Perle Démenthe
Bières Artisanales Artzner

 

Poured from a bottle into a snifter, the beer is a bright, vibrant, slightly hazy, golden coloring with a ton of carbonation throughout the body and a low profile, foamy, white head. Aromas of lemon grass, ginger, coriander, spearmint, toasted grains, and a bready backbone. Very herbal and spice heavy. Flavors are where this falls apart. Heavy on the mint and ginger forward, giving this a mouthwash astringent feel and taste. The other spices are in there, too, but they just get swept up in the first blast of ginger and mint. The bready backbone is no match to balance. Light, nondescript body that gets very sharp and astringent by the end of the palate. The aftertaste is mostly mint lingering, with a sharp, brisk finish.

 

A: Pours a very hazy to cloudy honey orange in color with light to moderate amounts of active visible carbonation along the edges of the glass and faint straw yellow highlights. The beer has a half finger tall foamy off-white head that reduces to a medium to large sized patch of thin film surrounded by a small patch of very thin film and a medium thick ring at the edges of the glass. Light amounts of lacing are observed.

S: Light to moderate aromas of pale malts and wheat malts, herbs - coriander and mint, and citrus lemon peel.

T: Upfront there is a light to moderate flavor of wheat malts and pale malts. That is followed by moderate flavors of herbs -coriander and mint, citrus lemon peel, and slightly spicy Belgian yeast. The mint adds a slightly bitter note which carries through the finish.

M: Just shy of medium bodied with slightly heavier than moderate amounts of carbonation.

O: Not a fan of this one - doesn't really seem to fit the style very well. The combination of herbs sounded interesting but this one is just not very successful. I'd pass on this one again.

Bought this from World Market on sale for $3
Thought the ingredients sounded interested: hops, coriander, ginger, lemon peel, aniseed and mint.
Smell of refreshing. Taste of a bitter mint. Not much body or head like a good Belgium should carry itself.
An interesting beer to try for the Holidays but wouldn't buy again.
Worth a try for the right price.

 

33cl brown bottle purchased and consumed at Brewberry in Paris. This is a 5.9% witbier, brewed with mint, lemon peel and ginger.

With a swirl, the yeast gives it a typically hazed appearance, but it's very dark for a wit: orange at best, and possibly even darker than that. Body is quite light and the carbonation is minimal, although fine where it forms. Head is a filmy ring that leaves no lacing. It doesn't looks great, but it doesn't look bad either.

Nose is yeasty-sweet, like nothing is restraining the malt, even though the malt isn't huge. There's some light spice, perhaps some herbal overtones and a peppery grains of paradise note. Mint is entirely absent. It feel unbalanced, and not all that interesting.

Taste is painfully sweet. Big, weak thin malt is all it seems to have, with nothing to balance it. Here you can sense the mint a little, but it's so subtle as almost to be pointless—it just adds a slightly sickly tone to the beer. Long, overly sweet barley-sugar finish goes on and on, making it thick and difficult to drink.

Feel is slightly bloating. Carbonation is very minimal, and there's no acidity or bitterness. It needs something to stop it being so thick and sweet.

Overall, this is very poor stuff. It's so sweet, without any balance or tempering. It needs something else to it: as it is, it's verging on undrinkable.