Bacchus Vlaams Oud Bruin

I’ve decided that I’m going to wait a while before I do a review of my home brew. I want to allow a few more days for secondary fermentation before I slap a rating on it. I think doing a review after only a week and a few days is a bit premature. Conditioning the beer beyond two weeks will only make it better, and I want to give the brew a chance to be at it’s “topest.”

In the meantime, here’s a birthday beer review:

I went in the Chester’s and asked if they had anything new and exciting that was Belgian. The bar tender suggested that I try Bacchus Vlaams Oud Bruin (or Bacchus Flemish Old Brown). This is a “sour ale” which has a similar flavour to lambic beers. This sour flavour is achieved by aging the beer for a few years in oak-vats or by actually adding wood to the beer during the fermentation process (seriously).

To me it tastes like an acidic fruit beer… but without the fruit. Although it was refreshing, it wasn’t the type of beer I was hoping for. I’ve never been a big fan of extremely acidic-tasting beers. I don’t like acidic coffees either, which is why I tend to avoid African coffee. I was hoping for something bold, sweet, and aromatic. This is quite the opposite. I think this is more of a personal preference issue and doesn’t necessarily mean that this beer is bad, but I’m not down. I guess I just don’t like sour ales.

Oh yeah, and the 330ml bottle of this that I had cost me $20! The only reason I got it is because it was my birthday and I decided some splurging would be acceptable. $20 for this beer, however, is NOT acceptable.

 

I’m giving it 2 heads based on the effort that went into producing it. I’m not impressed with the flavour or the price… or this asshole:

I did have a good beer that same night as well. I will be posting that review shortly.

Rosee D’hibiscus

On my way home from work, I decided to pop into my local liquor dispensary to pick up a couple of different beers to sample. Among my collection was a beer from the Dieu du Ciel Brasserie, in St. Jerome, Quebec. For those of you who strive to disprove Canada’s claim to bilingualism, allow me to remind you that “brasserie” and “brassiere” are two completely different things. They are both of comparable merit, housing things that have intoxicated men for millennia, yet only the former refers to a place where beer is brewed.

This particular brewery is home to just over a dozen beers, hosting names such as Route des épices, Equinoxe du printemps, and Aphrodisiaque, all of which look absolutely scrumptious. The only one that my local LCBO seems to be carrying is Rosée d’hibiscus, which I will now gladly review.

Let’s start with the bottle itself. Like all of the beers this brewery puts forth, the label is a work of art. There is only a front label, which boasts an Angelina Jolie look-alike version of mother nature, adorned invitingly with hibiscus flowers. While the ingredients are in both languages, the description for the beer is only in French, making it an intriguing puzzle for some, and a welcome opportunity for others. It’s clear that thought even went into designing the cap. It is delicately protected by a symbolic sticker which must be ripped in order to consume the beverage—a detail that alludes to the beer’s unadulterated purity.

Upon pouring the beer into a glass (preferably a chilled one), one is surprised to find a reddish-burgundy colour flow out of the bottle, looking almost like a diluted and darkened tomato concoction. While this beer does have a distinct iron-copper  taste, and a pronounced astringency, there is little else that it holds common with tomato juice.

This beverage is sold as a bière blanche, but the malt is listed as being a bigger ingredient than the wheat flavour; this is definitely evident in the taste. Additionally, there is a distinct undertone of hops, which is not characteristic of this class of beers. Having tried a pure hibiscus beverage, I can claim that overtones of this selling-point herb are definitely present. This is much more evident in the aftertaste than there is when actually drinking the beer. I guarantee you that this beer won’t take very long to finish; despite being stronger than a lot of beers (5.9%), it goes down exceptionally smooth.

For $3.10 a bottle, this is something I could easily drink again. I’ll be sure to keep my eyes open for more beers from the Dieu du Ciel brasserie, a brewery which pleasantly surprised me with a very unique beer. I can only imagine that their other products will be just as remarkable.

Overall, 4/5 Paul Westerberg heads