World Beer Awards 2023 - Best Kriek in Belgium!

Brothers Jos and Karel Boon of the BOON family brewery are thrilled. "We regularly win awards, but these are very special," Jos Boon says. "Since always, we use fresh cherries with stone that we let ferment together with our base beer lambic. We never use juices or concentrates." Boon now uses more than 300 tonnes of cherries a year to produce all their cherry beers. "However, the typical local cherry variety "Schaarbeekse kriek" is too limited in availability," Jos continues. "If we can once have a few tonnes from the last harvest, if the harvest succeeds, we are already very happy with that."

"In 2019, we were able to use Schaarbeek cherries again for the first time since the late '80s," says Karel. With the harvests of '18 and '19, BOON twice made an Old Schaarbeek Kriek in 37.5cl bottles. With that, they recently then went one step further and made the first BOON Millésime in 75cl bottles with Schaarbeek cherries harvested in 2020. "We let the beer mature for a long time and launched the bottles under the name BOON Millésime in May. Now this one wins the top prize. Just fantastic."

A cherry-based beer, BOON Millésime is an ideal tasting beer for food pairing or as an aperitif. Thanks to its accessible alcohol content (6.5%), the distinct and elegant aroma of Schaarbeek cherries is given free rein.

The Oude Geuze Boon VAT 59 also wins the silver award. "We are also delighted with the recognition of this special edition of our Oude Geuze of course," says Karel. "This 'Monoblend', as we call it, is an Oude Geuze with 90% of the lambic beer coming from foeder (wooden barrel) number 59." The VAT 59 is a perfect example of an Oude Geuze with a solid oak character. The boisé character together with the fullness of this old gueuze gives a very pleasant warm and round feeling. "You can find it as part of our VAT Discovery Box, along with three other Oude Geuze Monoblends and a booklet with more info."

Want to try these beers? At BOON Brewery itself, you can also discover them in the Biershop or the BOON Bar. You can visit the brewery on Fridays and Saturdays from 10am to 7pm. More info via our "Visit the brewery" page.