À La Fût St-Rodéo

Brewed by À La Fût
Style: American Pale Ale
St-Tite, Canada

Serve in Lager glass, Shaker

On tap at Loup Rouge.The color is amber with a thin beige head. The aroma is sweet and hoppy. The taste is of hops and citrus fruits but not much bitterness for an I.P.A.
Earlier Rating: 2/4/2008 Total Score: 3
On tap at Vices et Versa. The color is golden with hardly any head. The taste and aroma are of hops.It has some bitterness.This is just an average A.P.A.

Draught. Mondiale 2009 - day 3. Hazy orange with a large frothy off-white pour - normally that gets a 4/5 for appearance, but this one just didn’t look all that appealing, somehow. Not much aroma to it at all - light grass, mild pin sap, not much malt at all. Taste - eh - dull, there’s the grain, but crap, it’s harsh, and what bitterness there was seemed pretty generic and stale. Average body, pretty astringent considering how characterless it was, and the harshness just builds all out of proportion to it’s weak malt body and lack of distinguishing hop profile. Not too good, no.

My Bottom Line:
This balanced India Pale Ale offers as many caramelized and biscuity cereal flavors as it does earthy and citrusy hops, all in an effervescent and chewy mouthfeel.

Further Personal Perceptions:
-A sheet of foam covers the clear amber.
-The Frontenac malts come off as very green and fruity here, which kind of clashes with the earthy hop finish.
-This new version of St-Rodéo is more interesting than the 5% version, but I can’t say the flavor profile is one I can fall in love with.
-This might be a tad too sweet for my tastes in IPAs.

On tap at Vices et Versa.
Earlier Rating: 9/30/2007 Total Score: 3.3
My Bottom Line:
Perfumy yet restrained aromatic hops introduce enough of a citrus and floral character to balance out the clean pale malt presence. Tame and geared towards drinkablity, this Pale Ale seems to sit on the fence between English and American versions of the style.

Further Personal Perceptions:
-A slice of foam covers the clear honeyed gold.
-Bubbles are portly, yet the lean body and flavor profile provide a comfortable mouthfeel.
-Hop flavor is rather leafy and herbal, suggesting that there is an English touch within the announced American hop bill.
-This Pale Ale won’t have you do a double-take because of its originality or flavor extroversion. It’s a straightforward, docile example made for long evenings.
-A newer batch was cleaner and slightly more expressive, the hoppiness being clearer and more seductive.
-The Frontenac malt presence is very strong, to the point of being bothersome if you don’t like it.

On tap a few times here and there.

UPDATED: DEC 4, 2009 On tap at délices d’automne festival. The aroma here is very floral hops, wild flowers, pollen that sort of thing very mouthwatering. Taste is good solid IPA bitterness with just that hint of caramel malt that makes the whole tasty and refreshing.

Pours a reddish amber with a thick and lasting foamy white head. Nice fresh hops aroma with hints of grapefruit, altough the intensity is a little thin. Easy drinking with a medium-light body, with a good presence of caramel malts, simple but nice bitterness, and very quaffable. I loved the carbonation on that one. A nice session pale ale.

[2237-20090605] Tap. Alluring orange hops aroma. Slightly hazy, amber brown body with a long-lasting foamy off-white head and some lacing. Bitter orange hops flavour. Medium body, nice bitterness. Tasty and bitter, a great finish to the evening.
(@ Vices et Versa; Montreal, QC)

Tap at Vices et Versa. Amber beer with a white head. Aroma is very intense. Bright lemon peel, citrus and a heavy zesty spiciness. It’s got a touch of orangey fruit with a really prominent herbal bitterness. Sort of reminds me of the hopping that is apparent in some Rulles products. It’s okay, but not great because the bitterness comes across as quite medicinal. The aroma is great, but the beer itself doesn’t quite live up to that promise.

Appearance: Golden orange, small white head. Aroma: Nice grapefruit, hops, pineapple, malt and yeast. Flavour: Bitter hops followed by a long malt punch, citrus skins and mango.