Oktoberfest
Les Trois Mousquetaires

 

 

Bottle: Poured a hazy light amber lager with a large foamy head with good retention and minimal lacing. Aroma of light caramel malt is totally dominating with no discernable hops. Taste is also a malt bomb with loads of malt that is easily quaffable and with some light horse grain notes also discernable. Full body with great carbonation and no noticeable alcohol. Good stuff!

341ml bottle poured into a pint glass. Thanks to matt for sending this to me via CanBIF3.

Pours a dark, nearly opaque Brownish red with some purple highlights. 1/2 inch reddish-tan cap of head retains well and leaves some nice lacing. Carbonation appears to be medium high. Good looking beer. Aroma is heavily of husky roasted malt and caramel with a hearty dose of earth to keep it grounded. There is a bit of an odd odor though, and the best description is that it smells a bit like an alfalfa processing plant, a bit green and veggie like.

Taste isn't awful, but it has that same alfalfa-like flavour, metallic sharpness and a bit of green. Biscuity and caramel malt, vanilla, livestock feed (what? that's what it tastes like!) earth, hay. It's a little bit chunky and rustic, and not in a good way really. It's not awful, but quite rough around the edges. Mouthfeel is medium-thick with medium carbonation. Drinkable, but I like a cleaner version of the style, this one is just too messy.

The pour yields a frothy sand coloured cap of foam that sits proudly atop the dark caramel liquid. When held to the light glimmers of ruby nectar shine, making this a very attractive beer to contemplate. Although the head recedes somewhat prematurely, it compensates by leaving generous clumps of lace on the sides of the glass.

The aromas are very malty and bread-like with a touch of vanilla and freshly snapped hardwood sapling twigs (sounds strange but an aroma evokes those times I hike the forests of the adirondacks in the winter). Rather clean aromas without fruit esters or yeastiness but still pleasant.

Flavours and mouthfeel are potent and malty with firm breadiness up front... perhaps overbearing but surely reflectig the 6.5% alcohol contained in the brew (Although the stats state 5.0%, this 2006 issue is 1 1/2 points stronger). Full bodied and satiating, the specialty malts clearly dominate the flavours and are followed by a firm balancing bitterness.

As clean in the flavours as in the aromas, this is a straightforward and well executed dark german lager which definitely has a priviledged niche in Québec's beer landscape. The art of decoction is slowly coming back to our shelves.

Santé

SMD

2006 production, they changed the labels and tweaked the recipe.

Appaearance: Dark ruby, decent grey-reddish head.

Smell: Ground coffee notes that turn slowly into a bit of a rancid nut aroma, with some cooked beans...Not that great.

Taste: Toasted, maybe too much so in fact, it was bordeline burnt, with a bitter aftertaste that seems to taste like a strong but stale cup of joe rather than from hops. Hopefully it was just a bad specimen, I liked last year's offering better. I will have the chance to taste it on tap soon, so we'll see, but for now it barely gets to the mendoza line.

Vibrant deep orange in colour with a powerful aroma of freshly milled malted grains. This one has a very potent malty flavor whose sweetness is balanced out by some roasted and bready accents, and the slightest hint of floral hops. It's got a solidly full mouthfeel, yet good drinkability.

Bottled...Poured a copper-orange with a lovely puffy off white cap. Aromas of ferns, herbs, wood, musty sweet Munich malt. Slick mouthfeel...sweet without cloying, malty, herbal and a nice bready finish...what a great Octoberfest. Das smact Wunderbar!