3 MONTS (Originale)
Brasserie 3 MONTS

Presentation: 750 ml brown bottle, no freshness date. On the back label are some history, how to serve and suggestions to pair with the beer.

Appearance: Sparkling golden hue, the dregs that made it into the second glass did not cloud the brew much and stayed in clumpy flakes. Tiny bubbles are champagne like and hold the white lace together.

Smell: Big spicy aroma of clove, anise and some odd herbal phenols. Touch yeasty with a sweetness that comes from both the alcohol and malt. Mild solvent aroma with fruity undertones of pineapple and pear. Needless to say the aroma is all over the place, in a good way.

Taste: A flowing medium body with a churning carbonation that rolls through the crisp mouth feel. Big bursting spicy and alcohol flavours. Spiciness is a mix of clove, anise with a backing of phenolic flavours that drawn on to an herbal front. Hints of wood crop up from the cork like flavours. More complex flavours of nutmeg, vanilla and earth bring this beer to a higher level. Hops run along the spicy herbal route. Alcohol flavours run with a touch of spicy solvent and sweet fruitiness. Trace of dry nuttiness, similar to walnut, come from the yeast. The malt character is dry on the palate and seems to let everything else do most of the leg work until the end when it throws a graininess out there when things dry up.

Notes: This is a pretty special brew, so complex and is better off pairing with a hearty meal. Grilled kielbasa with sautéed yellow squash and zucchini (butter & 3 Monts) was a perfect match.

Pours clear light gold with a big, fluffy head. Not a lot to report on nose. Feel is crisp and relatively light. Moderate carbonation. Taste is more complex with spice grassy florals and a bit of sweet malt. ABV is well masked. Good, refreshing if not a little dangerously drinkable at 8.5%

 

 

 

March 2004: (750 ml corked bottle). Pale golden pilsener-like colour. Large lasting head. Spicy aroma. Flavour is spicy white wine-like, a bit alcoholic. Well balanced, nice aftertaste. A good beer, but I don't find it quite as complex as some other raters do.

Poured from a big bottle at fridge temp. Pours a semi-transparent yellow with abundant white head. The nose is lemon forward. A bit of malts, wheat, honey, and apple. The taste is a bit funky. Hoppy, lemon, citrus peel, honey, a bit of spice, yeast, and leather. Nice and refreshing!

 

Feeling supreme like the tail end of a dream. I love her so much that I might even believe in myself. I believe in myself so I know it’s love. No more pinches because damn…I know I’m alive.

 

 

 

Poured from a 750 ml bottle with the cork held in place with an easy to force away large metal staple clinging to a ridge in the bottle neck. Cork exposed area was very small but it allowed vice grips to pull it out with an emphatic pop. Poured into a DFH tulip, a fluffy pillowy white head topped a golden wheat clear body. The head never completely faded. Smell was grassy and sweet. Taste had a subtle lemon pear wine flavor to it. Although I'm not that well traveled compared to many here, I've been to France and this adheres to what I'd expect from a farmhouse ale from Flanders. A very refreshing experience.

L- Pours lovely bright golden, clear, lively rising CO2 forming a 1Cm white head. Surprisingly 3 minutes later, untouched, the head has grown and is now pillowy and above the glass rim and up to 2Cm! [20mins later - amazing head, it just goes on and on, still 1Cm, super-fat 'lacing' up to 5-7mm thick down the sides of the glass.]
S- I get zero smell from this beer, not even grain, dough, nothing - unusual for me to get honestly nothing. Check with my wife who has more acute smell than me - same, nothing, this is almost unprecedented!
T- First sip, bright, notably hoppy, quite pungent. Later sips bring time to notice the depths of the pungency which has some richness to it and the dry hoppy flourish into the finish.
F- It's well balanced, it's not doing the best job of masking it's ABV% which comes over as rather prominent to me. 8.5% isn't 'that high' and not many beers around there would have the alcohol note this prominent on the palate IME. It's quite pungent on the feel, if it were richer i/o hoppy/dry it would have the presence of a winter-warmer.
O- Something different and I'm glad I tried it. From the closure which is akin to a fat wine-cork held in place with the simplest heavy steel staple - I needed a wrench to get the cork out! to the 750ml bottle > hang on to the 750ml bottle of an 8.5% beer!; not messing about. It's a pleasant beer and I'll happily finish it but I have to dwell for a moment on what I sense it lacks. Unusually I got literally no smell from it. On the rare times that happens I x-check with my wife who has a nose like a blood-hound hehe - nothing. Secondly, in the Taste I don't get much detail, prominent hops, a brush of alcohol nothing specific (the pungency etc is Feel not Taste). So it's an impactful beer, goes down well, but I'm struggling to find it's unique character that would lead me to buy it again. Plus, I don't rate highly beers just because they're higher ABV% and present 'drama', they have to have used the foundation that the higher ABV% gives them to yield results in Taste+Feel, and that's what's not here for me...
Bought from BeersOfEurope UK for home delivery. 750ml bottle with a really basic 'farm-yard' bottle closure, a kind of simple but very heavy wire staple holding in place a cork, the latter deformed by the pressure. Rustic for sure! BB: 03/03/2021.

 

 

Shimmering light gold color with depth and clarity, World class white cap and lacing.

A delicate aroma showing some light, sweet lemon hints and ripe yellow fruit fruits of pear.

Taste at first is surprisingly mild mannered yet a complexity that I can only call finesse. Lemon and pear presented with a perfect balance between sweetness and tartness. Followed by a very light breadiness that supports the other flavors. Very sophisticated and balanced. I only notice some hop firmness in the aftertaste which comes across more as an underpinning than a flavor.

Medium texture with balancing carbonation.

If I was handed this in a flute at a blind tasting my first thought might've been a beautifully balanced, effervescent Loire Valley wine made from the Chenin Blanc grape. Yet beer it is and as such delightful to drink.

From a bottle, pours as clear bubbly yellow with a thin white head. Aroma is of yeast and indeterminate grain. The taste is strikingly different from an American IPA with sweetness in the absence of malt flavors, a smooth (non-biting) hops flavor, plus background spice, fruity (like pears), and light grass. Overall, this is an amazingly drinkable beer. That said, it's fine crafting leaves it really solid, but blatantly uninteresting ... my guests would completely forget it the next day.

Brasserie De Saint Sylvestre

3 Monts Golden Ale

Look: A stunning beer that is bright and golden colored. Bone white head of thick, densely packed foam. It settles craggily. A lively beer with streams of carbonation rising. Streaks of thick lacing.

Smell: Sweet grains and bread. Spicy. Fruity with red apple, pear and alcohol sweetness.

Taste: Fruity, bready and spicy. With a faint bitterness on the finish. Red apple, red grape and pear.

Mouthfeel: Moderately carbonated and smooth. Semi-sweet finish.

Overall: This beer is very good. I do find it a touch sweet, but it’s very easy drinking, especially at 8.5%. I would love to drink this with some acidic food. It would pair nicely.