Voyageur Des Brumes
Brasserie Dieu du Ciel!

Canned 2026/01/15
Pours over carbonated foamy 3 finger off-white head with moderate retention, spotty lacing, semi clear slight hazy lighter auburn red color

Nose starts with some caramel malt sweetness, toasted grain, biscuity cereal, a little bread crust, mild fruity esters, herbal earthy UK hops

Taste brings malts up front, fair sweetness with more caramel toasted biscuity malts, bread crust, a touch nutty, quite toasty and hint of chocolate, mild fruity esters, then hops with more earthy herbal UK hops, fair bitterness, semi dry finish with med to a bit higher bitterness with plenty more herbal earthy hops

Mouth is med bod, med small bubble carb

Overall not bad, good malt base, nice UK hops, enjoyable

Amber brown body, beige full head, thick rungs of lacing. Aromas of toasted caramel malt with sharp earthy hops and dry yeast. Taste has the sharp hops atop amber and caramel malt base, yeast is pronounced on the back half with some dry and fluffy breadiness. Smooth with barbs of sharpness for the mouthfeel, but pretty thin and leans light

 

 

On cask at Windsor Home Brew in Costa Mesa, CA.

Was definitely hoping for a lil more - but also not knowing what to hope for. It was kind of like an hour before I went on a date with my one and only goth chick - it marked a check in a box, but that was mainly the highlight of things. VDB is just a bit off and watery.

Good day to you, and thank your grandmama for the cookies (even though she shops at the 99c store).

 

The pour to empty a pint can's contents into a clear glass liter mug produced a fluffy just-off-white head resting upon a brown-amber body. As its color suggests, there's plenty of barley malt now in the air. The nose also picks up some yeast and a little hoppiness. For all the robust head, this still has the under-carbonated mouthfeel character that's so true to the style. Also in keeping with the style, it's malty, but not overly sweet. It's earthy sweet, like a whole grain bagel, at most. There's also the proper amount of hoppy bitterness included, a little more than some within this category. The little extra alcohol than the average English bitter isn't noticed, so it must be considered a positive addition to an already good taste. There is some stratified glass lacing, but it's not spectacular. The only negative is that for a beer this malty, it drinks a little too thinly, but that helps it go down quickly and easily.

 

Appearance: Poured with two fingers of head that produced a solid amount of lace and a semi clear body that shows good carbonation. More lace would have netted the perfect.

Smell: Toffee malt, but it's mild with notes of earth, herbs and apricots. Even after a lot of warming though it just doesn't reach the potency it needs to.

Taste: Toffee malt with a tea undertone that turns to a slight stone fruit and a hint of lemon zest before moderate tea an earth hops round things out.

Mouthfeel: Carbonation is solid, and the transitioning has a nice ebb and flow about it, aftertaste is a mild tea and toffee aftertaste, but like the scent, it just isn't quite potent enough.

Drinkability: Easy to drink, doesn't bloat in the slightest and has a good amount of character to be interesting. A perfectly medium bodied affair.

Final Thoughts: At first I thought this was a brown ale, I guess I confused Brumes with Brun, but this fairs much better as an ESB. I often find this style is easy to throw off balance and overdo, but that's not the case here. It's very well balanced and well done. I wouldn't call it perfect by any means, but I think this is one of the best offerings of the style I've had.

 

Deep, dark copper body, clear; thick and frothy head, long lasting; sticky and sculpted. Rich charred grain and wood aroma; roasted hardwood nuts; caramel and toffee. The taste mirrors the aroma; rich, malty; toasted grains and toffee; moderate hop bitterness. Medium-heavy body; mildly coarse feel on the palate; sticky; partially dry.

This is a nice, malt-forward amber ale, exuding notes of toasted grain and roasted nuts. Nicely balanced, decently complex, and readily satisfying.

Pouring temperature: 38 °F: canning data: 2022-04-26

 

 

A- Beautiful coloration, that as the notes on this say, are mahogany/brown, and is rather cloudy due to yeast suspension, and the head is thick at first (around a finger and a half), before the light tan colored foam settles down to a thick, clumpy film over top the liquid. I can vaguely see columns of carbonation rising to the top, and they appear to be fine looking, and without much aggression. The lacing is moderate, with shapely clumps sticking to the inside of the glass.....at this point I see what looks to be a snake ready to pounce on a squirrel lol. Overall a decent looking ESB!

S- I am getting plenty of rich toffee infused malt.....caramel, cooked brown sugar, blackstrap molasses, buttered white bread crusts, yeast, hints of vanilla, and perhaps some muted scents of apricot kernel and other assorted orchard fruitiness. The finish is fairly clean smelling, and lingering wildflower honey sweetness ensues.....

T- Nicely balanced beer to taste, with tasty caramel/toffee richness, brown sugar/molasses sweetness, hints of honey, rye bread, brewers yeast, and a balancing grainy/grassy dryness that morphs into a leafy, fairly noticeable hop bitterness on the finish.....classic flavors for this style and very welcome on my palate!

M/O- This one is medium-light in body and the carbonation is actually a fair bit more zesty than I would have guessed, based on its appearance....i could use maybe a little less, but its nothing a couple of gentle swirls in the glass cant cure. A standard, easy drinking, flavorful ESB that I think hits the mark well, and would compare closely with anything British. Would pair well with any beef/sauce based dinner, or a good old fashioned bangers & mash plate. Another winner from Dieu du Ciel....recommended!

 

 

 

On tap at Brasserie Dieu du Ciel in Montreal, QC.

This one pours a golden amber color, with a small head, and a bit of lacing.

This smells like toffee, baked bread, tea, grass, honey, and lemon.

This is a pretty spot on bitter, with light bittersweet caramel, honey, and toffee, along with a sturdy hop characters that's mostly fresh and bitter, but also a touch lemony/fruity.

This is medium bodied - it drinks bigger than it actually is - with a very good level of drinkability, and a slight creaminess.

This is yet another bang-on take on a traditional beer from these guys.

 

341ml bottle (@5.2% ABV) - 'Fog Drifter'. Makes sense for an ESB, I suppose. Tally ho!

This beer pours a clear, dark orange-brick amber colour, with a teeming tower of puffy, finely foamy, and somewhat creamy tan head, which leaves some layered streaky lace around the glass as it rather lazily subsides.

It smells of bready and biscuity caramel malt, a hint of black stone fruitiness, and some plain earthy, musty, and herbal noble hop bitters. The taste is gritty and grainy caramel malt, a lesser biscuity toffee sweetness, some grape and bruised pome fruity notes, and more understated leafy, floral, and herbal green hoppiness.

The carbonation is average in its palate-pinging frothiness, the body a decent medium weight, and generally smooth, with nothing really getting in the way of a swell time as this particular point in the process. It finishes off-dry, the somewhat complex malt sealing the lingering deal.

Overall - this comes across as a fairly well-rendered version of the old-school style, with the malt being the focus, and the hops playing second fiddle (but they still get to play, to wit). Always nice to see this brewery's offerings show up around here, in that they have a knack for exhibiting the varied cultural influences in the Quebecois brewing scene.