OK, I just bought my first ever bottle of Péché Mortel. On the right edge of the label are two sets of #s, both 0-9. There are notches on the 7 on both. According to the Fresh Beer Only!: Dieu du Ciel: Uses a bottled on date for Canadian bottles ONLY. On the left side of the front label, there are months (1-12) and years (10, 11, etc...). Each is notched. So, would I be wrong to assume that, based on the differences between that description and my bottle, that the latter was bottled in July 2007? If that assumption is correct, has anyone ever had this beer with that much age on it? I know it's a big beer, but even at 9.5% 7-1/2 years is quite a stretch. Enlightenment would be much appreciated.
not much to offer to your direct concern. i've had a few of these with as much as 2-3 years on them, almost all were fine but there was one bottle i had that i felt the coffee tasted discernibly stale (lack of better words). maybe a bad bottle/batch? maybe different coffee / different batch? not sure but i quit intentionally holding bottles after that lone wolf.
So Dieu du Ciel doesn't bottle date their exports to the U.S. then? If so, I wonder why. Guess I'll have to email the brewery and ask when that batch was produced. Thanks.
I saw your bottle in the other thread. I could be wrong, but I think the older bottles had "fair trade coffee" on the label.
http://www.beeradvocate.com/community/threads/2003-peche-mortel.21524/ in relation to an almost decade old bottle of Peche. I personally have no idea how old the peche mortel bottles i've consumed but do to the frequent rotation im pretty sure they are relatively fresh. I would assume the espresso notes would mellow with age and coalesce into a rounder beer. Consume away.
Thanks @jssf and @Relik. Guess I can at take some solace in my bottle not having a twist-off cap! But it's too bad the OP in that thread never posted an update as promised. Oh well, really looking forward to drinking it no matter what.
I really want to try this beer, I haven't seen it in the bottle shops I vising in Western NC either...dammit
The beer is distributed by Shelton Brothers, which did not distribute to WNC for quite some time. Now that Shelton is back in that area, I expect you will see it relatively soon.
I know they changed the labels recently and now have a "bottled on" date laser printed on the back. I think a bottle less than one year old would reflect that. I had some '07 bottles that were getting pretty stale as of last year and gave them away for science this past week end. On a side note we are 10 days away from #pecheday which will feature different variants and vintages at beer bars around the world maybe one close to you... https://www.facebook.com/events/206892746329445/ I know that is the Montreal event page page but on the picture you can see which bars/cities will be hosting the event
I emailed Dieu Du Ciel Monday asking if they could translate the bottle coding for me. Haven't heard back yet.
Let me know if they say anything about the notches. I had a Rigor Mortis last week that has me scratching my head. The two sets of notches only go up to 10 each (?!!). I assumed I had one from Jan 15 (a 1 and then a 5 notch), but who knows at this point. Neither set goes to 12, so which is the month and which is the year?
DDC finally got back to me. My bottle was packaged on March 14, 2014. They suggested I drink it soon as "...it probably won't get any better". Think I'll drink it on it's second birthday. @TongoRad, the notched #s indicate the batch, not a bottled on date, so you'll have to contact them as well if it's really killing you.
