My girlfriend and I have been going to a place in San Marcos called Sublime Alehouse for a while now. Their food is fantastic, especially with beer, and they have an extensive taplist that never leaves me wanting. In fact, it's rare that anything there leaves me unhappy when I leave...except for their bottle list (or lack thereof). For a long time, the only bottles on Sublime's "bottle list" were a handful of random beers that weren't particularly interesting and a few ciders. Then, someone at Sublime realized that it was probably time to get some good bottles in there and they did. Big time.
We went into Sublime about two months ago and, after perusing the tap menu, I noticed a new menu sitting on the table. As I started thumbing through it, I was blown away. The list was page after page of really excellent beer. And this included, as I was shocked to find, a few bottles of Cantillon. I was even able to find a beer that I had pretty much given up hope on finding (and #192 on the Top 250 List), Cantillon Kriek 100% Lambic.
Cantillon Kriek 100% Lambic pours a deep pikish-red color with a one-finger light pink head. There's a good amount of turbid carbonation visible in the glass and some fair lace left with each sip. As I've come to expect with Cantillon beers, the smell was nothing short of incredible. Deep, tart red cherry notes are at the forefront, with some oak, hay, chestnut meal, raspberries, cream and a slight touch of funk present as well. As the beer warmed, I picked up more and more of a spicy oak note, which was really nice.
The taste opens on a big and meaty sour cherry note. This never really drifts into "sour beer" territory though, because a rich raspberry preserve note provides a sweet backbone. Some lemon tartness and cherry skins round out the flavor here. The cherry and lemon tartness linger on your tongue forever, never becoming too sour but constantly leaving you wanting more. The carbonation is near perfect, trickling over your tongue with each sip just enough to break up the sweeter flavors. This is yet another fantastic offering from Cantillon. And to the person responsible for the new bottle list at Sublime Alehouse- "Thank you! Thank you! Thank you!"
Final Grade: A+
Top 250 Beers Tasted: 127
No comments:
Post a Comment