Dieu du Ciel Péché Mortel

Brewed by Dieu du Ciel
Style: Imperial Stout
Montreal, Canada

Bottle #46 Oct. 2004... This beer rocks!... Pitch black ale with no light penetration, even when held up to the Montreal Sunshine. Mid-sized, creamy, khaki-colored head with good retention. The aroma is of coffee beans, bitter-sweet chocolate and vanilla. The flavor is incredible. So rich, so sweet, so bitter, so warming, so complex, so BIG. At first, it is so pleasantly sweet on the tongue and then BANG!, the bitter, burnt flavors kick in. The coffee and hops take over, keeping the sweetness from being even remotely cloying. So many layers of flavor. Mega full-bodied and dry with fizzy carbonation. Lengthy, bitter-sweet finish. What a jewel of a brew! A lot of ratebeerians will be blown away by this one at the RBSG 2005 in Montreal. Thanks go out to Stefan for the bottle since the tap was dry!

Fresh :
Tremendously rich coffee cake, as thick as tar...Overwhelmingly sensuous icing that lasts forever...The fattest milk chocolate... Absolute equilibrium of roasted malt bitterness, coffee beans and dessert sweetness...I want this to be my birthday cake...

2-year-old from bottle purchased to drink on the premises :
A bit less creamy and decadent than the tap version, but the body is all that is affected...The generous coffee beans still love their well-endowed milky chocolate and their monogamous communion just never ends...Truly in a league of its own...

First batch bottled for Shelton Brothers, exported to the US:
Where is my Péché Mortel? I have had every batch of this, and on numerous occasions, yet I don’t recognize my Péché Mortel. Near violent roastiness blends malt and coffee beans well. Bitterness is of mythic proportions and carbonation is much livelier than any other batch I’ve had. But where is my Péché Mortel? Where is the tiramisu cake icing? Where is the sweet crème brûlée? Where is the truffle mousse? Don’t get me wrong, this isn’t bad by any means, but this is NOT the beer that deserved a place in this site’s Top 50.

Cask:
This is as smooth as the nitroed version, but perhaps silkier. Extremely easy drinking, dangerously so. This "in the nude" version is as delicious and effortless as the regular version, and showcases the beer’s true virtues for those who thought nitro was masking most of its character. Back roastiness may linger longer, or appear to. This is a marvelous creation, any way you look at it.

Newly bottled batch (oct.2007):
the nose is full of roasted coffee beans. Mouthfeel is rich but not obese, rendering drinkability to this nourishing imperial stout. Malt roastiness and coffee are seamlessly integrated, creating a chocolate espresso paradise. The finish is quite bitter, but not overwhelming; just a pleasant continuation of the elaborate and near decadent flavor profile. A Dieu du Ciel masterpiece!

On tap at DDC. This batch, from what I understand, will be bottled and released in the US in the fall of2005.

Black w/ lasting, thick creamy finger of brown foam. Excellent lace. Wonderful aroma of fresh roasted espresso over thick creamy dark chocolate w/ just a hint of vanilla & oak. Thick, soft, creamy feel. Flavour is sweet, w/ a cappuccino/coffee cake-like quality. Coffee dominates profile for sure, but chocolate rounds flavours nicely. Surprisingly, this beer, though complex, is not overly so. It does, however, bring together the flavours almost perfectly.

I’ll start by saying that I usually don’t care for nitro beers, but this was luxury in a glass. liquid decadence. as this was sampled with MartinT, I’ll try to rate it in the style of the great poet himself:

pounds of coffee beat the living piss out of a flourless chocolate cake with caramel sauce. all goes dark, but bitter chocolate gets up to finish and draw a tie. dried fruit, icing sugar and malted milk spectators slowly leave the scene.

This is nearly a perfect beer, as though you couldn’t tell just from my rating alone. Had this one tonight at Spuyten Duyvil in Brooklyn. GREAT!!! Perfect coffee aroma, and even the flavor is just like drinking a sweet and creamy cup of Joe. The alcohol is well-masked and I wouldn’t even gues it was 9.5% except that this brew is so heavy! Don’t drink after dinner, you’d never finish the 12 oz. Thick, creamy, rich, sweet and delightful. Must love coffee.

I love coffee and I love beer, and this is the most amazing combination of the two I’ve ever had. Bitter, chocolatey, lots of coffee flavor and a deep, roasted goodness. Really an amazingly tasty brew.

Absolute darkness with a small head and light lacing. Aroma to die for: earthy, roasted malts, coffee, chocolate and fine cigar smoke(as opposed to a cheap stogie from the next barstool over). Flavor nearly equals the perfect nose. Bittersweet chocolate, lush dark fruit and coffee blend well and are balanced with a subtle hoppiness that result in a mildly bitter, long lasting, smooth finish. More palatable than the DFH WWS. My favorite from the Mondial se la Biere.

Bottle.
Pours with a no-light dark body with an olive green head and a straight-up, no foolin’ unground coffee bean nose. Flavor is deep, unfiltered black coffee with a chocolate malt backbone. Superb mouthfee; thick, coating and unforgettable. This isn’t a beer; it’s an alcoholic chocolate milkshake.