Boon Brewery Wins Two Awards at the Brussels Beer Challenge 2023
Gold for Boon Millésime 2020 and bronze for Oude Kriek
Boon Brewery achieved a remarkable result at the 12th edition of the Brussels Beer Challenge. The lambic beer producer based in Lembeek, Belgium, took two medals in the ‘Old Style Fruit-Lambic’ category. The Boon Millésime 2020 was awarded the gold, and the Oude Kriek Boon won the bronze medal. The intrinsic qualities of the Boon Millésime 2020 are thus confirmed. This Oude Schaerbeekse Kriek was also crowned this summer at the World Beer Awards 2023 with a gold award and the title “Best Kriek in Belgium”.
Karel Boon: “We are delighted with this result. We always use fresh cherries, never juices or concentrates, for our cherry beers. Our Oude Kriek Boon, for example, is still too often underestimated. It is a fruity, characterful classic, characterised by its deep red colour.” His brother Jos adds: “Since the public and professional juries so well received our first Boon Millésime, we have reserved this year’s harvest of Schaerbeek cherries for the next Millésime. It matures in oak barrels and will probably be presented at the end of next year.”
The Boon Millésime 2020 is a traditional lambic beer made with fresh Schaerbeek cherries. Thanks to the alcohol percentage of 6.5 per cent, which is not too high, the pronounced fruit aroma is given free rein. The cherries were harvested in the summer of 2020 and then fermented with lambic, which had already matured for 18 months. Ultimately, the bottling occurred in October 2021 after another six months of maturation in oak casks, followed by refermentation in the bottle. For the Millésime 2020, Boon used 270 grams of cherries per litre.
For the Oude Kriek Boon, no less than 400 grams of fresh cherries are used per litre. The cherry lambic refermented in the bottle. The large amount of cherries gives this Oude Kriek a very intense yet smooth taste.
Another reason to celebrate
“And it’s a double celebration because today at Horeca Expo in Ghent, we are also presenting the Boon Oude Geuze Black Label Edition N°9, which was bottled on September 7, 2022,” an enthusiastic Karel said. “The Black Label series is always an assembly of one, two and three-year-old lambics with a very high degree of fermentation, which ensures a distinctly full-bodied taste and a typical long, dry aftertaste. With its grapefruit aroma, fresh citrus touch and pleasant sparkle, you can label our Boon Black Label N°9 as an elegant, easy-to-drink, tender Oude Geuze. It is, therefore, a beer that lends itself perfectly to dishes with oysters, salmon or mussels.”
Boon Brewery was founded by Frank Boon. He took his first steps in the lambic world in 1975. Frank is one of the pioneers who put Oude Geuze on the map worldwide. In the meantime, his sons Jos (35) and Karel (29) took over from him. With more than 2 million litres of lambic, this family brewery has the world’s largest lambic stock in oak barrels.
Yves Panneels