La Vache Folle Double IPA - Ella
Microbrasserie Charlevoix

 

Roughly week old memories.

A: A gold color that just begins to fringe on orange. Head retention was decent.

S: A bit of a spicy hop smell. Some slight caramel malts.

T: I get a fairly high amount of a light caramel malt, followed by some slight spicy hop notes. A floral, sweet honey flavor comes through, along with maybe a bit of what could be described as a melon flavor. Bitterness is firm but not harsh.

F: a bit creamy but maybe somewhat under attenuated and sweet.

O: Good. Not as sweet as the Summit, which was nice, but not as hoppy either. It's a bit laid back in terms of hoppiness. It's good but nothing special. Interesting hop variety.

 

Appearance: It has a nice hazy copper/orange color to it. It has a nice off-white head that dies down moderately and leaves some lacing.

Smell: The aromas definitely give out hints of floral hops, some pine, light bread and sweet buiscuity/caramelly malts.

Taste: Like the aromas, it has some floral hops, a grassy/piney bitterness, a nice breadiness and a sweet buiscuity/caramelly malt backbone.

Mouthfeel: It has a medium carbonation with a decent overall balance and feel.

Drinkability: It's a very smooth drinkable beer accompanied by good flavors and aromas. Like all the other Vache Folle variants, the base of this beer is too malty. It's still enjoyable but it could be much better if the hops had the chance shine through.

Serving type: bottle

 

 

 

 

The aroma is sweet floral perfume, huge apple skin.

The flavor follows of that general apple sweetness and flavor. A medium sweetness that lingers to the end as the beer bitters out with floral and a clean dry quality.

Drinks very well for 9%.

 

 

A:
Pours a clear light amber with a nice two fingers of tan head, made up of miniscule bubbles, that settles to a healthy film Pretty fair retention; intricate, bee hive-like lacing.

S:
Spicy and sweet. Caramelized pine, bubblegum, spicy bitter citrus--almost 'warm' smelling.

T:
Resinous citric juniper. Sweet, caramel, sweetgrass, dry, pine, orange potpurri, grapefruit rind. Interesting, between really bitter and really resinous with almost a licorice or anise feel in the nose.

M:
Creamy up front with a nice cutting carbonation and a dry finish. Pretty thin-feeling with a medium body; pretty drinkable, a little fatigue from the hops after a while for me.

O:
Decent single hop DIPA.
A single-hopped double IPA using Ella hops. It is really good, for this and also suffers a bit from it.
Pours with a decent head that never lets you see the color of the beer when viewed from above and which immediately rises when you give it a swirl. The smell and taste both give a very nice profile of the hop. Aromatic, sweet and bitter with a little resinous piney-ness thrown in on the taste. Overall, not a bad beer. It has low ratings, but it only uses one hop. If they are that limited so will the flavor be. From what I read about Ella hops, this is a fine example. It is well-brewed and gives a nice bitter IPA with some hop education thrown in for good measure. That said, who knows about Ella-forward big IPAs, it is pretty resinous ; )
Would have again (any of this series); worth trying.

Bottle from Peluso in Montreal.

A - Pours a nice golden colour with a good two finger soapy off white head. Good carbonation and bright. Good half finger retention and good lace rings.

S - Lot's of fruit and some malt backbone kicking around with caramel-like notes and bread. Stone fruits.

T - Stone fruits again. Oily comes to mind as a descriptor. Resinous or vegetal or weedy maybe? Alcohol is definitely there and contributes a bit of a sharpness. Earthy too.

M - Fairly strong bitterness on this one. Good little bubble carbonation and a medium body.

O/D - This is a ballsy beer, but admittedly it isn't all that good. I'm gonna assume it's the hop that's doing most of the brash work here, but the alcohol is also strong. This is an interesting showcase of Ella/Stella, but in the end, it's not that tasty an example of a DIPA.

Bottle: Poured a deep hazy amber color ale with a generous foamy head with good retention and some lacing. Aroma of fruity hops with nice floral touch is quite enticing. Taste is a mix between some fruity hops with rich flora undertones and some lightly sweet malt notes to sustain the hops presence. Body is about average for style with good carbonation. Not the most pronounced hops in terms of flavours but very interesting nonetheless.

 

 

 

 

 

12oz chalice at Beer Rev DT Edmonchuk, on a hot, hot day - thank Jebus for central air!

This beer appears a clear, medium copper amber hue, with one skinny of actually puffy, loosely foamy, and wanly bubbly beige head, which leaves some attractive hanging glacier lace around the glass as it duly recedes.

It smells of fairly piney, floral, and weedy hops right up front, restrained biscuity caramel malt, a certain minerality that I'm starting to associate with this location, and bristling alcohol astringencies. The taste is sharp, but weirdly under-perfumed floral hops, gritty, crackery, and bready caramel malt, a bit of overripe lemon and apple skin fruitiness, and a growing, but still stalled at the outer gates metallic booziness.

The bubbles are fairly tight and cumbersome in their sloppy rendering, the body an adequate medium weight, and generally smooth, this particular hop schedule not in the interfering sort of mood. It finishes mostly dry, the fruity and floral essences turning that way, with much assistance from the hovering, big-ass ABV.

Not knowing a whit about the single hop employed here (Ella, evidently), all I can gather from this is that, um, Ella is partial to flowers. Add in a meek at best caramel malt backbone, and I'm left with one of the weaker incarnations of this DIPA line from Charlevoix - not bad, per se, but one-sided, and not worthy of additional exploration and/or promotion.