So this is another of the bottles my friend Rob brought back from his last visit to Montreal. While he brought back a variety of bottles which I hadn’t had before, I had at least heard of all of them, except this one. He told me it was very peppery, and he thought it would make a great marinade for a steak. I like pepper, so that’s a good thing. It is also a rye beer, which I generally am not so fond of, so it will be interesting to see what wins out.
Route des Epices - Microbrasserie Dieu du Ciel!
Poured from another beautifully adorned 341ml bottle with a brewed on date marked on the edge of the label, the beer is a slightly hazy chestnut brown. A 1″ head faded pretty quickly to a thin film and a nice ring that left a little lace. Aroma is immediately rye, and a touch of peppper, perhaps a hint of something woody. Woah! Taste definitely has a classic rye flavour, but *heaps* of pepper, a little hot it’s so peppery. But it’s effing delicious. I don’t know how many of my dear readers have taken the time to taste and differentiate between white pepper, black pepper and green pepper (I’m talking peppercorns here, not bell peppers. Ignore pink pepper corns, it’s not from the same plant). To give you a touch of pepper-info: Peppercorns are a small berry that grows on a vine. The green and black types are nearly the same: The unripe fruit is harvested and boiled, then dried. In the case of the green ones, a chemical is added to maintain their colour, in the black ones nothing is added, and the flesh of the fruit naturally turns dark brown. They are then dried and shipped. White peppercorns are the ripened fruit, with the flesh removed (so just the seed remains). True red peppercorns, when you can find them, are ripened peppercorns that have had a chemical added to maintain their red colour, and are then dried. Taste being subjective, there are varying opinions about which are “spicier”. I find the green and black ones have a bit less heat, and a more complex flavour (I assume owing to the skin being present), and the white ones to be a bit more one dimensional in taste, with a bit more heat. Phew, where’s my beer?
This beer definitely tastes of green and black peppercorns, though that could be attributable to the added complexity of the rye. The beer is a bit velvety on the tongue, with a noticeable carbonation, and a lingering pepperiness. Despite the complexity of this beer, I could drink a lot of it. In the vein of St. John’s Wort, I would have to say that this beer would obviously go well with a nice cut of red meat, or a more full bodied hard cheese, but I’ll throw an interesting idea out there: I would love to drink this with a bowl of Gazpacho. Nice cool and refreshing, with a good peppery bite, with this full flavoured peppery beer. It could be heaven.
This beer is different enough from your average beer, that I wouldn’t hesitate to give it to a macro-lager drinker. Sure, it’s nothing like their usual insipid bevvy, but it’s totally and completely different, not like their definition of beer at all. They might find they really enjoy it.
Not that I’m surprised, but this is another killer brew from the good folks at Dieu du Ciel! I simply cannot wait to visit the brewpub in Montreal. I fear it may well have to wait until Mondial next year, but if that is so, it will be well worth the wait!
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