Dieu du Ciel Solstice d’Hiver

Brewed by Dieu du Ciel
Style: Barley Wine
Montreal, Canada

Serve in Snifter

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UPDATED: DEC 9, 2009 A personnal favorite, my favorite beer from Quebec (with Dieu Du Ciel’s ABT Rigor Mortis; I think God is helping this brewer because He likes the monotheistic reference). Aged a year, the one I had last week seemed slightly thicker than the 2009 brew I’m having while re-writing these lines. The very intense citrusy/spicy hopping seems to be striking even more aggressively when fresh but, in both, the caramelized heavily malted base confronts the bitterness to create a perfect divinely balanced harmony, like Ying and Yang. Many subtilties also shine out, some spices and fruits, traces of alchool, and the aftertaste is amazingly long. I remember having stomach aches or acid burns after drinking that but now that I’m doped up on Nexxium, it is much easier to drink... Really, a masterpiece of a beer...

Bottle from Dr. Capone, Ph.D. of Beer. Pours turbid brown with 2-finger creamy, uniform tan head. Nose is malty, with blueberry, elderberry, rock sugar, earthy peaty malt, brown sugar, spirits. Tastes malty, earthy, oaky, hoppy, with nuts, cinnamon, vanilla, whiskey, berries, port, hops, cognac, black pepper, bacon. Palate is very unique, very balanced, and mind-bendingly complex. I consider this a winter warmer, but whether you call it a winter warmer or a barleywine (and it is not a barleywine), this is one of the top 50 beers I have ever quaffed! Outstanding, brother!

Viscous looking pour from the bottle. Nice woody aroma with a tinge of sour notes. Thin body and big wood flavors with a dry chalky mouth feel. Excellent red copper color. Complex flavors weave in and out. Perfect bitterness and not overly sweet like a lot of barley wines Very dry from beginning to end.

UPDATED: AUG 9, 2007 Au maître-brasseur de Dieu du Ciel, tu es un DIEU! Un bon goût de fruit et de caramel brulé. Je jouissais à chaque gorgé!

UPDATED: DEC 21, 2010 bottle. drank out of snifter. pours a murky, opaque dark brown with a nice foamy head that gets thin pretty quickly but stays throughtout the beer and leaves lots of sticky lacing. aroma is of sweet malts and nuts, raisins and caramel. starts off sweet, and finishes off with a perfect hops bitternesss. definately a bigger hops presence than most barley wines. a complex, and great beer. dieu du ciel never seems to fail.

Hazy brown color with medium head. Strong hoppy, medium raosty and caramel aromas. Medium bitterness and sweetness. Strong presence of alcohol.

Thick pour with little head, aroma was of hops, faint caramel, and alcohol. Taste is mostly hops, coffee, and malty sweetness...tastes how it looks. Definitely has a ’wintery’ feel. Goes down smoothly with a soft texture. A great beer.

Balance and a wonderful hop finish. You’d swear that there were cherries in here at times. One of the best barley wines ever. It’s a dark blackish pour with a moderate head. Lovely carbonation and a fruity, estery aroma, but it’s the mouth feel and finish that grab you. Alcohol is well hidden. wit nice malt-sugar to hop balance. Again, what a finish. I bought all 7 at my local purveyor. Wish he’d get more. Fine effort.

When I think about a barley wine, this is what it looks like, even though most do not. Murky brown with a slight red shade and a tan head. Demure nose reminiscent of an abbey quadrupel, plum, apricot, fresh hops. Broad and sticky on the palate, decent acidity, very light carbonation. Massive flavors with lots of depth. Burnt orange peel, toffee, fennel, eucalyptus, clove, on and on. Very biting hops at the end balance the nearly sticky sweetness. This gentlemen, is bad-ass. Greatly underrated in it’s category.

(bottle dated 7/00) Hazy red with beige head (plenty of head despite age). Aroma is sweet, caramel, rich and sticky, vanilla, raisin, light chocolate. Taste is rich, malty, moderately sweet, caramel, raisin, some chocolate, light roasty. Full bodied. Fantastic beer, definitely more along the lines on an English-style barleywine.