Dieu du Ciel Solstice d’Hiver

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

Serve in Snifter

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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.

Bottle from the LCBO. Pours a brown/ red colour, with not much head. Aroma is spicy with everything from fruit, alcohol to like a banana bread. Taste is sweet and has bite, really a treat.

pours almost an opaque dark burgundy.smells sweet,raisins,anise and cinnamon.taste is fantastic,same as the aromas only the anise doesnt stand out as much and getting a little pepper at the end.alchohol is pretty noticable and warming.hardly any carbonation with a full bodied oily mouthfeel.this is very nice and i would definetly get one of these and let it age.a must try

This is delicious. Very smooth, a slight bitter, a strong malt with a thin palate feel. Hints of caramel, and sugar with a hop after "burn".

(1 year old, aged in a bottle) Ahhhhh! Solstice d’Hiver. We are truly lucky to have such good beers here. Malt, Burnt caramel, blackberries, figs and plums in a voluptuous embrace.

Bottle. Midnight black and opaque. Nice head that gives up its body at an average pace, but sticks to the glass all the way down. Not any assertive aroma to speak of, but this drinks with an amazingly balanced, artistically assembled symphony of flavor. Rich, roasty malt up front, with a "just enough" alcohol-laden swirl of sweetness following close behind and lingering on the tongue for several enjoyable minutes. This is awesome stuff. (#4895, 1/9/2013)

Wow what a barley wine. This is what autumn is all about! Has the softest palate of just about any beer I’ve ever tried. The flavors scorch onto the tongue in a very lightly warming way that accentuates the flavors and squeezes their juices out so you get each one. The alcohol in this one is perfectly integrated into the heavier brew. Flavors of dry peat and dry, almost undetectable brett? Lots of figs and candied fruits--aged barley wine flavors--are everywhere but they are sugary and DRY, not sweet, so this one tastes like it has all the best of the aged barley wines and all the best of the unaged barley wines. It doesn’t have that cloying sense what so ever that some aged beers take on. This beer was just perfect, and it gets extra points for being a perfect barley wine right out of the box instead of having to wait on it for 2 years. One of the all time greats!

Bu le jour de noel, avant de souper. En ordre de dominance, houblon (epicer et terreux), alcool (rechauffante, mais plaisante) et malt (sucrer, caramel et fruits confits/foncer). Visqueux, bon corps. Tres bon. J en fait ager quelques bouteilles. Drank on Christmas day, before eating. In order comes the spicy and earthy hops, pleasant and warming alcohol and the sweet, caramelly and candied/dark fruits from the malt. Visquous, think body. Very good. I have a couple of these aging...

Bottle aged for 2 yrs, Dark copper/ruby colour big tan head, lots of lacing. Lovely! Aroma is malty, sweet, dark fruit, sugar firey alcohol. F: Sweet malts, caramel, dark fruit, warming, sugar with a lingering ending bitterness. M: mouthfeel is very smooth This has aged very well, when it was young it had a too agressive hop-profile for my taste in BWs, with aging it has become more malty, but still retaining a hop-driven finish which gives it a very interesting character.

UPDATED: JAN 1, 2009 Wow une coche en haut de la competition La meilleur odeur de houblon in a lifetime On dirait une christ de bonne Double IPA Opaque presque comme un vrai jus de pomme non filtre Gout exquis leger carameliser final hoppy Si ten prends plus que 1 tu rotes les fruits Wow again TAKE THE TIME TO FIND OUT