Is Lindeman's Kriek Pasteurized?

I'm looking into making a clone / similar beer to Ommegang's Three Philosophers. I know they add a kriek into their beer at secondary, so I'd like to do the same, but I don't want to funk up my equipment with wild yeast. Is Lindeman's Kriek pasteurized? I've seen a lot of differing accounts online; Any advice would be awesome.

 

My assumption is that yes it is pasteurized. Reason being is that if it were not, the bottles would change drastically over just a few weeks, and would often be quite sour, depending on the age. Some beer places that don't have great selection keep Kreik around and it probably takes several weeks to sell a case of it.

That beer is syrupy sweet, they probably pasteurize it as a Geuze before adding the fruit puree, which is also pasteurized.

 

Just to follow up on this, in case anyone is ever searching for it, I contacted the brewery and they were nice enough to respond:

Dear Sir

We would like to thank you for your interest in our brewery.
The Lindemans cherry Kriek (sweet) is indeed pasteurized.
However, the old Lindemans Cuvée René Kriek (more sour) isn’t pasteurized.

I've got it in the secondary now with a dubbel, tastes great.

 

So are you planning on brewing your own Quadrupel and then blending it with Lindeman's Kriek? Either way I'd love to hear what your plan is. I have a Quad in secondary right now and might want to do something like this.

 

I guess I need some readin lessons... so you added it in secondary to a Dubbel? How much? I know Three Philosopher's is like 2% or something which doesn't seem like a lot.

 

Yeah, this was inspired by 3P, which I love. They add 2%, so that came out to almost exactly one of the smaller bottles of Lindeman's in 5 gallons. It's still bulk again, and probably will be for another month, but it's delicious, the Lindeman's adds noticeable sweetness and tartness, even at a 2% concentration.

 

Do you think the additional month in secondary is necessary? My Quadrupel has already been in secondary for a month and a half. I'm thinking about doing this but wondering if I can just add it at bottling.

Also, any idea what effect this would have on carbonation? Seems like it would be pretty minimal at 2% but you are adding something that's already carbonated so it's gotta have some effect.

 

Just wondering what your recipe is on this, I'm very interested.

 

Looking for some info on how this came out - I have a quad I'm about to brew, and a large bottle of L K to blend in. Did 2% (small bottle / 5 gallons) work out ok? Seems low, but would love to hear some feedback after the aging.

 

I still have some of these aging right now. The recipe was off, definitely, it was more about just trying out the process. I'd say based on tasting that 2% doesn't really give you a noticeable character. I'd bump it up to 4-5% next time. In terms of carbonation, if you add it into secondary the c02 is probably going to come out of solution and not affect the final carbonation levels. If it's at bottling, it might, but at this concentration it won't be anything noticeable.

In terms of aging, these big belgians really get better with time, a 10% beer isn't going to have come together in a month.

 

The kriek is pasteurized and backsweetened but your beer isn't pasteurized or filtered. That means the sugars left in the kriek are going to ferment out and you'll get less of that cherry flavor.