Eille
Off Color Brewing

 

 

 

 

Unknown vintage; drank 7/10/15 @ the Yarchives.

Semi-opaque pale yellow appearance.

Fizzy white head; decent lace.

Clove, honey & lemon notes in the nose.

Medium thin mouthfeel.

Honey, banana bread & clove flavors up front; an effervescent lemon fizz on the finish.

A thirst quenching, flavorful brew. Well done!

 

 

 

 

Poured 12 oz bottle into snifter glass. 7.5% abv

Appearance- Light yellow with fluffy, course bubbled head. Ample haze.

Smell- Yeast, barley, lemon.

Taste- Grainy, with sweet layers of Belgian yeast mixing in. Banana notes as well as clove spice follow. Orange citric hop notes are faint but come out as well. Ends with a touch of honey and coriander spice.

Mouthfeel- Medium heavy in body with medium carbonation.

Overall- A smooth spiced ale with a Belgian sense as well. Easy drinking with good flavor. Possibly even a candidate for aging.

12 ounce bottle into a tulip glass. Had 10/19/17.

Pours a bright, clear gold, with a half inch head and some foamy lacing. Aromas of Belgian yeast, coriander, some honey and juniper, Sorachi hops, light malt. The taste is Belgian yeast, spices, Sorachi hops, malt, honey, coriander, juniper. A light hop bitterness on the finish. Smooth, appropriately carbonated, a good body for the style.

A nice, spicy twist on the style. The hops and the coriander are the stars. Give it a try.

12oz bottle poured into 12oz tulip. Poured a cloudy straw-gold color, with 1/4 inch white head that quickly dissipated and left light lacing.

The aroma was lightly sweet, with a bit of yeast spice.

Very similar on the tongue.

The body was medium, and had a semi-sweet finish.

Drinkability was fine, I enjoyed my bottle well enough. Overall, a pleasant enough brew, one I might revisit in the warmer months.

 

 

 

this beer is incredible, never heard of it before randomly seeing it on a beer menu, but its among my favorites that i have had from these guys. a clever honey brew, gin inspired, with a heap of lemon juice and zest. its hazy in the glass like a hefe might look, that same dense goldenrod color and haze, short white head. i can smell the honey, a real floral orange blossom element and almost waxy sweetness to it, gorgeous, natural, and very forward. the lemon is acidic and zesty, fresh, and quite a bit more at the forefront of this than i expected it to be, both in nose and taste. light orange, juniper, sage, and lemongrass notes in here too. white wine notes from a french type saison yeast, some wheatiness, and some good honey flavor all the way through, very lively and springy with the fresh lemon, almost surprisingly robust on both ingredients. smooth and fuller bodied from the honey too, a light tannic thing before it finishes, and the clean zippy lemon tang too. i think the proportions here are really interesting, they make this beer incredibly unique. i absolutely loved this. enjoyed in napa with some escargots in a green garlic sauce, really impeccable stuff!

Treated as a saison, this was poured into a tulip.
The appearance was a murky pale yellow earthy color with a finger's worth of white foamy head that slid off at a moderate pace. Slight sticky messy lace.
The aroma had some sweet lemon, lemongrass, dust, sweet grass, light twang, white bread/biscuit and an ever so slight touch of herbal/floral crisp sweetness on the back end.
The flavor leaned towards Belgian sweet yeastiness playing with all of the prior mentioned aromas adding a little bit of earthiness, and faint white pepper. Nice saison yeasty and grassy aftertaste with some of the white bread and a dusty sort of twang.
The mouthfeel was about medium bodied, perhaps just a touch under with a fair sessionability about it. Carbonation felt fine. ABV felt on par. Nice Belgian bready finish.
Overall, not sure why it's labeled a herbal beer on here, I don't agree what that at all. However, if one treats this as a saison, you'll see it's fabulous qualities. I'd come back to.

 

Look: It pours yellow with a white head that has medium low head retention.

Smell: The aroma has earthen elements, spices, and lemon. There is also notes of pepper and mint.

Taste: The initial flavors are very spicy. There is some lemon and honey with earthen elements as well. A very low background of citrus and coriander is also present. A mint flavor becomes moderately low in the finish.

Feel: It has a medium body with a spicy, dry, minty finish.

Overall, a very complex beer with spices and citrus mingling with mint.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

This beer poured a very hazy pale golden color with a white head that was 1/2 finger-width thick. The head disapated quickly.

The aroma was complex, with a strong wheat presence, a hint of clove, lemon (or perhaps grapefruit), some coriander, and a good amount of honey.

The beer was initially sweet like a Belgian dubel or Tripel, but the lemon-drop flavor quickly comes into play. The beer finishes with a lot of honey, and reminds me of a honey-lemon cough drop. There were floral notes in the aftertaste.

The mouthfeel was crisp, and there was a high level of carbonation.

Overall, this beer was very interesting. There are so many flavors in this beer that you could spend the whole night just trying to analyze them all. This was recommended to me as being in the same vein as Dogfish Head's Midas Touch, but I found Midas Touch to be more straightforward and enjoyable.

 

 

 

A beer of wonder ! How does Off Color do this ?
I am honored to be the first to review this batch. (The woman at the bottle store said this was released two years ago and the reviews seem to confirm.) Regrettably, I could not enjoy the previous batch and compare. But, this batch is enough enjoyment for me.

Eille Looks like a wit (and not even a good one, so let's call it a... half-wit. Sorry,)
Anyway... Smells like a floral saison, Tastes like a very well balanced saison with the alcoholic effect of tripel (although that may more be because I drank two just now.) And Eille Feels dry like the juniper in gin... maybe too much spice.

Overall, I'm going to stop the comparisons and say that Off Color often produces ales in a class by themselves. And Eille is one more of their creations.

8/24/17: I'm still the only review in the 2017 batch. C'mon guys, I'm feeling insecure. I'm over-exposed for my pay-grade !
9/6/17: finished my 4 pack with pesto on pasta. Have I said the lemon goes great with garlicky herbs ? (It does.)

 

Eille is a beautiful beer. It has a bright canary colour, subtle haziness and dainty, gentle effervescence. It's reminiscent of yellow flowers and, indeed, looks perfectly in its element viewed in the light of a low-lying summer sun. Such a spectacular looking beer, I'm actually jealous of the fruit fly that fell in it - I want every drop of this stuff to myself!

You'd be hard-pressed to put together a more fragrant ingredients list than juniper, lemon zest, chamomile, coriander, rose hips and honey (to say nothing of a hop bill that includes Liberty, Santium and Sorachi Ace). As expected, the aroma is all kinds of wonderful and every bit as zestful, floral, sweet and citrusy as assumed. I might try to drink it through my nose.

That bouquet is perfect for the hand soap industry, but saying just that is being entirely too flippant about just how remarkable and complimentary these flavours are. It's one thing for something like this to be made chemically in a lab but quite another for a brewer, gambling in mother nature's casino, to measure and blend things just right and have it turn out so well.

If there is a taste equivalent of perfect pitch this brewer surely has it. The harmony with which all the unique herbal and floral notes come together must be the envy of every orchestra conductor. Careful additions of spice, sweetness and citrus are all not only suited to each other, but also the overarching herbal qualities of the hop varieties and other adjuncts.

I don't have the words to describe everything I'm tasting and smelling; a lot of it goes beyond the typical beer lexicon. This review probably isn't doing the beer full justice. Maybe in addition to this I'll write the brewer a letter, exalting the joy it brings me. It's very rare for me to pick favourites, but of all the Off Color beers I've tried so far, this is definitely it.

I'm not a fan of beers that are "different" just for the sake of being different, but Eille is a gastronomic dissertation that will excite and impress not only brewers but mixologists, chefs and anybody that would even loosely describe themselves as a foodie. Talk about a beer with a lot going on - this is way more interesting than me or anyone else I know.

 

 

 

 

 

 

No label information. Eille is brewed in the style of a Saison Ale with Honey, Spices, Lemon Juice and Lemon Zest added. Available in 12 oz. bottled 4 packs and on seasonal draft.

Poured from a 12 oz. bottle to a tulip glass.

(Appearance) Pours a crisp frothy foam head of a pearly white color over a moderately hazy pale straw yellow body with fine, light sediment and ample, lively carbonation. Retention is average and lacing is light and patchy. 3.5

(Smell) Unmalted wheat and cracker malt body with potent peppery spice, delicate traces of aromatic honey, pithy lemon and the distinctive floral undertones of chamomile. Potency is moderate. 3.75

(Taste) Cracker malts with a soft wheat undertone meets a curious blending of fermented honey, chamomile tea, and lemon zest. Very unique, and the peppery coriander finish is a welcome compliment for this lighter bodied style. 3.75

(Mouthfeel) Texture is slick, lightly chewy, moderately dry. Carbonation is high, generating a medium frothiness and a briskly crisp finish. Body is medium+ for the style, medium overall. Balance is nearly even sweet to spicy and earthy bitter. Alcohol presence is light and there are no off characters. 3.75

(Overall) An all-around interesting yet enjoyable hybrid beer concept, which I'd cautiously file away closest to a Saison ale with a American-sized boatload of adjuncts. With all of the ingredients going in to this beer, there was a good chance it would come out quite messy, but handles itself surprisingly well with the chamomile and honey lending some richness and fruity qualities to complement the saison yeast and the lemon and coriander building a rich peppery and zested finish that cuts through without either side dominating the finished product. Nonetheless, it's a busy beer for such a light style, but a very enjoyable one and fairly unique. Recommended. 3.75

Off Color Brewing's
Eille
3.74/5.00