La Sirène Praline
La Sirène Brewing

 

 

Bottle: Poured a brown color ale with a large light brown foamy head with good retention and some lacing. Aroma of praline flavours with light grainy malt notes and some roasted malt is somewhat off-balance. Taste is a mix of praline flavours with a grainy malt profile, light residual sugar and light roasted malt. Body is light with good carbonation. I wasn’t fond of this beer with fake praline notes and a messy malt backbone.

Bottle from Oak Barrel., Sydney. Pours out with a sweet nutty aroma, praline just like it says. Some chocolate, mildly sweet, more nuts on the finish. Slick and slippery, roasty bitterness lingers.

 

 

A 750ml bottle with an enjoy before date of 17th December 2015 (so drank a little late, but I’m not so worried for this style). Poured into a snifter glass.

Appearance: It poured a clear dark brown colour with an amber hue and a fluffy but thin half finger tanned head that didn’t retain too well but left nice spotty lacing.

Aroma: A very nice sweet hazelnut and chocolate with a hint of brown sugar.

Taste: Much like that aroma, a tasty chocolate hazelnut cake.

Mouthfeel: Light to mid body with light carbonation.

Overall: This surprised me a lot. A very tasty beer that could replace dessert yet surprisingly not too sweet for me (and there are a lot of beers that I find too sweet). I would definitely buy this again.

 

So this brewery, La Sirène, has kinda popped up out of nowhere doing beers in the style of the country I love best for brewing: Belgium. I must say I was shocked to say the least when I first tried this Belgian Praline, I real contender for my fridge door (if I can ever get my hands on it again) courtesy of The Durham Arms in Canberra - the home of an endless rotation of weird and wonderful craft beers. Anyway I’m jumping the gun on my review revealing this is in fact an excellent brew [yeah, WTF me?!].

Poured from tap into a Schooner.

A: Deep dark, dare I say it because the word will be spread quite liberally throughout this review; chocolate coloured body, with a khaki 2cm head that retains extremely well for a 6% ABV brew (it held for nearly the entire review - and I take my time writing these too). 9/10.

S: Off the bat there is a strong note of crème de cacao giving it a chocolaty/spirit aroma. Throw in some almost-burnt caramelised sugar and you have this brew in a nutshell. Seems like the nose is hiding some expected complexity but we’ll see hey? 8/10.

T: Damnmmm (a portmanteau of ‘Damn’ and ‘Mmm’) this has to be quite possibly the most chocolaty beer I’ve ever encountered. I love it. Smoky/roast notes of chocolate along with multifaceted flavours including: Cacao nib bitterness, caramelised sugar, hazelnut and hints of dark fruit. This is easily one of the best dark beers I’ve had. Chocolate praline in a glass. 10/10.

M: Mid to light bodied with a nice velvety carbonation, though I think I have the tap to thank for this excellent body. 9/10.

D: Interesting flavour profile, and interesting = excellent to me. Not a drink I would go more than two or three Schooners per session though, perhaps a bit too interesting and flavourful in that respect, but as a chocolate beer this one rules the roost and I give it the Doc hops seal of approval - you can only find this on products which meet the high personal standards of Doc the beer-connoisseur. Looking forward to trying La Sirène’s other brews now. 8/10.

Food match: This is a brew that would feel right at home with a roast rack of beef with a heavy gravy or a chocolate pie - this is one versatile chocolate Ale.

Kudos to La Sirene for essentially taking the essence of a box of high end chocolates and putting it into a beer.
Only oddity was the massive bubbles in the head, but apart from that aromas were of opening the box, and taste took it over from there. Very milk chocolate, very nutty. And..... All at 6% .....
It's beer, but not as we know it.

Most chocolate beers are beer with a hint of chocolate. This is chocolate with a hint of beer. Unexpected, different and we all loved it.

 

 

Pours black with an off-white head.
Nose shows chocolate and hazelnut pralines, pretty much Ferrero Rocher. So tempting.
A fair bit of the nutella/praline notes transfer through as the dominant flavour followed by a little Belgian dubbel-like brown sugar.
Carbonation seems a bit aggressive, body a bit watery.

Pours a dark as night kola hue with a creamy off white two finger head that stays all day with clingy lacing everywhere it touches solid looking drop, smell is all about the cocoa with a touch of vanilla and cinamon, the mouthfeel is medium bodied and well carbonated with big flavours of cocoa, vanilla, light cinamon and finished with an earthy bitterness and overall a must try and great to see a non saison from these guys cheers.

 

Had on tap at GABS Festival in Melbourne, May 2014.

Pours a very dark coffee colour, almost black at its thickest. Tan head, foamy with a good crown retaining. Looks awesome.

Smells amazing. Chocolate malt with a touch of coconut and peanuts upfront, develops more complex sweetness midway with cake batter, caramel and toffee sweetness. Touch of oak on there as well. Incredible.

Sweet and desserty on the palate as well but blossoming with gorgeous complexities. Chocolate upfront, notes of peanut and vanilla, developing dark caramel, English toffee notes midway and then finishing off with a tapering off of those residual sugars. Maintains its sweetness but just doesn't overplay its hand. All sweet, desserty goodness but balanced and controlled. Absolutely fantastic.

Body is not quite thick but full, like a fortified wine that really fills up the mouth. Slight kiss of warming alcohol.

Wow, an unbelievably good beer. Sweet, desserty, delicious, yet drinkable. So much to like here.

This was my #1 beer of the whole festival.

Tried on-tap at GABS 2014 in Melbourne.

Pours a deep brown colour with a lightish weight to the body. Hazing is fairly pronounced. Head is beige and forms a firm ring around the edge of the glass that leaves streaks of lace. Carbonation comes through a little. Looks pretty good.

Nose is lovely. Rich sweet fatty chocolate cake batter characters mingle with nuts and cherry characters to give it a little brightness. Sharp, fragrant sweetness is also very strong. It's an impressive opening.

The flavour is even better. Very smooth entry, stacks of sweet praline nut characters: peanut and almond with a touch of sharpness like ink. Toasty sweetness comes through on the middle of the palate along with a long, burnt toffee character towards the back. The back is balanced by a pleasing char and coffee note smoothed by the sweetness, leaving the aftertaste clean but still ringing with fragrance. Feel is smooth and lovely.

This is a really gorgeous beer—so smooth and sweet, but with subtlety and complexity. The Praline ended up taking out the People's Choice award at the festival, and it was a worthy winner. This is truly delicious stuff. I only wish I had some more of it right now.