Big Sky Kriek Ale

Brewed By: Big Sky Brewing Company in Missoula, Montana

Purchased: 750ml bottle from Binny's in IL; 2013 purchase, 2010 Vintage (0864 of 3600)

Style/ABV: "Kriek" / Fruit Beer, 10.0%

Reported IBUs: 15

Every now and then you take one for the team....tonight's beer was in the clearance section of Biiieennie's. 2010 Vintage, green bottle and all. So I rolled the dice without reading any reviews. Let me back up for two seconds before I dive into this beer. About Big Sky:

Big Sky Brewing is the largest brewery in Montana, and distributes beer to 23 states. They produce 33,000 barrels annually, and have been around since 1995. The brewery was founded by Neal Leathers, Bjorn Nabozney, and  Brad Robinson. As with most of these origin stories, Brad and Neal were homebrewers. In the early 90s they worked at a Sportsmen's Surplus and High Country Sports, and they met Bjorn. Unimpressed by the local beer, Brad and Neal began to explore beer more widely, and became interested in opening their own brewery. With Bjorn's business chops, the trio brewed their first batch of beer in mid-June of 1995. The company was a draft-only brewery for its first five and a half years, until January 2003 when they moved to a larger brewing location. To read more about the brewery, check out their history page HERE.

Now...I do like Big Sky. Their Moose Drool is a very nice beer, and is probably due for an updated review. But tonight's beer is a hot, confused mess from the get-go. Billed as a Kriek, the bottle states that this beer starts as a Belgian Style Golden Ale, is then aged with organic cherries from the Orchard at Flathead Lake, and is then aged with more cherries for 3-months-plus in French oak wine barrels. It's unclear if this is even has wild yeast, and the 10% ABV is crazy stacked. The base beer is a Belgian Strong Ale...but this does use Pale and Malted Wheat malts, and Hallertau Tradition hops. The reviews haven't been so great, but I'm approaching this like a fruit beer. Here's to hoping this is just a bad Kriek and not a bad beer.

The cork came off with a satisfying, "POP!" It was followed by a chimney of smoke, and all I could think was, "I'm glad I opened this over a sink." Yeah...this one gushed, so I rushed to pour it into my glass. The rushed pour probably exaggerated the head, as I kicked up 2 to 3 fingers at first, but it RAPIDLY dissolved with audible, violent fizzing. The whole beer is fizzling away, in the bottle and in the glass. In lower light, the body is a swampy brown/red/purple, with a red/brown-tinted head. When held to a bright light, the body is a murky/swampy orange, with lots of carbonation streaming upwards. There is a ring of head hanging around the top, and of course there are legs on this. The amount of carbonation still streaming upwards is crazy....I'm surprised this beer didn't go rogue and blow up like a grenade. Dem champagne bottles.

All you need to know about this beer is revealed by the aroma. This smells much more like Dogfish Head's Fort than it does a Kriek. I'm sorry, but advertising IS part of presentation and that does matter. Sprite-like carbonation is dancing off the surface of this, tingling my nose. It's like touching your nose to an old CRT-TV, or feeling a light mist. I'm getting nice fruit: cherries, raspberry, cherry skins, light honey, malt sweetness, and a touch of pleasant/mild wood. There's even a hint of oak on the nose. The nose smells fine...

Big Sky Kriek Ale

...the taste is definitely sub-par. My initial thought is, "oh hey, this is slightly oxidized." Why? How? What? I guess it has been 2 or 3 years, and this beer wasn't stored in ideal conditions by any means. You get astringent Windex up front, with some cough syrup cherry on the back. Between those two horrors is a beer that has potential. I'm getting nice raspberry, cherry, raspberry puree, some tea/herbal character, and hints of faded wood. It's wine-like at times, in fact. But those nice features fade into failure and broken dreams. You're reminded of those nights when your Russian babysitter would drink bottles of cough syrup, pace around the house cursing in Russian, and then spray you with Windex. 

For a hand grenade, the carbonation doesn't really follow through. Yes, this is tingly and spritzy like a Belgian Ale, but it's kind of dull. The mouthfeel is medium-full, with unfortunate stickiness, unpleasant astringency, and yeah. The 10.0% ABV isn't the roadblock, it's the beer. Ergo, complexity and palate depth are both between "meh" and "who cares." You get sweet malts, Windex, and cherry astringency up front; this follows with reasonable cherry/raspberry puree...and then fades to cough syrup dreams (without the fun dreams you get if you drink lots of cough syrup). 

Rating: Below-Average (2.0/5.0 Untappd)

I'm feeling a Strong Below-Average here. I'm not a big fan of drain pours, but fuck me. Life is short, man. This is 10.0%!!!! And it's not that shitty of a night. If I wanted to get wasted, sure, this would be okay...but so would malt liquor. I'm not even going to recommend food pairings. Don't buy this beer! Even if you see it discounted for $Free-ninety-five. Don't do it! Go buy up a sixer of Moose Drool instead, because that beer is...the tits. 

Random Thought: This is a Fruit Beer. A Fruit Beer. A beer made with fruit, aged in barrels. #LEAVEBELGIANALONE