Dieu Du Ciel: Alchemist: Moralité (Canada: IPA: 7% ABV)
Visual: Hazy orange gold. Hash of a white head.
Nose: Grapefruit. Tart apple. Apricot. Slightly overripe fruit. Slightly sherbety. Zesty orange.
Body: Tart apple. Pink grapefruit. Pineapple. Sour. Dried apricot. Vanilla pods. Sugared apple pie and pastry. Custard and toffee malt notes.
Finish: Salt touch. Musky bitterness. Pineapple and pink grapefruit. Vanilla. Lightly dusty. Tart apples.
Conclusion: Collaborators, a term that use to call to mind the, often rightfully, looked down upon groups that aided the invaders in a war for personal benefit. Now calls to mind the awesome people who bring us these beers. I call that progress.
This, while being an IPA, seems very unusual to me. The mass of tart hops actually manages to give it an almost sour yeast,highly hopped, pale ale taste to me, That sounds like a bad thing. It is not, it is, in fact, a good thing. The malt doesn’t seem heavily present, it has more of a malt feel than a taste – it is slightly dry, which is what calls to mind the pale ale over the IPA, but the tartness means it rapidly goes from that to refreshing as hell.
It just shimmers with flavour, while you can feel the malt base, the bitterness from the hops is more an outline, a prickle which marks the lines within which the mass of flavour will be coloured in. This entire base outline gives the impression of one kind of beer, the flavour is an entire different thing – I don’t know if it is the hops, the yeast, or what, but it just packs in tart apples, apricot, pineapple, grapefruit. The flavours are ones you can get from hops, but with a tartness that, well , sparkles (and not in a shitty vampire style), and calls to mind the more wild yeast beers.
I’m guessing that there is something done with a funky yeast character, as something is giving just that bit of grip to the tartness, all together becoming just a sublime beer – and one I wish I could drink without collapsing from that 7% abv weight. Yep, pretty much its flaw is I can’t session it. That is all.
Background: Yes that photo is of a beer partially drunk. The bar was busy so I didn’t think I would find a place to set down and review up, but moments later a table opened up – so I quickly got on the job. This was drunk at the Dieu Du Ciel: Meet the Brewers event, while waiting for the brewers to turn up. A great event and a great time.