St. Sylvestre Biere De Noel

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

2006 bottling; Sampled July 2009
A careful pour into my 25cl tulip glass leaves me with three fingers of light tan colored froth. The beer is a dark plum color that shows a brilliantly clear, amber-red hue when held up to the light. The aroma smells of caramel, toffee and Christmas spices (faint cinnamon, nutmeg, ground cherry seeds, and perhaps a touch of fenugreek). The aroma definitely has a fruitiness to it as well; it reminds me of a mix of berries, some rich, though light cherry notes and a touch of rum soaked raisin notes. The finish has a nice toasted grain note as well as a browned biscuit like aroma. The aroma on this is quite nice, and definitely in line with how a Christmas / Winter beer offering should smell like.

The beer is dry up front, but picks up a distinct cherry note in the middle that adds to a perceived sweetness. This is also fairly light bodied and easy drinking. Other fruit flavors of blackberries and sweet currants are also noticeable, though the cherry note seems to edge them out just a bit; all in all though the fruit character is definitely the most noticeable part of this beer. There is a light tartness to this beer that also helps to accentuate the fruit notes. This is not all fruit though, as there is a nice malt edge to this beer that contributes notes of caramelized grain, just a touch of dark toast, ample brown bread crust notes and an interesting whole-grain cracker like character. I am surprised how little oxidation has showed up yet, there is likely some here, but it mostly seems to have accentuated the fruit character at this point in time.

This is a nice beer, it has held up well over the years as well and I find myself enjoying this much more than I had initially expected to. It is perhaps not the richest, most complex beer, but it is certainly nice.

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

I had this one under the name "Brassin d'hiver"8%alc/vol...Dark brown,average medium head with some interesting retention,the aroma is quite minimal and flavor is more interesting of sweet caramel,mouthfeel is bubbly and sadly watery....Rather light and refreshing i was pleasantly surprise by this offering...

Aroma: 7 | Appearance: 6 | Mouthfeel: 5 | Flavor: 8 | Overall: 7

Got this one under the name Brassin d'Hiver, at 8% ABV with a best before date written on back label as 02.06.07. Again, just like their 3 Monts, a hard time taking the metal tab around the cork, off. After a slow pour, a humongous, cream, off-white head is created. Long lasting, leaving very nice spider webing lace. Copper-orange colour with lots, and I say lots of carbonation. The nose is warming with alcohol and Belgian yeast. Also found, are spices, mild caramel and apples. The mouthfeel is watery with slight tart in the finish. There is a bit of sourness in the taste. The apples and caramel are also present. Dry finish with metallic notes. Quite smooth with no burn. Pleasant winter warmer.

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

Bottle: Poured a dark brown color ale with a medium bubbly head with slightly better then average retention. Aroma of quiet sweet malt with not really much else going on. Taste is also dominated at first by sweet caramel malt but there is a definite watery feeling at the end that I didn’t enjoy. There is also an unrefined grain taste that I didn’t particularly enjoy. I’m glad we now seem to have more and more beer available from this brewer but I would enjoy them even more if they were as good as they were a couple years ago.