Pour un Pugno di Luppolo- retasting.

This is my 'Fistful of Hops' ale that I brewed last summer(6/16/10). I was inspired by a bottle of my Grisette that had been infected with Brett, and though that was completely accidental, I really liked the taste of it.
Tasting 4/25/11-
Cloudy lemon color. Great foamy white head that left nice lacing in the glass. Ample, streaming carbonation.
Brett aroma, citrus, earthy hops, dry, dusty.
Earthy brett taste. Soil, hay, citrus. Highly carbonated, light mouth feel. Champagne like effervescence. Short finish, but some hanging on flavor remains with you.
Still drinking ok, but from my previous tasting, it seems like the remainder should be drunk soon.

Terrapin/De Proeuf- Monstre Rouge.

Let me start by saying I did not buy this and most likely would not have bought this if left to my own devices. Katie brought it home from work for me, so I thought I would give it a whirl.
The label states this is an Imperial Flanders red. I believe 8% abv.
Pours a murky red/brown. Very hoppy aroma, which is kind of what I was afraid of. Tastes like an IPA. It wasn't until the third glass (with the bottle left at room temp) that I felt I could detect even a hint of funk, and that was more Brett and no lactic tartness at all.
Very hoppy over all, not true to style. If I had bought this and thought of it as a Flanders Red, I would have been very disappointed, as it was nothing like one at all.
As it is, I didn't pay for it, and while it wasn't bad for what it was, it wasn't near what it claimed to be. For that I would have to give this beer a low rating. I would not buy again, and recommend that you don't either.

Dedalus Old Stout.

Ulysses is a book that I first tried to read once about seven or eight years ago. I had read that it was widely considered the best book every written in the English language, and I decided I therefore had to read it.
My first attempt didn't go so well. I took it on our family vacation to North Cackalacka and even with making a fair amount of notes in the book (for me), I didn't make it much past page 40. If that even. It is a very intricate, complicated, and almost strenuous book to read.
Now I have gotten back on the horse. I decided that now was the time. Today I passed my previous high mark, the third chapter, where Stephen walks on the beach and nearly all of the book is his inner thoughts and memories. I am now about to start chapter four and I feel pretty confident in my ability to finish the book this time around. Two tries on Ulysses is not too bad from my understanding.
The beer is an experiment as many of my brews are these days. An attempt at perhaps a modern day historical stout. The beer is fermented on oak, solely with Brettanomyces. A portion of the beer was boiled separately, without hops, and is being fermented a bit by Lactobacillus. This will be pasteurized and added back to the main wort in the future.
It is well know that Guinness adds a portion of soured beer to their blend to give it the unique 'tang'. I have read that is around 3%. Mine will be around 10%. We'll see how it goes.
Dedalus Old Stout.
9.5 lb pale British malt
1 lb black patent
1 lb dark crystal
1.5 oz Styrian Goldings pellet @ 90 min
1 oz Styrian Goldings pellet @ 15 min
Wyeast 5112 Brettanomyces Bruxellensis
2/1/11- Mash at 156 for 90 min. At sparging, kept first two quarts separate and boiled for ten minutes before cooling in some snow outside. Once this got down to around 80 degrees, I added a handful of reserved crushed grain to introduce Lactobacillus. This all went into a 2 qt mason jar with plastic wrap on the surface of the wort to prevent it from reacting with oxygen. This has my heating pad on low wrapped around it, as Lacto likes to ferment warm.
The remainder of the beer was boiled for 90 min with noted hop additions. Once chilled, racked to primary fermentor with .5 oz washed med toast Hungarian oak cubes and .5 oz new Hungarian oak cubes. Added the brett from a starter originating on Saturday.

Monk's Cafe Sour Flemish Ale.

I have been wanting to try this one for awhile, and when I saw it at the liquor store the other day, the time was finally right. This beer is brewed in Belgium and labeled as Monk's Cafe, one of my favorite beer places in Philly.
Pours a nice clear deep red with ample streaming carbonation and a thin lightly colored head. Aromas of plums, balsamic vinegar. Hits the mouth with a burst of carbonation and a nice sweet and sour taste. The aromas carry into the beer with the addition of some light oaky vanilla and caramel flavors. Medium finish. Light mouth feel. A little weak. Tastes watered down.
My rating: Maybe worth a try, but there are much better ones out there..
Abv: 5.5%.
Website: Monk's Cafe.
Price paid: 3-4 dollars.

Ligne Maginot- First Tasting.

This is what I have decided to call my beer/wine blend. The Maginot line was a series of fortifications erected by France on their shared border with Germany after WWI. The idea was that the line would protect France from another invasion. Well, WWII rolled around and after a brief siege, Germany invaded Belgium and from there headed south into France, completely outflanking all of France's protection. This went down in history as one of France's greatest military blunders.
This beer pours a slighty hazy golden color. Ample, streaming carbonation, but no head. Brett is definitely apparent in the aroma- tropical fruit, nuts, hay, a little barnyardy.
The beer definitely tastes more 'beery' than it smells, by which I mean more like a beer brewed with a captive yeast strain. A nice nuttiness and hay continue into the flavor, with nice carbonation and mouth feel. I am not sure how much the wine really adds, but I am sure if you had some without to taste against this, you would notice the difference.
All in all, I would say I am happy with the results, and it is an experiment worth repeating.

Continued Evolution- Grisette tasting.

Yum. This is one of my beers that I have been really digging as I continue to taste it over time. The main reason being that it was accidentally 'infected' with Brettanomyces at bottling time. Some of the bottles got a dose, and some didn't. The ones that did have evolved into something magical.
A great golden color with a champagne like effervescence and a thin but lasting moussey head. Complex wine like aromas of citrus, oak, hay, light brett touch. Dancing on the tongue with stronger flavors of those same aromas, with the brett a bit more apparent. Good bitterness present, but no hop flavors really. Toasty oakiness. Quick finish with little lingering taste, only a touch of bitterness. Very dry.
This has now had almost five months in the bottle and is at around six months after the day it was brewed. I like that each bottle continues to evolve and move on to something else. It's pretty great. It was a great summer beer and I look forward to enjoying the remaining bottles I have over time and into next summer.
First tasting.

An experiment in blending wine and beer.

This is probably the only week I will be able to brew in August due to family visits and fermentor space. I have been kicking this idea around for awhile, and I figured now would be a good time to get around to it. In the beer I am using a 100% Pilsner malt, light hopping, and fermenting with Brett C. which should produce tropical fruity esters.
To the secondary I will add 1 oz of medium toast Hungarian oak cubes that have been soaking in Reisling, as well as 1-2 bottles of wine. I am also thinking of Alsatian Riesling, as those seem to have some of those fruit characteristics and will have less sweetness to them. Another good bet and maybe a better option would be an unoaked Chardonnay.
11 lb German Pilsner
1.5 oz Crystal leaf @ 90 min
.5 oz Crystal leaf @ 0 min
5151 Brettanomyces Claussini
1-2 bottles of wine added to secondary
1 oz medium toast Hungarian oak cubes added to secondary
Og- 1.052
Fg- 1.001
6.8% abv
80% attentuation.
8/10/10- Made starter for washed jar of yeast.
8/11/10- Mash at 148 for 90 min. Sparged with 6 gallons of water. 90 minute boil. Hops clogged spigot several times when moving to primary fermentor.
9/1/10- I still have yet to get another secondary fermentor, so I am going ahead with this in the bucket for the time being. Today I added the oak cubes that were boiled in water for 30 min and then soaked in Riesling for a few weeks. Look at what the wine looked like after...
It tasted pretty nasty. Very oaky, tannic, and astringent. It is always a good idea to soak your oak in some sort of alcohol so those hard flavors don't end up in your beer. Something neutral can be used if you don't want the soak to add any flavor itself. I also added a bottle of white Burgundy. This is an unoaked Chardonnay that should compliment the flavors present in the beer pretty well. I bought a second bottle if I need to add more.
10/22/10- Bottled with 5 oz corn sugar and reyeasted with 2 packets of Safale 33. Looked like the yeast I used to ferment had been killed from the sulfites in the wine. Very interesting taste.

Berliner Weisse.

This week I am brewing a Berliner Weisse. This is a German style that uses a mix of brewers yeast and lactobacillus to ferment, thus producing a tart product. It is low in alcohol, light in color, lightly hopped, and highly carbonated. This is something I have wanted to brew for a little, but Wyeast has just re-released their Berliner Weisse blend(3191), which also includes a strain of brettanomyces. I have read you can also brew it using a commercial lacto culture and yeast combo, adding the lacto a day before the yeast or so. My grain bill came from the mad fermentationist (I think), one of my favorite brewing blogs.
4.5 lbs German Pils
3 lbs white wheat
.25 oz Hallertau pellet @ mash hop.
.25 oz Hallertau pellet @ sparge hop.
Wyeast 3191- Berliner Weisse blend.
Calculated og- 1.038
7/21/10- Decoction mash as follows...
Mash in 122 20 min
decoct 144 15 min
decoct 149 30 min
decoct 162 20 min
decoct 172 10 min
collected 5 gals+ of wort, brought to a boil for 5 min, cooled and racked to fermenter. I had to go buy the yeast so it stood for a few hours before I added that. I offer a calculated original gravity as I added .5 gal of water after I had taken the og and found it too high, but had contaminated everything I used so couldn't take another sample.
I have to say this was probably my most pleasant brew day ever! Everything went very smoothly, exactly as planned. It was nice to not do a 90 min boil for a change. I felt like I had time to brew as I wanted but still do some other things. Next week this will go to the secondary, where it will stay until probably six months from now. Guess this one will be a drinker next summer.

First tasting- Per un Pugno di Luppolo.

Today I cracked open a bottle of my 'fistful of hops' ale, which used a mixed culture (Wyeast French Saison and Brettanomyces Lambicus) to ferment, hop bursting to impart all of the bitterness, dry hopping, and oak aging. Phew. Seems like alot going on in this one. Let's see...
Pours a nice pale golden color, with a foamy white head that dissipates. The aroma is reminiscent of cider, hay, barnyard, a touch of hot sand, and a vinous quality.
It hits your mouth with a constellation of carbonation, with abundant streaming bubbles visible in the glass. The taste is relatively hoppy, though I would say less so than even an American pale ale. Hay and light funk come into play as well. Very dry, and leaves a long finish of floral, earthy, and somewhat spicy hops and caramel oddly enough. Caramel is not a flavor I would expect to taste in a beer that is Pilsner and light wheat malt.
Overall I would say this is a good and drinkable beer. It would be nice on a hot day, though maybe not entirely what I was aiming for. But then again, I am not sure what I was really aiming for anyway.
I feel that fans of Belgian style beers would like this, but I am not sure if people who normally drink American hop bombs would or not. It is definitely less hoppy than an American IPA and the aroma might be off putting. I feel that I would prefer this beer over those though. It has a very nice hop character with out being too much, as I feel many beers of that style are.

Odell Brewing - Saboteur.

I picked up this bottle a few weeks ago and have been looking for the right time to pop it open. That time came today as I am brewing my own beer.
This beer pours a clear brown into my glass. A thick mocha colored head builds and stays with the beer as drunk, producing a nice lacing in the glass.
The aroma is very fruity and perhaps a touch floral with some dark cherry. A nice tartness is apparent as well as the aroma of Brettanomyces.
The taste is something completely different, with the tastes of darker malts. Coffee, chocolate, caramel, and to a lesser note vanilla, nut, fruit. Light sour finish with a long and lingering taste. The alcohol content is not apparent. Fuller mouth feel than most sour ales. This was released in the spring but I feel if you have purchased a bottle of this and have yet to drink it, it would be best to hold onto it until the winter.
The finish on this one really lasts and lasts. It is different from most sour or all brett beers in that it is a bit heavier. Pretty good and a different entry to the already different category of American sour ales.
My rating: Worth a try.
Abv: 10%.
Website: Odell Brewing Co.
Price paid: Around 12 at Twins Peaks Liquor.
Number of cans of Bud Light you could buy for the same price: 19.
On a brief side note, I went to Pj's today to pick up some wine and the guy behind me was buying two cans of Budweiser with Clamato juice. BLECH!!!!!

New Belgium- Biere de Mars.

Today I am drinking a bottle of New Belgium's Biere de Mars. Mars means March (the month) in French, and this style was typically brewed in the early winter out of the finest ingredients of the season. It would be laid down for the winter and then drunk in March.
This beer pours the orangest/amberest color I have ever seen. There is a little bit of a white head that recedes and leaves some nice lacing in the glass.
The aroma is very fruity and citrusy. Light touch of brett. The carbonation on this beer is not extremely high; I can see a bit of streaming bubbles in the glass but not all that much. The flavor is citrusy with a touch of malt and a light brett character at the end. The mouthfeel is pretty full, though the beer is pretty light, something you will often find in French or Belgian beers of this style. A somewhat lingering finish to it of hay/barn.
My rating: Worth a try.
Abv: 6.2%.
Website: New Belgium.
Price paid: 7 or so at PJ's Wine and Spirits.
Number of cans of Bud Light you could buy for the same price: 11.

Pour une poignée de houblon or Per un pugno di luppolo?

This time around I have decided to brew something that will be like my Grisette, but definitely more on the hoppy/sour/funky side. In this beer, I will be using a mixed culture to ferment (of Brett L and 3711) as well as 'hop bursting'. This is a technique that emphasizes hop flavor and aroma. Normally a bittering hop addition would occur at the start of the boil. This lends most of the overall perception of bitterness to the beer. The flavor and aroma additions come near the end of the boil.
Using hop bursting, there is no bitterness addition, and all of the IBU's come from additions near the end of the boil. Supposedly, this contributes an amazing hop aroma and taste to the beer, though you have to use large amounts of hops to achieve this effect. In this case that would be four ounces.
The name was inspired by the Clint Eastwood movie 'A Fistful of Dollars' or 'Per un Pugno di Dollari' since the director was Italian. Not sure if I should use French instead...
5 lb Belgian Pils
2 lb White wheat
7 oz Flaked wheat
5 oz Acidulated
1 oz Styrian Goldings pellet @ 20 min
.5 oz Styrian Goldings pellet @ 15 min
1/4 tsp Irish Moss @ 15 min
.5 oz Styrian Goldings pellet @ 10 min
1 oz Styrian Goldings pellet @ 5 min
1 oz Styrian Goldings pellet @ 0 min
Ferment with 3711- French Saison and 5526- Brettanomyces Lambicus.
Dry hop with 1.5 oz Crystal leaf @ 1 week to bottling.
Estimated og- 1.043
Actual og- 1.042
Intermediate- 1.003
Final- 1.001
5.37% Abv.
97.5% apparent attenuation.
80% actual attenuation.
6/16/10- Mashed the grains at 145 for 90 mins. Got around 5.5 gallons of wort. Added 1.5 gals of water to make up for evaporation during 90 min boil. Still ended up adding another gallon plus after the boil to get over 5 gal in volume. That burner is very efficient! The Brett L came from a 2 day old starter. The 3711 was pitched directly from a jar of washed yeast. Lots of hops made their way out of the pot and into the primary.
Yeasts.
Five hop additions = 4 oz of hops! A fistful!
Boiling.
Almost done!
6/22/10- To secondary and .5 oz of the oak cubes I used in the Grisette. Tastes very fruity and estery with a little Brett character and little hoppiness. I will definitely dry hop, maybe with a significant charge. I think I will add some wine (no more than a cup or two) as well to give it some vinous quality. (did not add wine) Picked up a few samples today. Added another .5 oz of new oak cubes, boiled for awhile.
Intermediate gravity.
A few artsy sunlit secondary pictures..
7/5/10- Some pellicle forming. Added 1.5 oz Crystal leaf for a dry hop finish.
7/13/10- Bottled with 6 oz corn sugar, aiming for 3 volumes of carbonation. Tastes very interesting and complex while still remaining pretty light. Long lingering hop finish as well as a bit of caramel oddly.
7/20/10- First tasting.

De Proefbrouwerij- Reinaert Flemish Wild Ale.

I saw this at Pj's and had to have a try since it is mentioned in Wild Brews.
It pours a crystal clear golden color with a fluffy, abundant, creamy head that lasts. I can see a ton of streaming bubbles in the glass.
The nose reminds me of many Belgian strong ales, though with less hopping. Slightly musty, funky, yet also clean (kind of reminds me of Duvel in a way). Maybe a bit of tart apple.
The taste is surprisingly fruity, with an earthy side. Nice malt character, abundant tingling carbonation, with a finish that is all Brettanomyces- imagine the taste of riding a horse with a leather saddle through a field of dried hay ready to harvest. A little citrus tartness hangs around.
Nice lacing in the glass, with the abv being hidden quite well in taste.
My rating: Worth a try.
Abv: 9%.
Website: Importer. DeProef does not seem to have a website at this time.
Price paid: 9.86 at Pj's Wine and Spirits.
Number of cans of Bud Light you could buy for the same price: 15.

1600 dollars worth of wine...

This is what it looks like...


We have a frequent guest at the restaurant who is wealth and likes his wine. He always comes in and gets a tasting menu and brings a few bottles with him. Of course, they are always sick. He also seems to be pretty generous, as himself and his guests never finish the bottles and he gives the server the remaining 1/4 bottle or more. Usually the server shares it with everyone, as was the case this time.
The average retail I can find for the 1985 Mouton Rothschild is 382 dollars, a relative bargain when you look back a few years at the 1982 vintage and see it going for 1550. This was my favorite of the two. Deep garnet with flavors of dark ripe berries (cherry poss?), spices, tobacco, leather, and the unmistakeable touch of Brettanomyces! Rich silky mouth feel, and long, lingering finish.
The average retail I can find for the Coche Dury is 1220! Yikes. Well I only got a tiny sip of this one and it didn't taste very good. Maybe it had been open too long or too many people had drank out of the glass, but I didn't care for it.

Back Door Beauty- First tasting.

The Ralph Steadmanesque label...The redesque beer...
Today I am tasting my sour mash red ale. This is the half that I bottled with Brettanomyces, though I did taste the non brett half yesterday. I will write up a tasting of that half as well, though they are similar.
First off this beer pours a nice reddish brown. Hard to tell from the picture of course. It has a nice hoppy aroma, little head, no lacing, nice tingling carbonation. The taste is similar to the nonbrett half, though I would say there is less hop presence and more of maybe a cidery taste?
Similar malty finish in both beers, but neither are really sour that I can tell. I should brew this one again and do a longer sour mash.
Despite that, I would say this is still a very good American style ale. Nice hop taste and aroma but it is not overwhelming. I think the sourness would add another dimension though.

Another sour mash brew.

I was a bit disappointed with my last sour mash experiment because it didn't really seem to taste all that sour. This time around I soured a larger portion of the mash, 50%, and allowed it two full days rather than just over night to sour. This will also mark my second all Brett beer, and I am going to be aging this on some fruit and oak as well (inspired by Avery's Dépuceleuse). More on that later...
7 lbs German Pils
1 lb white wheat
10 lb frozen raspberries to be added to secondary fermenter
1 oz Hallertau pellet @ 90 min
.5 oz Crystal leaf @ 15 min
1/4 tsp Irish moss @ 15 min
.5 oz Crystal leaf @ 0 min
Wyeast 5151
Theoretical OG- 1.057 (accounting for the sugar and carbs from the fruit)
Actual OG- 1.042 (grain only)
Intermediate- 1.007
5/24/10- Made a starter for the yeast with some DME and a hop pellet or two. It took about a day and a half before I got any visible fermentation. Mashed 4 lbs of the grain with 1 gallon water at 148. Started this when I got up and it was down in the 130's after several hours. Added a handful of grain to introduce lactobacillus, covered with plastic wrap, and added my aquarium heater to keep the mix somewhat warm over the next two days.
5/26/10- Sour mash smells pretty sour and gross for sure. Skimmed off a little mold. Mashed the remaining 4 lbs of grain at 148 for 90 min. Sparged with 5 gallons of 170 degree water. Ran out of propane with 20 min left in the boil and had to transfer to my stove and two pots. Ended up working ok, though it took a little more time. I boiled an ounce of heavy toast oak cubes in 5 changes of water and have them soaking in a cup of zinfandel. I will add both to the secondary fermenter along with the berries.
Sour mash smells like dead people.
Boiling oak cubes (time to clean the stove too!).
Oak cubes in a cup of wine, pictured in the background. I never buy/drink wine and ironically I only bought it to make beer this time. I chose this one because the price was right (15-20) and the tasting notes specified raspberry and blackberry flavors.
Yeast starter. This worked alot better than my last all brett beer without a starter. It took two days for the starter to get going, but I had active fermentation by the next morning in my 5 gal batch.
Hop additions weighed out.
Sparging...
Original gravity, which was temperature corrected to 1.042. This sample did taste fairly tart, which is exactly what I was going for!
6/7/10- After a 2 week primary fermentation, moved to the secondary today, along with 10 lbs of frozen raspberries, 1 oz of heavy toast French oak cubes, and a cup of the zinfandel pictured above. I did not use the wine that the cubes had been soaking in. It tasted way too oaky and astringent and tannic. I kept it for future oak cube soaks or I could use a bit to add more oak to this beer if needed. It tastes pretty tart and somewhat fruity from the yeast. It'll probably be a month or more before it gets bottled.
10lbs of raspberries in a 6 gal better bottle.
Racking from primary to secondary.
Intermediate gravity.
The beer has already taken on a nice pink/red color.
Floating berries and oak cubes.
6/16/10- I finally remembered to get a wine thief and took a little sample of this today. The color has gone to a deep red. The nose is very wine like, actually smelling very similar to tart concord grape. Lambic like flavor profile, very tart upfront, finish of brettanomyces, fruit, hay. Not nearly as complex as a Lambic of course.
I have been thinking I will bottle this four ways- 1. as is uncarbonated. 2. as is carbonated. 3. blended with a red wine uncarbonated. 4. blended with a red wine carbonated. Though I am not entirely sure on all of that yet.
9/21/10- Finally amassed enough cap-able champagne bottles and bottled this. That magic number was 24 bottles. I primed with 12 oz of sugar to get 5 volumes of carbonation and reyeasted with some of the washed brett c from this batch. It tastes very lambic like but no where near as complex of course. A good amount of the raspberry seemed to make it through to the bottles despite some attempts at filtration. Oh well. Most of that will sink to the bottom.

Avery Brewing Co. - Depuceleuse.

I have no idea how to even pronounce the name of this beer and I'm not going to try. But wow.
It is hard from that photo to see the coloration of this beer, I'd say mahogany about does it. Light white head that quickly dissipates. Aroma of tart cherry, Brettanomyces funk, reminds me of some kriek lambics. The gravity sets it aside from those however.
First sip is great - tart cherries in the forefront, Brett and light malt up in there too. Good carbonation, really dances on the tongue. Great flavor, long lingering finish. Great sipping beer.
I have had some good Avery beers, but this one is a must try. Yeah you'll pay eight dollars or more for a 12 oz bottle, but it is worth it! I would like to try to do something similar. Now is probably the time as I know that Wyeast has Brett Claussenii out as a VSS strain and that is used by some brewers in the area. Not sure if that is what is used in this or not.
My rating: seek it out! Call your local liquor store, and if they don't have it, force them to get it for you!
Abv: 9.59%
Volume: 12 fl oz.
Website: Averybrewing.com
Price: 8.49 at Liquor Land.
Number of cans of Bud Light you could buy for the same price: 13.

Jolly Pumpkin - Oro de Calabaza.

Jolly Pumpkin opened in Michigan in 2004 and has quickly gained a reputation for brewing authentic Belgian style beers. It seems as though their website is currently having some troubles, but I believe they age all of their products for a time in oak before bottling or putting them on draft. This is their take on a biere de garde or strong golden ale, depending on who you ask.
Nice golden color with a big, creamy white head. Lots of lacing as it is drunk, with good carbonation and mouthfeel.
Interesting smell, with a Brett aroma present as well as notes of citrus and other fruity aromas you would expect in a Belgian style beer.
Taste is good. The Brett is definitely there, along with citrus, tart apple, bitterness. Light oak, lingering finish. Very dry as expected for the style and yeasts used. Alcohol content is not present, nice, easy sipping beer. Quite delicious.
My rating: Definitely worth a try
Abv: 8%.
Volume: 750mL/25.4 fl oz.
Website: jollypumpkin.com (apparently marked by google as harmful at the moment)
Price paid: 12.49 at Liquormart.
Number of cans of Bud Light you could buy for the same price: 20.

First tasting - wild ale.

Tonight I am having the first taste of my wild ale. It pours out very clear yellow, though even with a careful pour, some of the yeast got kicked back up, ending a hazy yellow/tan in the glass. There is little to no head, carbonation might be a little light at this point for my tastes. However, I can see some streaming bubbles in it and feel it dancing on my tongue.
On the nose I get some light brett funk and tropical fruit. The first sip is interesting, with both of those flavors mingling and dancing with each other. Upon swallowing, the brett flavors definitely seem to take over with some leather and maybe tobacco apparent. Maybe a touch of hay as well. The almost 8% abv doesn't come through. Be careful with this one!
All in all, an interesting and good beer. It's something I would buy occasionally if it were made commercially. Not bad for my first all grain batch!

Bieres 23 - Biere de Mars.

Despite my tagline of 'why buy it when you can make yourself', I do buy a fair amount of commercially produced beers. I tend toward Belgians or that style anyway, and tend to buy beers that I can't make (don't think I could age for three years+), don't want five gallons of, or am interested to try for inspiration.
Today I am drinking a bottle of Biere de Mars, produced by Bieres 23 in St. Etienne de Fursac, France. Biere de Mars (March beer) is a style of French ale that is an offshoot of Biere de Garde. There are no real characteristics that define the style, though generally speaking it is brewed in December with the last crop of malted barley and hops, and aged for two months or more under cooler conditions in the winter. It would be bottled and drunk during the month of March, hence the name.
One trait that many Biere de Mars' share is that the brewer chooses to emphasize either the malt or the hops when compared to it's normal products. Expect to see a generous amount of wheat malt added, with a lager like smoothness. Some producers actually ferment this beer with lager yeast instead of ale yeast, albeit at higher temperatures than are normally used for lagers. Unfortunately I can't find much info about this beer specifically as the brewers website seems to be down.
And on to the beer....
This would be a good bottle to culture yeast from since right away I smell Brettanomyces. I also get a whiff of apple in the nose, maybe some stone fruit. There is very little to no carbonation. I wonder if that is how it is supposed to be? No bubbles streaming in the glass, no head. Color is a deep gold, almost orange.
As for the taste I can definitely get the light funk and tartness from the Brett. Reminds me a fair amount of Orval. Still holding with the apple and possibly other stone fruits. I can feel the bitterness from the hops, but I wouldn't say the hop character is emphasized. In fact, I would say it is the yeast that is emphasized. Very smooth, with a dry finish.
Despite no carbonation, I find this to be a pretty good beer. Very drinkable, and with a lower than average ABV than most of this style, I could see it being a very refreshing beer in the summer months as well. Nothing earth shattering, but if you happen to see it somewhere, pick up a bottle.
My rating: if you see it somewhere, try it (if it was carbonated, I think that could be higher).
Abv: 5%.
Volume: 750 mL or 1 PT 9.4 Fl oz.
Website: www.bieres-23.com (doesn't seem to be working currently).
Price paid: around 12$ at Harvest Wine and Spirits.
Number of cans of Bud Light you could buy for the same price: 19.