Dieu du Ciel Route des Épices

Brewed by Dieu du Ciel
Style: Spice/Herb/Vegetable
Montreal, Canada

Beautiful dark brown color with a creamy head. It has a simple aroma, with light caramel and a hint of pepper. Medium body strength, with a dry caramel flavor, too much carbonation, quite poor. The only interesting (and original) note here is the lightly burning pepper feeling, the right strength, but I would imagine it more on a beer with a different structure and different flavor.

This was quite a challenge. I couldn’t read the French fliers and overlooked that there was an English-language one on the counter, so I didn’t know this had pepper, though had I thought about the words on the page I might have remembered from High School French the word for "pepper". I wasn’t expecting the heat. The front end had some complexity, something subtle like curacao or nutmeg or something I couldn’t place. But then...HEAT! But I grew to like it, rather than loathe it like a chili beer or something. Standard brown/chestnut/amber color. Aroma has some caramel but otherwise it seems more woody. So much of this beer is in the finish. (on tap at Mondial de la Biere, 2008, Montreal)

This pours a deep amber body with a modest eggshell head. There’s an interesting contrast of sensations here. The aroma is sweet with caramelly malt and juicy fruits and has only a dash of pepper. Up front the flavor has that caramelly sweetness, but it’s rapidly followed by a rye spiciness and a peppery heat that I normally don’t associate with black pepper. Nice tingly sensation on the tongue. I like this one.

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Bouteille de 341 ml. Nos yeux observent une bière qui possède une robe cuivrée avec des reflets rougeâtres. Notre nez découvre des arômes de houblon herbeux, de chocolat noir, de caramel, de poivre, de mangue, de pêche et d’agrumes. Notre palais fait connaissance avec un corps mince-moyen. Notre langue se fait attaquer par des flaveurs piquantes de poivre. On découvre aussi les notes de grains torréfiés, de chocolat noir et de houblon terreux. Lorsqu’on prend une gorgée, on goûte d’abord les noisettes grillées une fraction de seconde puis le poivre vient percuter violemment notre langue puis notre gorge.

Bottle. Dark amber good beige head. Bready malt and way too much BLACK PEPPER. Smooth body, but pepper coats and burns the palate. Interesting, but difficult to drink.

From a 12 ounce bottle purchased at Belmont Station in Portland, OR--Poured a light amber body with a medium whitish head. Sweet nutty, earthy, and spicy nose. Grainy, spicy, peppery body. Lots of great pepper presence. Balanced out with some sweet caramel and a great rye spine. Very very good!

Appearance: Pours a clear, medium brown body with a medium-sized, frothy, ivory-colored head. Smell: Sweetish, grainy malt scent with only very, very minor hints of rye and pepper. Taste: Pale malts, a touch bready, though with not much sweetness present. Though mild in the nose, the peppercorn taste is very distinct once you start drinking it down. Sure, you got your spicy rye character, but the pepper really leads the charge and lasts all the way, unyielding, till the finish. Mouthfeel: Medium-bodied. Medium carbonation. Drinkability: Unique and interesting in its shocking display of peppery punchiness. A beer that begs, along with the drinker, to be paired with food.

bottle form Rahmen Dep. Pours brown amber. Aroma of spices, little else. Palate featured prickly carbonation. Flavor slightly sweet of malts and caramel, balanced with black pepper spiciness. Definitely a novelty, but flavor didn’t have enough complexity to complement the pepper flavor for me.