BFM Cuvée du 7ème

Formerly brewed at BFM (Brasserie des Franches-Montagnes)
Style: India Pale Ale (IPA)
Saignelégier, Switzerland

Serve in Shaker, Tulip

750mL Bottle. #00276. Fermenting bread dough, wet pineapple, and fresh spring grasses. Pours a deep, hazy bloodied amber, fuming with a pillowy, mousse-like sand-colored head. Flavor is a sweet wash of tangerine and apricot juice, fettered with a bit of oak-like brett and chewy sugars. Very complex in mid-colored fruits and bread. Good flavor profile for sure, but it takes a while for the hop oils to shine. The smack really runs with slightly old-tasting EKG. Light and fluffy. I like it as a beer, but it’s pretty far off style. Not really sure why this should even be an IPA. Good beer, with complex, pleasing well developed flavors balanced by some yeast characters and long-drawn hops.

750 ml bottle shared with Phil, served at cellar temperature in tulip glasses. MA18/08

App.: Cloudy orange-copper, tight white head, good lacing. Aroma: Lots of sour cherries, spicy and peppery, a bit funky, some light non-descript fruitiness, a bit of sweet malt, some leafy hops, a bit of peach, some yeast and bread crust. Palate: Medium+ body, fairly soft carbonation. Flav.: Much like the nose – sour cherries, some spice and funk, a bit of wood, white pepper, a bit of yeast and bread dough; lightly tart, fairly bitter.

Quite enjoyable and Phil agrees. A very unconventional IPA. Nice job.

I was pleasantly pleased with how this one turned out. Pours a hazy light orange, with an impressive cloudy like head. Lots of citrus in the nose, ever present since it was opened. Some crispness as first, followed by some hay, candied fruits and a bit of honey sweetness, rounds out into a very dry finish. Very delcious and unique

Opaque brown-orange, large small-bubble head that fades to cap. Aroma gives off fruity ale yeast as well as funk, some nice citric notes in bitter orange, and a noticeable sweetness reminiscent of English barleywines. Taste is very malty - toasty, caramely, quite an interesting taste really. Honeyed light fruits, some grass, hay, and must, spicy noble-like hop notes. Yeasty as well. To summarize: caramel, toast, grass, and yeast - all over the map, quite interesting. Finish is long and moderately bitter. Little detection of alcohol whatsoever. Truly complex and unique, not sure if I quite enjoyed it more than as a nice deviation, though.

Pear, boiled peanuts, and mud on the nose. Muddy brown pour with an enormous head, full of sediments. Musty pear, caramel, malt, and fig flavor. Alcohol noticeable. Light grass finish. This was pretty good, but an IPA? What hops were used?

2006 vintage. Strange brew here. Pours a cloudy, ruddy golden-honey color. A massive, frothy, tan colored head just spews from this thing, taking its sweet time to settle down to a drinkable level. Eventually, the nose emerges to reveal a funky concoction of sweet honey, dry grassy hops, caramel, citrus, and musty, earthy yeast notes. Right off the bat, you know this isn’t your standard IPA or Biere de Garde, but rather an interesting hybrid of the two. Flavors continue down the long, strange path. Honey really plays a big role, lending its signature natural sweetness. The hop character is dry, grassy, musty and spicy. Fruity notes include oranges and nectarines. Medium-full, round mouthfeel. More of a slow sipper for me. Finishes pretty clean, with a bit of the earthy yeast lingering. Very interesting, and fairly enjoyable brew.

2006 Bottle. Maybe one of my friends opened this wrong but the amount of head that spilled out of this thing was unreal. The bottle was half foam. Dark orange haze with the equal amount of bubbly foam atop. Large amounts of of debris and yeast in the bottom. Mouth is yeast, spice, and notes of orange. I agree with FlacoAlto ’s review.

2006: Pour is dark hazed orangey amber with a dense soapy off white head...smell is lightly citric with lots of yeast and a strongly caramel toasty malt scent...wow what a unique flavor!!!! taste is the first thing I taste is lightly tosaty malt flavors, then a strong funky tartness...the tartness blends into a light bitterness, tightening up the tartness a little...not completely, but it does leave a lightly bitter dry finish...