Blanche Aux Bleuets
Les Frères Houblon Microbrasserie

 

 

 

 

 

 

Serving: 500mL bottle poured into a snifter.

Appearance: Poured a hazy, light lavender colour. Noticeable carbonation resulted in a frothy bluish-red head that dissipated quickly. Light but consistent lacing right to the end. Abundant particulate matter...I assume both from the blueberries as well as the yeast.

Aroma: Predominantly a harsh, bitter, slightly phenolic nose...I even noted acetone. There is a hint of grainy fruitiness and ethanol, but you have to look pretty hard to find it.

Taste: The harsh aroma is mercifully not in the taste. That's not to say that it is any less bitter! This is not your typical fruit beer; unlike other BAs, I found that the blueberry taste was anything but artificial. There was a mild, almost negligible tartness to the blueberry taste, but all sweetness from the blueberries seemed to be stripped away. Some of the sweetness was made up in the sweetness from the malt, but the real flavour came from the blueberry essence mixing with the alcohol. And the alcohol is quite hot, even for a 7.5% beer, with the carbonation adding to the sensation.

Mouthfeel: Highly carbonated, practically sparkling, with a fresh lager-type feel, like owed to it by the triple fermentation.

Drinkability: This beer is not for everyone. A fellow BA wrote
how this beer is "rough around the edges, [losing] the nuances in the mess." This beer is far from refined, but I disagree that the nuances are lost, they just buried beneath high alcohol and cereal sweetness. But ultimately, that's what a nuance is: a subtlety. And while the beer as a whole can be overwhelming, there are subtleties present. I found this beer refreshing in comparison to other fruit beers that take blueberries to a candied extreme. I do agree with all observations by fellow BAs that the characteristics of this beer do not fit the style. On merit alone, I believe this beer deserves higher than its current overall, but it's a fair score when judged on style. On another note, if it were available, I would love to try this beer on tap.

500 mL bottle served into a tulip.

A- Decent head reduced to thin patches and ring. Hazy peach color. Few bubbles rised.

S- Fruit salad, blueberry and hops. Tomato juice.

T- Really bland with an aftertaste which reminds me of stale watercolors. Onions. Hops. Blueberry. Alcohol is real discrete.

M- Medium. Solid carbonation.

D- I don't ever want to try this again. Unless it was a bad bottle or something. Because something tastes terribly wrong.

My girlfriend likes it. But she likes Alexander Keith's.

Bottle: Poured a light blue color ale with a medium foamy head with OK retention and minimal lacing. Aroma of unsweetened blueberry is mix with weird grainy malt. Taste is also a mix between some actual blueberries with note of unrefined grainy malt which doesn't really fit well with the style. Body is fuller then would I have expected with good carbonation and no signs of alcohol. Not very good overall but I am glad they thought about using actual blueberry.

500ml bottle picked up in Quebec. Pours a clouded light amber/pink with hints of raspberry/blueberry coloring. Head is light blueberry color. Decent carbonation, no lacing.

Nose is light blueberries, hints of slightly tart raspberries, a muddled graininess with a hint of ethanol in there as well.

Taste is a jumbled mess of the bat. Hot alcohol messes around with a myriad of esters, some blueberry tossed in, a faint tartness throughout, some sweetness in the body. Rough around all of the edges, loses the nuances in the mess. Smooths out a bit as we progress but still a really wild ride.... and not in the good way. Blueberry tastes artificial and, when added to a tripel that's not overly refined, it just comes out as disjointed.

Comes across as way too hot for 7.5%, not the light summer beer I was hoping for. Light body, but that's about it. Carb could be spritzed up a bit. A neat idea, it just didn't work for me.