Mice en Place
Off Color Brewing


- From:
- Off Color Brewing
- Illinois, United States
- Style:
- Wild Ale
- ABV:
- 5.5%
- Score:
- +7 ratings needed
- Avg:
- 4.01 | pDev: 1.5%
- Ratings:
- | reviews: 2
- Status:
- Active
- Rated:
- Dec 03, 2024
- Added:
- Nov 01, 2023
- Wants:
- 0
- Gots:
- 0
The OHSO Brewery team came up from Arizona to visit and brewed this Bière de Cactus with us. A reimagining of a relatively esoteric Belgian style - Bière de Miel which boils down to basically a honey saison. We replaced the honey with cactus derived sugars from a potent blend of both Prickly Pear and Saguaro cactus fruit and Agave nectar punctuated with hand picked Arizona desert lemons.
Gently tart, juiciness from the cactus fruits plays first fiddle to the floral, tangerine contributions of our native, wild yeasts and Barolo foedre. Mid-palate demonstrates nuanced vegetal tones of baked agave and cactus flesh lending structure to a bright, furious finish of nectarine flesh, prickly black pepper, lemon peel.
Gently tart, juiciness from the cactus fruits plays first fiddle to the floral, tangerine contributions of our native, wild yeasts and Barolo foedre. Mid-palate demonstrates nuanced vegetal tones of baked agave and cactus flesh lending structure to a bright, furious finish of nectarine flesh, prickly black pepper, lemon peel.
Recent ratings and reviews.
Reviewed by Beginner2 from Illinois
4.09/5 rDev +2%
look: 3.25 | smell: 4.25 | taste: 4 | feel: 3.75 | overall: 4.5
4.09/5 rDev +2%
look: 3.25 | smell: 4.25 | taste: 4 | feel: 3.75 | overall: 4.5
Since I added this ale, I get to explain the joke... or at least my understanding of it.
Mise en Place is French for the Golden Rule in the culinary world. It means "everything in its place" or ready to be cooked. Or a more practical interpretation is: if you're not prepared, you're likely to screw up the recipe and get fired.
Now this discipline also applies to brewing, but is not applied as strenuously as it is in Michelin 3-Star restaurants.
So why does OCB make this joke among the many other jokes they make?
First and obvious, mice are OCB's most frequently use mascot. Adorable mice.
Second, this is OCB's way of saying why they have succeeded ahead of so many of their contemporaries. They have discipline... but are also cool about it.
Speculation and hyper-analytics aside, I like Mice en Place and I tend not to like tart. So this is my form of high praise.
I give average marks for Looks as I am a traditionalist and I see no foam. (This probably is my problem since foamlessness is well-established in the saison category and most Poo-bahs accept that.) Mice Smells great, a lemon-lovers delight. Unfortunately the price of the elevated lemon is paid in the Taste which, simply, is too dry to eat with too many foods. But knowing I'd think this, I drank Mice with a plate of pesto on pasta. Summer fare works with Mice. Too dry leads me to light in the mouth. OK for wine, but not the scrubbing sensation I prefer saisons to work on food.
As for the huge Overall Hugs, that's because OCB is my favorite brewer on the planet... or at least I drink more and repeat more of their stuff than anyone else. Also, doing a collab with an AZ micro is even more cool.
Nov 23, 2023Mise en Place is French for the Golden Rule in the culinary world. It means "everything in its place" or ready to be cooked. Or a more practical interpretation is: if you're not prepared, you're likely to screw up the recipe and get fired.
Now this discipline also applies to brewing, but is not applied as strenuously as it is in Michelin 3-Star restaurants.
So why does OCB make this joke among the many other jokes they make?
First and obvious, mice are OCB's most frequently use mascot. Adorable mice.
Second, this is OCB's way of saying why they have succeeded ahead of so many of their contemporaries. They have discipline... but are also cool about it.
Speculation and hyper-analytics aside, I like Mice en Place and I tend not to like tart. So this is my form of high praise.
I give average marks for Looks as I am a traditionalist and I see no foam. (This probably is my problem since foamlessness is well-established in the saison category and most Poo-bahs accept that.) Mice Smells great, a lemon-lovers delight. Unfortunately the price of the elevated lemon is paid in the Taste which, simply, is too dry to eat with too many foods. But knowing I'd think this, I drank Mice with a plate of pesto on pasta. Summer fare works with Mice. Too dry leads me to light in the mouth. OK for wine, but not the scrubbing sensation I prefer saisons to work on food.
As for the huge Overall Hugs, that's because OCB is my favorite brewer on the planet... or at least I drink more and repeat more of their stuff than anyone else. Also, doing a collab with an AZ micro is even more cool.
Reviewed by emerge077 from Illinois
4.01/5 rDev 0%
look: 4.25 | smell: 3.75 | taste: 4 | feel: 4 | overall: 4.25
4.01/5 rDev 0%
look: 4.25 | smell: 3.75 | taste: 4 | feel: 4 | overall: 4.25
Bright gold, thin cap of ample foam that recedes. Clean your glass, “foamlessness” is charlatan nonsense.
Lemony, grainy aroma, picking up the telltale “Cheerios” note of THP.
Prickly pear comes through atop a wave of bracing lemon acidity, with a Cheerio THP aftertaste. Thankfully it doesn’t linger long.
Light bodied and effervescent, moderate acidity verging on sour, brisk carnonation.
Overall it’s a unique wild ale, though flawed due to THP (becoming common for OC wilds). The fruit seems to be dissipating after 8 months, but it’s very quenching on a hot day. Sampled and reviewed July 2024.
Off Color #140
Nov 06, 2023Lemony, grainy aroma, picking up the telltale “Cheerios” note of THP.
Prickly pear comes through atop a wave of bracing lemon acidity, with a Cheerio THP aftertaste. Thankfully it doesn’t linger long.
Light bodied and effervescent, moderate acidity verging on sour, brisk carnonation.
Overall it’s a unique wild ale, though flawed due to THP (becoming common for OC wilds). The fruit seems to be dissipating after 8 months, but it’s very quenching on a hot day. Sampled and reviewed July 2024.
Off Color #140
We love reviews (150 characters or more)! Check out: How to Review a Beer. You don't need to get fancy. Drop some thoughts on the beer's attributes (look, smell, taste, feel) plus your overall impression. Something that backs up your rating and helps others. Thanks!