Abbaye Saint Paul De Wisques Abdijbier
Brasserie de Saint-Omer

As Saint-Omer 1866 Bière d'Abbaye. 500 ml can, from Carrefour, Cartagena, Spain. ABV is 6.2%. Deep golden colour, large white head. Strong sweetish and sugary aroma, some caramel, grassy hints. The flavour is fairly sweet, with some caramel, and the beer is not undrinkable - but it has very little to do with an "abbey beer", by any stretch of the mind.

A completely avoidable drinking experience

*Please, see notes for possible polemic around this brew.

Presentation: 50cl can. Illustration of the window of an abbey shining light on a beer glass showing the name of the brew. Side notes licensing from l´Abbaye Saint Paul des Wisques and bottling by SAS Brasserie de Saint- Omer. Displays best by date (03/03/11) and Alc. by Vol. (6,3%) Served on a tulip glass.

A - Amber to deep amber pour, short frothy head with poor retention, no lacing and minimal to no surface memory.

S - Skunky eurolarger scent hiding the faintest of malt notes.

T - Flavor predominates around an initial skunky sense followed by a a crash bitter sense hit with little else to ponder.

M - Light body with a fizzy profile that does not hold itself very well and a bitter finish.

D - A truly subpar experience. It would be hard to understand why one really needs to finish this poor brew let alone repeat it.

Notes: Sure, it is an offering made to be packaged for a large supermarket chain but that does not mean they need to do such a bad brew let alone package it around around the deceptive licensing of an "abbey beer".

* There is something very confusing, probably deceptive, about this brew. It notes l´Abbaye Saint Paul des Wisques as the brewer and bottling by SAS Brasserie de Saint- Omer. But l´Abbaye Saint Paul des Wisques does not seem to claim any credit as a brewer and instead it is the bottler that claims the Abbey, located 6KM from the bottling plant, in order to promote the beer. I understand that if this were the case the beer should be filed under the brewer not the bottler or contracted bottler like it is typically custom at BeerAdvocate.

This could even be the Bière D'Abbaye listed under Brasserie de Saint- Omer, but design aside, the notes and recipe seem so different that until any confusion is cleared it feels like it requires its own entry. In fact, that brew notes a Belgium brewing whereas both Abbey and Bottler in this case are clearly French. This could be a marketing ploy where the recipe has been changed slightly to match average eurolarger production and reach out to the Spanish market where it is distributed by this large supermarket chain.