Bon Secours Myrtille
Brasserie Caulier

L- Unique amongst the beers I've seen, it pours strikingly purple-brown! Sediment enters the pour near the end clouding it losing some of the purple effect! Pours with 1Cm beige fine-bubble head holds well.
S- Piquant fruit notes.
T- Distinctly fruity note. If I'd blind-tasted it I might suggest it's a fruit/Lambic. But on sip#2 it's already tasting less fruity, still there just not SO prominent.
F- I've had some fruit+field beers before and this is in the same broad spectrum of the style; it comes over as rather thin for body/feel, which given it's 6.4% is striking. Hopping is hard to ID but instead it has a mild fruity sourness.
O- On the first sip I was worried I'd have to pour this one away - a very rare act! But from sip2 on my palate is adjusting and although I won't buy this again it has been an interesting beer to try.
BB: 20/02/2021 Bought from BeersOfEurope (UK)

2015 Vintage

Appearance: Caramel coated apple red with a slight blue cast making it more purple in the denser part of the glass, with a near fist sized whopper of pink tinged head. It is light and fluffy, and dissipates at the same rate as the octogenarian in a near mint 1934 Desoto Airflow who has forgotten where his going; and is driving in front of you on a one lane road, leaving behind him the odd spatter of speckled lacing.

Aromatics: Very fruity. Blueberry (obviously), a more tart blackberry and soury lingonberry note. Some gentle floral and green orchard leaf finds it's way into the mix in parts.

Taste: It has a very basic blueberry flavour base, that is slightly vinous, has a bit of a dusty leather quality. But it doesn't seem to have developed much of a sourness in this one, and its sweetness is fairly tame. That's not to say it is not delicious.

Palate: Very well balanced, smooth and consistent carbonation, it is dry and the bitter is barely a bitter on the palate. The finish is fairly clean with just a slight lingering in the dusty bitter which likes to sit right in the middle of the tongue. OK medium body, and their is a bit of refreshing watery feel when it passes through the sides of the tongue.

Overall: A decent fruit beer/lambic. I do enjoy mine with a bit more sweetness though, but this is a really good beer with a nice berry flavour that is not overdone. You still feel like it is beer and hasn't drifted into a sparkling wine or cider territory.

Pairing: I'd put this on the table with a nice simple inside/outside round steak with spice roasted potatoes, and green beans (maybe with a few slivered almonds) and plain old salt n pepper. This beer feels very down to earth and homey and does need to be dressed up with too fancy of flavour.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

7% ABV confirmed. Bottle served into a La Rulles glass at the Delirium Cafe in Brussels, Belgium. Reviewed from notes taken June 2010.

A: Pours a five finger head of pinkish cream, nice thickness, and great retention. Colour is a dark red sanguine. Nontransparent. Visible yeast particles.

Sm: Blueberry fruit esters. Floral hops. Other less distinct berry esters.

T: Berry throughout, but not necessarily blueberry. A very fruit estery climax. Hops are a bit messy, negatively impacting the balance. Still, it's complex enough and built alright.

Mf: Smooth and wet, with adequate coarseness through the climax to bring out the flavour more. Kind of complementary of the flavour, but not ideal - or tailored specifically to the taste.

Dr: Very drinkable and offered at a decent price by local standards. Worth a go for fruit beer fanatics, but I expected better.

C-

 

A: Pours a hazy purple with crimson highlights, a weak but pink tinted head that leaves no lacing

S: Blueberries and alcohol

T: The hops/yeast present an extremely delicate sour that peeks through the maze of the blueberry sweetness. A tang of malt settles on the tongue after a few sips but all around the juicy berry taste is present.

M: Dry and alcohol lingering with a slight hop holding onto the end

O: Being a 7% alcohol instead of the usual 4 or 5 of a fruit beer makes this a better choice then the usual female geared tonic, but is lacking in body. The malt is hidden and the hops are shy, but overall a nicely balanced, all be it, in the wrong direction, berry beer. You get what you pay for and you paid for a blueberry beer.

 

Nose reminiscent of blueberry, but without being excessive. The mouth is also following this trend without any syrup that is omnipresent. Quite pungent in the mouth, it does not contain much sugar. But without that tangy, somewhat tannic, the body remains fairly bland outside of the fruit mentioned above. However, even this result is rather bland and back and the body is far from complex, nor, conversely, of being easy to drink. A little too flawed for a fruit beer.

Drank from a bottle into a chalice in Brussels

Great dark blueish purple color with decent white head on pour. No lacing here.

This beer is all about the smell and taste. Very strong smell of blueberries and a light touch of spice.

Taste is just like blueberries. My favorite lambic by far.

Coming in Bon Secours' elegant long-bamboo-neck, swing-top brown bottle, BB 07/2011, served chilled in Rodenbach's slim goblet.

A: purple-ish red in colour, coming with a dark pink fluffy head that slowly settles to a thin blanket, resting on top of a moderate fizzy body.
S: a light dusty note precedes a wave of rather fresh/refreshing juicy fruits; Blueberry? Yes, it's like that, but not without hints of raspberry as well as citrus. Pleasantly juicy but not cloying, overly sour, or even cough-syrupy like many other fruit beers - just about right~~
T: surprisingly the taste is quite bitter from the beginning, scattered with medicinal and rough bitterness and tannic blueberry-skins with a special sour-bitter edge that stays pretty much throughout the drink; the beer base is very faint in maltiness, even showing a touch of wheat as in witbier, due to a more pronounced performance of hops on the overall balance. Lingeringly chewy in the very end...
M&D: fresh, but the carbonation comes a bit sharp for my palate, but the chewy palate soon glosses over it and renders a prolonged tannic palate. The bitterness is the most pronounced part of this fruity ale, making it quite different from all (just a few actually...) fruit beers that I've tasted.

Bottle: Poured a deep pink/purple color ale with a nice foamy head with good retention and minimal lacing. Aroma dominated by Myrtille with some cough syrup notes which I didn't particularly enjoy. Taste is also dominated by some strong notes of Myrtille with some notes of cough syrup also noticeable. This was a very weird mix and not one that I particularly enjoy.

Pours up a nice light pink head, brownish red colored brew. Smell of very apparent blueberries. Taste of blueberries for sure. Kind of a bitter sweet taste with a dry finish. Also some kind of medicinal artificial flavoring. Medium to light bodied, medium carbonation. Pretty interesting but definately not my first choice of a fruit beer.