Double Mountain gears up for the release of their coveted Belgian-style sour Kriek ales with the strongest batches to date.
These Belgian-style sour ales combine the tart and funky flavors of Brettanomyces wild yeast with fresh fruit picked from the resplendent orchards here in the Hood River Valley.Devil’s Kriek combines dark-red Bing cherries with a Flanders Red Ale-style ale base, while Tahoma Kriek (the Native American name for Mt. Rainier) features the delicate Rainier cherry with a strong Belgian Blond ale. Over 5 lbs of cherries make their way into every keg. Double Mountain brews the Krieks once a year at harvest, and then let them spend a full year in their cellars to sweetly slumber.
The 2013 growing season for cherries was difficult for most orchardists in the Hood River Valley. Mid-summer rains are disaster for cherry growers, and a series of storms blew in right at harvest time last year. The rain causes the cherries to swell with moisture and split. Being brewers, we enjoy a good challenge. So again, we let the cherries ripen and split and develop more fruit intensity on the tree prior to adding them to the already fermenting the beer. The fruit was more raison like after it split, but was rich with sugary jammy goodness. The result drove the alcohol levels up quite a bit from prior years. The 2013 Tahoma is dry and puckery with cherry overtones with a touch of fennel smokiness from the Brett. The Devil’s has more body and richness and touch of residual sweetness, and earthy black currant with a bit of almond nuttiness from the contact of the beer with the fruit pits. It is to be expected that both of these beers will continue to change with some age, the Devil’s in particular is believed that it will continue to dry out and become more tart in the next few months.
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