Bière Darbyste

Brewed by Brasserie de Blaugies
Style: Traditional Ale
Dour-Blaugies, Belgium

Serve in Dimpled mug, English pint, Stein, Yard

This is a really cool beer with heaps of character. Has a varied array of flavors with sour, sweet, spicy, and even salty notes. I return to this one when I can.

Pours amber with a decent off white head. Smells pf figs (duh!), sweet malt, some citrus, spices and pepper. Tastes of figs, some raisins, lots of floral and wildflower hints. Palate is thick and oily. Finish is spicy with hints of pepper and figs. Very unusual but enjoyable.

Shared by Kinz at the Great Chelada Incident 2007. Bottle 2004. Slightly hazy amber body with a medium creamy off-white head. Sweet fruity aroma with a tart hint. Sweet fig flavor, slightly tart with a dry finish.

2004 bottle. Pours hazy orange with a large, creamy head. Looks great. Very fruity aroma--not quite fig, but rather apple, peach, melon, and citrus. Yeasty notes come out with some swirling, and light funk and hops bring up the rear. Some fig comes through in the flavor, which retains much of the fruitiness, especially the citrus. Light spice; the age might have calmed that area down a bit. The fig comes through on the finish, along with some lemon rind and a very faint hoppiness. Light but satisfying mouthfeel; I was expecting something overly spritzy.

Caged corked 750 ml. green bottle, lot number in the upper left corner of front label (8), best before date on the back label (06.06), sampled in a tulip glass. Poured a reddish copper hued orange, hazy appearance with active carbonation. Large fluffy slightly off-white head that slowly dissipated into a thin creamy foam lacing, plentiful amount of ringed laced sticking. Light musty, earthy nose from the yeast, fruity smells of green apples and grapes, orange zest, soft sweetness from the fig juice, medicinal herbal aromas that mesh with the alcohol, an enticing start. Airy, creamy mouthfeel, moderate bodied, slick on the tongue, this goes down rather easily. Tastes of lightly toasted grains, earthy spices, oranges, green apple skins and lightly sweet fig juice. Medicinal herbs and a dry Noble spiciness at the end. Finishes dry, traces of toasted caramel, herbal spiciness and a mild yeastiness. I like this Belgian farmhouse brewery, all four of the ales I’ve tried by them over the last year have been way above average. This traditional ale held up much better than I was expecting it to. This is going to be brewery stop on my upcoming spring vacation to Europe. Unless the dollar further crashes, then I will be going nowhere.

2004. Slightly murky amber, slight head faded away. Aroma odd, rather like peach skins. Flavor was also just plain odd, very light caramel, some undefined fruitiness leaning towards peaches, and then a finish that I can only describe as fuzzy, quite probably the fig influence. Some yeast as well. After much consideration, I have to say I don’t like this much. But, I think this is more of a reflection on my personal taste versus the quality of the brew, others could easily really like it.

(Bottle, Stockholm Beer Festival, 22 Sep 2007) Amber colour, hazy, with huge, explosive, off-white head. Citric, spicy nose with notes of herbs and citrus. Fruity, slightly spicy taste with lemon, hints of figs and grassy hops in the finish. A bit odd, leaning in the saison direction (hardly surprising from this brewery). Nice and refreshing.

UPDATED: SEP 3, 2008 Bottle, 5.8%. Very weak aroma, slightly cellary, moldy. Muddy orange colour, small floaties. The flavour has a little citric fruitiness with a hint of mold and cellar. A quite subtle beer, but good. Very well-balanced, even though I would prefer it more acidic. 7 3 7 4 18

Bottle, 5.8%. Slightly tart aroma. Cloudy dark orange, some floaties. Small white head. Good citric flavour, lemony. Not powerful flavour, but quite nice. 7 3 7 3 16