Charbonnière
Brasserie la Goutte d'Or

 

A: Pours a clear almost opaque deep mahogany in color with moderate amounts of fine active visible carbonation rising along the edges of the glass and moderate cola brown + amber + garnet red colored highlights. The beer has a three finger tall dense foamy light beige head that slowly reduces to a large patch of thick film covering about 75% of the surface of the beer surrounded by a large patch of thin film covering the remainder and a thick ring at the edges of the glass. Significant amounts of lacing are observed.

S: Slightly heavier than moderate aromas of smoked malts with moderate aromas of dark malts, fruity yeast, and floral hops.

T: Upfront there are moderate flavors of dark + biscuit malts with a slightly heavier than moderate amount of smoked malts and a light amount of caramel sweetness. That is followed by slightly less than moderate flavors of fruity yeast and a light amount of floral hops in the finish. Light amounts of bitterness from the hops but that fades fairly quickly leaving a lingering smoky flavor on the palate.

M: Slightly heavier than medium bodied with moderate amounts of carbonation.

O: An interesting beer - a smoked beer fermented with Belgian yeast. Nice smoke flavors and aromas without being overpowering making this one pretty easy to drink with well hidden alcohol. Enjoyable.

 

Brewed with 2% peated whisky malt. Fermented with a Belgian yeast strain.

C / AVERAGE

 

 

 

 

Appearance: chestnut-amber with a thin film of suds covering much of the service.

Nose: wonderfully smoky. But a more complex smokiness than a rauchbier can promise (though less intense). Minty, earthy hops poke through. I have to say, something about this smells like urine.

Taste: sweet with a very pronounced hop profile: mint and tarragon. The malt profile is sweet upfront and dry and biscuity on the finish, but otherwise indistinct—muddy, really. Mouthfeel is slight but silky. Did I ever taste smoke?

Overall: I was bummed this beer erupted upon opening. I lost half of it onto my kitchen counter and it might have skewed my aesthetics notes. I wish I could announce a great new beer from France…

Poured into a stemmed glass a clouded amber brown with a great looking tight off white full one finger head that left a good amount of lacing behind as it settled slowly.Yeasty fruity esters and mild smoke in the nose,some floral hops were detected as it warmed a little.Alot like the nose the flavors were yeasty with big fruitiness,the smoke is rounds out the finish but is not heavy.Not a bad beer here,it's a smoked biere de garde wich I haven't seen before,not bad.

50cl brown bottle tried at Le Supercoin in Paris. Described as the following: "Ambrée au malt fume, douce et néanmoins amère; un nez d'orange confite et une fin de bouche tourbée". "Tourbée" means "Peaty", apparently. In any case, it sounded definitely interesting enough for me to try, and this is the brewery local to Le Supercoin.

Pours a brown-amber colour, very turbid, almost opaque. Head is a large bubbled frothy mess of off-white, that blows itself out to a bubbly ring. No lace. At the start, I'll admit it looks a little uninspiring.

Nose is sweet and slightly smoky, with a touch of saltiness coming through. There's a meatiness present and a lift from the carbonation that gives an aroma of violets. It's not particularly strong or pungent, but there's certainly some interesting things going on.

Taste is good. The sweetness is a little sugary hear, meaning it feels a little weaker in the body, and it has less breadth to explore some of the complexities. Flavours that come forward include brown sugar brûlée, smoke, watermelon skin with a mineral finish that speaks a little to the peat. Feel is quite light, which actually aids the drinkability nicely.

Overall, it's pretty solid stuff, although it got a little bloating after a while (50cl is probably too much for one person to drink). It lacks a bit of class and a lack of integration of the flavours, but there's certainly interesting things to explore with it.