Elliwill Bière D'épinettes
Les Brasseurs du Hameau

 

I picked up this brew at the Atwater market. I've encountered few spruce or pine-flavored ales that I really enjoyed, but I figured this one was worth a try.

I poured this one into a chilled glass, since it had been sitting on an unrefrigerated shelf in a cellar. As I decanted the bottle, a stark white sudsy foam immediately appeared -- plenty of carbonation here. After the head settled down a bit, a nice lacy texture remained on the edges of my glass. The aroma was not particularly impressive, sort of a cross between a grainy saison and your typical golden ale. Color is pale straw yellow, translucent but very hazy.

A bracing first sip: a strong menthol-like bitter zing with some vaguely hoppy flavor. Aftertaste is more pleasant and subtle. Body is quite a bit thinner than I anticipated. A second taste suggests that this might be more effective if jellied as a salve for sore muscles than a refreshing beverage for quenching your thirst. Unless, of course, you're a lumberjack pining for the north woods and no tree branches are immediately available on which to gnaw.

Overall, I can't say I'd recommend this one. I let the cat take a whiff, and she backed up about six inches. While your mileage may vary, I'll continue my quest for a slightly less assertive twig beer.

Bottle: Poured a light hazy yellow color ale with a large foamy head with good retention and some light lacing. Aroma of spruce notes is quite powerful with nice light dry malt notes. Taste is an interesting and unique mix between some spruces notes with light herbal notes and a dry non-descript malt base. Body is a bit fuller then average with good carbonation. I’m not the biggest fan of spruce but this was an interesting experiment.

ready set go... berr from awesome girlfriend... from Quebec. who else?

ok, this beer spit at me when i opened it. then i poured and it has the most long lasting head I have ever witnessed. It has now been 10 minutes and the head is higher than it was originally.

nose, once i get past the head, which is hard to do... is very piney, like someone cut a spruce tree and shoved it in a beer....
girlfriend says this has a nice lingering flavor of a dirt mall. I will disagree, and say that this seems like it has a spruce branch in it during fermentation. it is intersting for sure...

Been a while since I tried me some Brasseurs du Hameau. A little too hit and miss but I liked their Thuya Occidental and hope this will be as good if not better.
Into Boston Lager perfect glass.

A- Hazy golden/yellow. White head fades fast. Lots of bubbles rising all over the place. Last pour was full of sediment and made it creamy opaque.

S- Nice. Basically smells like spruce but pretty soft and almost creamy and sweet. Can't wait to taste.

T- The spruce kind of coats the mouth making it hard to get anything else at first. A tiny bit of grain with a nice but simple bitterness leave a bitof a euro lager finish which sticks around for the spruce dominated after-taste. A tiny bit watery maybe but it doesn't bother.

M- Very soft and yeah I guess I could say this, gentle. Carbonation is medium and finish is quite dry.

O- A very refreshing beer. Just the right amount of spruce flavor. I very well might buy it again.

Yé. Not only is it not a bad beer... It's a very good one. Let's keep going Brasseurs du Hameau. And all of Quebec.

Pours a cloudy medium gold color, with a small but fine head that lasts. A very pretty beer to look at.

Modest spruce on the nose, with some malt sweetness in the background. The flavor is strong to spruce, sort of an unsweetened cola flavor, balanced with some hop bitterness and sweetness from the malt.

I have brewed my own spruce beer for years and find it very difficult to get the balance right - perhaps due to the variable ripeness of self-harvested spruce twigs. This beer is nicely balanced and very drinkable. A nice specialty from the North Woods region.