Bonnets Rouges
Brasserie Lancelot

There’s a desert dry finish to this beer, dark brown sediment powders the silky head. Color is reddish brown , aroma is slightly sour . Taste is very faint with a touch of bitterness and a lot of dryness. Very different for a fruit based beer, especially a the ABV is lot higher than the norm for the style.

 

 

Pale rose with fluffy and surprisingly sticky dusty pink head. Mixed berries, madeira cake, wood and a bit of grass on the nose.
Nutty malts with some bread crust, raspberry tartness and assertive herbal hops.
Cherry cough drop finish and numbing linger. Light, very lively, slight cling.

Not sure I know what elderberries taste like, but it adds a distinctive bittersweet tang here, interesting interplay between berry and leafy. Trouble is I question the base beer - is it lager, wheat, or Belgian pale? A bracing and drinkable fruit beer, but merely decent when it could be memorable.

A: larger sized bubbles than the Cervoise, but also vigorous carbonation, strawberry in color.

S: Tomato strawberry fruit leather. Interesting.

T: An interesting cross between a stereotypical belgian ale and fruit/vegetable juice. It's nice, particularly because of the normal alcohol percentage. I also like vegetable juice. It's a nice combination.

M: Too astringent

D: Nice mixed beer, and more beer like than most mixed beers.

Beer (33cl, on tap), tasted in 2000.
Appearance: the elder allows red colour
Smell: slightly fruity (made by the elder berries)
Taste and mouthfeel: Well malty, embellished with a caramel note
Drinkability: good beer flavoured

Review added 11-16-2007, translated from french 1-27-2008.

Strawberry-like colour, almost like a kriek. Big bubbles in the foam, medium persistence.
The smell is malty, fruity (light pineapple), and grassy (celery?). Chestnut flour (when warm), and berry-fruit.
The taste is more malty, but the bitter of hop is noticeable. Again chestnut flour.
Medium body, malty aftertaste, but with a good comebacking of a persistent hop. Too frizzy.

The head is perfectly dense and creamy; it looks a bit like wool. The body is of a pretty opaque red purple color. This beer uses "sureau", a sort of small red fruits, but I don't know how to say that in English. The smell is surprizingly grassy, some dry grass and some non dry grass, but no typical hints of fruitiness. The taste is similary essentially hoppy. The sour fruitiness is a bit more present, but this beer seems to be more about dry grassy hoppiness, a bit like very hoppy Belgian ales. The mouthfeel is round and creamy, quite enjoyable. Maybe a bit too sour. Quite chewy, leaving a strong note on the palate. The fruitiness s a bit more noticeable as the brew warms.