Look, I know you people are nuts for sour beers. I am too. It’s a cat and mouse game. You must be committed to the thrill of the chase. The best sour beers produced here in the Northwest are pretty hard to acquire and sometimes it seems like you need to know a secret handshake to get your share.
So here’s the handshake. This one involves one of my personal favorites: Double Mountain Kriek, two different versions.
After much anticipation, Double Mountain Brewery is introducing a limited release of the first ever bottled Devil’s and Tahoma (Rainier) Kriek beers in custom designed 12.7-ounce split champagne bottles. The limited Kriek bottles are available for purchase at Double Mountain Brewery & Taproom located in downtown Hood River on February 8th upon opening at 11:30am. Starting February 12th, a small supply of bottles will be sold in specialty bottle shops.
That’s as much of the handshake as I can teach you. Do your own legwork to find out exactly which bottleshops will have the beer. I’ve been told, some of it will be making it to the Seattle area. Start looking and asking about it later next week (after Feb 12).
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These Belgian-style sour Kriek ales combine the tart Brettanomyces wild yeast with fresh fruit picked from owner, Matt Swihart’s orchard up in Duke’s Valley, just 7 miles south of Hood River. The Devil’s Kriek is a Flanders Red-style Belgian ale that boasts 200 lbs of Bing cherries, while the lighter colored Tahoma Kriek (Tahoma is the Native American word for Mt. Rainier) utilizes the delicate Rainier cherry with a strong Belgian blonde ale.
2012 was a challenging year for cherry growers with a very wet spring and delayed maturation of the fruit, but was good for flavor lovers. Since the cherries ripened at slower rate the sugar levels and color intensity was much higher, great news for this first time bottled sour beer.
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Double Mountain went the extra mile in designing a custom split champagne bottle to ensure quality with especially dark heavy-duty glass for best UV protection and to withstand secondary fermentation. The secondary fermentation gives the beer more carbonation, protects against oxygen ingress and adds more complexity to these flavor packed beers.
2012 Devil’s Kriek
Bing Cherry Flanders Red-style Belgian Sour Ale
8.8% alcohol by volume, 14 bitterness units, 16.5 Plato
Brewed June 2012; released July 2013, bottle release 2-1-14
2012 Tahoma (Rainier) Kriek
Rainier Cherry Strong Blonde Sour Ale
9.4% alcohol by volume, 13 bitterness units, 17.3 Plato
Brewed June 2012; released July 2013, bottle release 2-1-14
