Malheur Bière Brut Reserve

Aroma: 8 | Appearance: 8 | Mouthfeel: 7 | Flavor: 8 | Overall: 8

Shared a bottle at Pub Italia with Chopz. Pours an insane amount of foamy, frothy white head. Has a hazy golden appearance. Thick dirty and sticky lacing. Aromas are citrusy, notes of yeast. Flavours are good mixture of earthy and citrus hops, quite yeasty, bready malts. Has a pretty bitter mouthfeel, mainly in the finish with a tiny bit of tartiness on the palate.

Aroma: 9 | Appearance: 8 | Mouthfeel: 8 | Flavor: 7 | Overall: 8

Shared with PaleAleRider at Pub Italia. Best before date is 01/08/2015. Pours a cloudy yellow colour with a warm cap, great retention and some foam lacing. Smooth Belgian yeast aromas over bread malts, mild spices and lemon citrus notes. Nice bitterness and very light tarty mouthfeel. Flavours of beautiful fruitiness with grass and hints of sugar. A very nicely-balanced Belgian Ale that is worth savouring... taking your time.

Aroma: 7 | Appearance: 8 | Mouthfeel: 8 | Flavor: 8 | Overall: 8

750 ml "champagne" bottle, from Vinmonopolet (bestillingsutvalget). ABV is 11%. Pale yellow colour, slightly hazy, big white head. The aroma is yeasty and spicy, hints of fermenting fruits and horse blanket - good, but not as great as I expected. The flavour is moderately sweet, certainly not "brut", notes of white candi sugar and spices, with noticeable alcohol. Moderate hops. Again: good, but I hoped for more complexity. Probably worth the price in Belgium, but not in Norway (NOK 219).

Aroma: 5 | Appearance: 7 | Mouthfeel: 6 | Flavor: 7 | Overall: 9

WOW!!! Massive pop when bottle is opened. This is so hard to pour I’m trying as careful as I can but I got 8” of head and a ¼” of beer. This super massive cap a stupidly long lasting power, body is golden and slightly hazy but still relatively clear for the style. Aroma is sour with slight apple and some very noticeable alcohol. Sour wheat and a light sweet taste, noticeable spice with a flowery alcohol finish. Very fruity tasting built on a wheaty malt back bone. This is very light and drinkable but not all that memorable but this might be due to the fact I’m completely wasted after finishing this giant ass bottle.

Aroma: 10 | Appearance: 10 | Mouthfeel: 8 | Flavor: 8 | Overall: 7

pours with a huge stable white cloud-like head, easiest perfect appearance score ever ... lots of nice and interesting flavours ... yellow gold colour ... smells of a hefe-tripel champagne mix ... shocked to find out it is 11% ... 'here kitty kitty' ... an extremely enjoyable beer, worth $25 , i don't know, good stuff though.. Wishlist cross-off: put on originally 11/10/2006

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

Pours out a weak but solid hazy yellow gold with a colossal thick white head on each pour just as you would expect. Soft yeast, slight must, a bit of lemon - but it's the type of lemon you would find in light, flaky baked goods, and odd spice and , well, i put down 'ham'... I think ham was cooking in the oven if I recall... The taste is excellent and comes across as a mild tasting Belgian strong ale. The spice is moderate is seems peppery. The is a great tasting, easy drinking beer. Same lemony taste as in the aroma but a bit sharper. Excellent. Where is the 11%? Nice clean and smooth mouth feel with ample carbonation. I only really noticed the alcohol when my last glass full warmed mistakenly. Finishes dry and spicy.

Aroma: 6 | Appearance: 6 | Mouthfeel: 6 | Flavor: 6 | Overall: 6

Bottle: Poured a hazy deep golden ale with a small bubbly head with average retention and no lacing. Aroma of light sweet malt notes with some weird ester or maybe it’s the yeast but something is surely different. Taste is sweeter and lighter then expected with some sweet malt and light yeasty bready finish. Body was full with some low filtration and some great carbonation. Alcohol is not apparent which is quite surprising considering the 11% contained in this beer. I am glad I tried this but considering the price tag it is unlikely I will try this again.

Aroma: 8 | Appearance: 7 | Mouthfeel: 6 | Flavor: 8 | Overall: 8

I was really impressed with this one, and less so with the dark brut. Hazy yellow with a large white head. Sharp citrus pith in the aroma. Relatively dry. Apricot. A bit spicy. Straw malt.

Aroma: 10 | Appearance: 9 | Mouthfeel: 10 | Flavor: 8 | Overall: 9

Michael Jackson Commemorative Edition, Sampled October 2007
Well despite the careful pour, my serving this at 50°F has caused this to overflow the top of my tulip glass. I couple quick slurps of apple tasting foam and I hope I am safe now. The beer is crowned by a seven-finger thick, light tan colored froth that is quite tightly beaded, though not quite creamy in texture. The beer starts out with overly active, madly boiling streams of carbonation coming up from the bottom of the glass. The beer is a brilliantly clear, bright gold color, which makes it quite easy to watch the streaming carbonation. The head produces an excitingly varied, never disappearing, pillowy surface as it slowly recedes, all the while leaving a thin layer of lacing patterns on the sides of the glass. Aromas of apple, lemon zest, lightly herbal notes, a peppery hop note, honey-like malt notes, a backbone of toasty grain notes (think soda crackers, fresh crushed pale malt, and perhaps a touch of biscuits).

Despite the Brut moniker, this is sweet flavored with notes of honey malt and a touch of green apple. The carbonation has died down enough at this point that it is a touch creamy feeling, though it still has a nice prickle of carbonation as it slides cross the tongue. The beer finishes with a light, yet sharp flavor of hops; lemon grass, touches of basil, a nice non-descript herbal note and a light bitterness. These notes never overcome the soft malt sweetness, but do tend to linger on in the long finish along with it. This has a very smooth finish to it & I definitely like how it sits on the palate. The beer certainly hides its alcohol well too as only a touch of warming alcohol character is noticeable. As the beer rests in my glass a bit, flavors of marshmallow, kiwi, pear, and green raisins become more noticeable.

As with most champagnoise style beers, there is a lot of sediment in the second pour of this beer (I guess wine grapes just don't have the same level of proteins that barley does, as I am sure this was bottled brilliantly clear and sediment free). The aroma of this beer just gets better and better, I don't think that there is anything in particular in the nose that wasn't there before, yet it still manages to pick up a level of complexity, yet still remain so smooth; I really just want to take a draught of the aroma. The flavor picks up some complexity, what I would describe as more bready, and flavor with the additional sediment, though I am having a hard time differentiating between the two pours. This is just dangerously drinkable; flavorful yet smooth; engaging, yet quaffable. Certainly a beer to be enjoyed. Even my second pour of this beer produces a still ridiculous, seven finger thick head. I really like the how the flavors of fruit, malt and Saaz hop interplay & meld into the smooth, yet still seemingly crisp, body and palate of this beer. In the end it is the fruit character that really stands out for me; the interplay of apple, pear & ripe, white wine grape notes just create such a crisp, inviting character to this beer.

Truly a beer that needs to be drunk in quantity to really enjoy; I would have written this off as a really good beer, but not great, if I had not had multiple glasses of this brew. I really can't ask any more of either the appearance (especially if I had poured it out all at once) or the palate of this beer; it really is just spot on for this brew.

Aroma: 8 | Appearance: 7 | Mouthfeel: 6 | Flavor: 7 | Overall: 7

Golden colour, big white creamy head. Aroma is dishwater, hops, champagneish and some yeast. Flavour is alcohol, raisiny sweetness with some slightly earthy notes.