Thursday, July 23, 2009

Ode to Cantillon - My First Post - Drinking Philosophy

To introduce my new blog into the world of countless other blogs, I raise a glass of Cantillon 2007 Kriek. Hopefully you will find my blog different, if just slightly, from the other beer blogs you've read.

From the time I began to drink and consider beer seriously, I began to notice that beer could never truly be tasted objectively. The same beer will rarely taste the same twice. What you taste is dependent on so many variables, like what you had for lunch, your mood, and how thirsty you are. Yes, there are certain flavors in certain beers that will always land on the palate. Creme Brulee Stout is pretty much always going to taste like creme brulee. But the sensation of taste is one of the most exciting, visceral experiences in our lives- we owe it to ourselves, as well as to our food and drink, to lend our emotions and imagination to the experience of tasting. This is what I hope to achieve with this blog. To capture the variables of what makes tasting beer so subjective (those variables being, well, life) and record them here.


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It's summer and I'm looking for a more unconventional summer beer. For me, a summer beer should taste better when my palate is at its driest. Pilsners and other lagers of the golden color fit this category. However, I am craving something tart and with a little more tenacity than your average summer beer, so I reach for Cantillon Kriek. Kriek is a form of lambic- a wild fermented, long aged, and blended beer- with cherries added. Kriek is probably best known to many by the ultra-sweet version produced by Lindemans. Real, traditional kriek is not sweet at all; rather, it is dry, funky, sour, tart, and one hell of a beautiful beer. This 2007 vintage is suprisingly fruity. Sometimes the cherry flavor in a kriek is faint at best.
But with this vintage, the fruit explodes on the sides on my tongue- I want to just keep rolling it around in my mouth. You'll completely miss the fruit if you just let the beer pass from glass to throat. There's no doubt in my mind that having a thirsty, dry palate adds to this nice cherry explosion. My tastes buds are standing on end, reaching for more and more.
The funky elements from the wild yeast seem to have mellowed nicely. Very little of the classic barnyardy flavors are present.
The finish is dry and tart; long and beautiful. The cherry resonates long after the beer has left my mouth. The acidity leaves a nice tingle.
Savor this one.
"Cantillon ? That's the time machine. You'll leave the modern civilisation, goodbye to the noise, goodbye to the world," as the Cantillon website declares. Not far off from what you feel when enjoying this beer.
To this day I am still amazed that I can taste such an artful, unique beer from Belgium for such a small price. Granted, Cantillon beers run much more expensive than your average beer. But then I am reminded of the laborous process of producing and aging lambic; the process of importing and shipping the beer; the markup that the beer gets at the retail level. And I am amazed and happy all over again.
Cantillon Kriek achieves what good beer should do: impress the palate, lift the spirit, and leave you with musings and meditations.