Beer: Brasserie Dieu Du Ciel's Péché Mortel
Brewery Location: Montreal, Canada
Beer Style: Imperial Stout
ABV: 9.5%
Other beer from Canada besides Molson or Labatt? It is true! Canada has a great brewing culture and many microbrewers and brewpubs all over the country. It is not the beer explosion that America has gone through, but it is a vibrant and growing culture. Did you know that Canada is the second largest country in the world when it comes to landmass? That was on Jeopardy last week.
This beer is rated as one of the top beers in the world according to both ratebeer and beeradvocate. I am a little weary of those sites when it comes to ratings since the top beers are almost always the high gravity and usually quite difficult to get your hands on. In either case I am always trying to get my hands on them to really see if they live up to any type of hype. Péché Mortel is only brewed in about fifty case batches three or four times a year. I received this recently in trade along with another of Dieu Du Ciel's offerings.
Péché Mortel (Mortal Sin) pours an opaque black color with a tan colored head that left decent lacing for a stout. Loads and loads of coffee sometimes leaning towards espresso in the nose with cocoa and bitter chocolate mingling in the nose as well. The flavor profile blends those same flavors together with perfection. I am not usually much of a coffee stout fan, but the coffee/espresso flavor only co-mingles with the chocolate and roasted grain and never dominates. The coffee flavor is just done so very well. I also get secondary flavors of caramel and a slight bitter hop flavor. Coupled with the flavor the mouthfeel for a beer with this high ABV is well done. This beer is very smooth and creamy with only slight carbonation. I liked the drinkability on this beer, but one is about enough for me at time.
I had this beer around 7 p.m. last night and I didn't really think about the caffeine, but I was wide away for the next several hours. I am going to say this is the best use of coffee I've had in a beer. I am still very surprised how smooth this beer was and how well the coffee flavor only mingled and didn't dominate the flavor profile. I've got a few coffee stouts waiting for me, and I will compare them with this beer. Well done all around on this beer, and I think well deserving of the hype it gets.
Cheers!
Matt
2 comments:
Is that a twist off bottle I see? If so I'd think that the shelf life on that beer would be rather short. I'm under the impression that oxygen tends to get into the bottle a lot easier with that type of beer bottle. Certainly can't save the bottle for re-use in homebrewing I imagine.
It is, but that doesn't bother me. It might be easier for air to get it, but Founder's uses only twist off tops and I've never had an oxidized beer from them including KBS with years of age on it.
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