6. Tastes so good and I now have Christmas presents to give some randos instead of handing cards for donations made to “The Human Fund”
1 Like
19

I had a Festivus party last year and hope to make it a yearly event people bring all kinds of cool beers. Aged beer only. No IPA. I found a bunch of 1gal juggs at the recycling center and plan on making a bunch of one gallon mixed fermented beer from dregs from some of these beers.

20

Me did this one for my sister. Let it stand for 8 months. Came out good. Few weeks later a other one. But this one i let stand one year. Should be done august. But the first one i did like the taste