A perfect marriage is a matter of taste. Different rules, different advice and different conditions apply to every couple. The same applies to the combination of flavors. While chefs and gastronomy professionals love crazy pairings like apricot and dill, melon and sage or strawberries with balsamic vinegar, less trained palates may find these more difficult to get used to. Breweries also keep trying unconventional pairings and sometimes get it wrong. Brasserie Boon from Belgium, on the other hand, has hit the jackpot with its perfect marriage: the team decided to marry strong lambic and freshly harvested wild cherries.
The basis for their Kriek Mariage Parfait is a lambic (a Belgian sour beer fermented with wild yeasts) that has been aged in wooden barrels for 18 months. After this long rest period, almost a pound of cherries is mixed into each liter of beer and the brew rests for a further six to eight months in oak barrels. To give the refined brew the finishing touch, it is bottled and subjected to a second fermentation. The result of this lengthy process is a complex, multifaceted beer with a wine-like character, intense cherry notes, hints of oak and vanilla and a hint of fully ripe fruit.
If you like, you can store this beer in the cellar for up to two more years and your patience will be rewarded with an even milder and fruitier beer.
Boon
