Bières23 Bière de Mars

Aroma: 8 | Appearance: 9 | Mouthfeel: 9 | Flavor: 8 | Overall: 9

Another slow gusher, but again it does not seem to be excessively carbonated. A careful pour nets me a one-finger thick, pale, off-white colored head in my large Tripel Karmeliet tulip. The beer is a light honey color that shows a brilliantly clear, bright, full gold color when held up to the light. Ahh, the aroma is quite nice; it is a mix of hoppy herbal notes ( lemon grass, orange zest, blossoming wild flowers), interesting pale malt aromatics (honey-like malt and cracker like grain) and a backdrop of soft funkiness that reminds me of musty - slight moldy cellars, a touch of barnyard musk and some cured leather phenolics towards the end. The deeper I breath in of the aroma the more focused the Brettanomyces funk gets. The aroma is just fantastic and all that I had hoped for in this beer.

Dry and effervescent the beer foams up as it hits my tongue. The carbonation provides both a peppery carbonic bite as well as a touch of carbonic acidity. This has a solid hop bitterness to it as well as a solid herbal hop component and a lemon grass notes; this last would likely be accentuated more if the beer wasn't so dry, but I like the beer dry. Grassy notes of hay mix with more herbal notes that remind me a bit of aromatic, spicy weeds (arugula, milk weed and nettle come to mind). The finish dries out even more because of a musky, phenolic Brettanomyces presence that seems to lurk in waiting and blooms after the beer has left the mouth (though it never becomes anything more than subtle). This beer is eminently quaffable, it is so light, so effervescent, so quenching; the light body just works perfectly with the flavors found in this beer. There is not a hint of oxidation to this brew, unlike the Ambrée that I had last night.

The second pour of this brew (which ends up quite hazy by the way) has me noticing the fantastic aroma again; it really is an amazing mix of hops, pale malt and soft Brett. Quite a bit more notes of aromatic orange zest start to come out in the flavor as this beer warms up. Also it becomes a bit more apparent that there is a light tartness to this beer, it is nothing over the top, but provides a nice note to this beer and it helps to accentuate the refreshing quality of this beer. This beer is way too easy to drink, I could quaff liters of this on a warm day as my 750ml bottle of this disappears quite a bit quicker than I was expecting / hoping.