3 Fonteinen Oude Kriek

Description

3 Fonteinen Oude Kriek is a traditional kriek lambic released annually in several batches by the brewery. It consists of two-year old lambic blended with cherries and matured for 6-8 months in oak barrels. After bottling, it is stored in a warm room for at least four months to help with secondary fermentation.^[1] Oude Kriek is released in 37,5cl and 75cl bottles and is currently labeled as 6% ABV. Older labels show that it was once 5% ABV.

History / Other Notes

3 Fonteinen Oude Kriek is a very old beer in the brewery's portfolio. The brewery has been bottling it since at least the 1990s, as labels from that era are documented, including neck labels. Oude Kriek is the only other lambic that 3 Fonteinen bottles regularly. After the Thermostat Incident, which essentially cooked over 80,000 bottles of lambic causing some of them to explode, an unspecified number of Oude Kriek bottles survived. These were bottled on March 31, 2009 and became known as "Hot Cherry" bottles when they began to circulate in the beer community.

Label Log

Bottle Log

Bottle Date (mm/dd/yyyy)	Bottle Size	Label / Notes	Image Link
12/17/1994		Neck ring label - 5% ABV	N/A
03/27/1998	750ml	Old label	N/A
01/06/2002	375ml	Old label	N/A
12/14/2007	375ml	US label	N/A
03/31/2009	375ml	"Hot Cherry" bottle that survived thermostat incident	N/A