Brewery: Brouwerji Ter Dolen N.V.
Beer: Ter Dolen Kriek
Style: Fruit/Vegetable Beer
ABV: 4.5%
Character: A Cherry Abbey beer, brewed with cherry juice
Metal Connection: ABORTED – Sphinctral Enthrallment
Here is a unique beer. This one was introduced to me by a few friends in the local beer community. They had told me what a great beer this was, and I should get it as I will be blown away. Well I wasn’t quite blown away. I did enjoy it, and would enjoy it again for sure, but I did not see the greatness that this was said to be. Sorry.
Using my Real Ale 17th Anniversary snifter glass, this beer poured an amazing bright red color, almost looking like fruit punch rather than a beer. Thee was a nice inch wide white head, which reduced down to a thin layer, leaving nice lacing down the glass. With the color of this beer, when the light would shine through, it would make the head look like it has a pinkish tone to it.
The aroma of this beer is all fruit. It smells of very sweet artificial cherry flavoring, similar to like a cherry flavored lollipop or gummie. My nose picks up a lot of sugar. I don’t really pick up any beer notes at all in the nose.
The taste follows the aroma here, as I thought it would. Cherry Kool-Aid with a kick! I tried to concentrate really hard to see if any of there are any other flavors on the back end, but nothing else really popped. This beer is like a cherry cider in taste. There is a small hint of sourness to this but not enough to categorize this as a true sour beer. The body was a bit thin with a silky mouthfeel. This one left a sugary residue on the lips and in my mustache.
Overall, this beer was enjoyable, but I warn you now, take my words serious here. Do not expect anything close to a beer. I know their website says this is a cherry abbey beer, but there are no traces of abbey in this at all. It’s all fruit, mostly all sweet.
Metal Connection, I went with a Belgian band that has always been one of my favorites. They did go through a weird almost Metalcore-ish phase, but on every album there are songs that kick my ass to all Hell! Here is Aborted with their song “Sphinctral Enthrallment” from their sophomore full length release, Engineering the Dead from 2001. This is one of my favorite songs by them. Hope you enjoy this tune, and please try this beer if you are in the mood for something different.
Release the Kriek! Oh well, close enough! BeerMetalDude!
Beer Metal Media 