Dieu du Ciel Solstice d’Hiver

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

Serve in Snifter

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Cherry twiizlers, brandy, whipped cream, anise or fennely, and superbly boozy...an aroma to jerk off to. Sensual beyond belief. Unfortunately the body is much thinner than expected. Not not necessarily thin, but not the thickness I was hoping for. Cherry and anise are still in the flavors and its a boozy one at that, but there’s thickness missing...its just too subtle...its still complex, refined, intriguing...lots of subtle boozy cherry eccentric happenings...but I want it to consume my palate...and yet it makes me work for it...which is fine if I wasn’t so lazy...but the more I drink and the more I get to know what’s going on...the thinness disappears and the effort to analyze decreases cuz I’m starting to get to know this thing. I’m fucking liking this and wish I had about a case to rate from. But I don’t, a bottle at a bar I won’t revisit for at least a year.

Bottle. Pours mahogany with almost zero head, limited lacing, and a little rim of white-ness around the rim of the glass. This smells like an over-the-top bourbon beer with vanilla jumping down your nose. The taste on this is incredibly sweet with a little bit of that vanilla on the tongue. Palate was full but overall this beer was unenjoyable. this just isn’t my bag.

UPDATED: MAY 27, 2012 yeast sweet alcoholic aroma pores murky brown with lots of floaties, taste sweet caramel, malty, bitter, somewhat sticky with slight alcohol burn on the finish very good Barley wine. I should clarify the "floaties" are from sediment in the bottle, which I didn’t expect in a barley wine, no less one that’s been aged 4 to 5 months.

Backlog nov 2011 Amber, ok foam Full bodied and high complexity Sweet dried fruit aromos Enjoyable, but a bit too sweet

Bottle. Pours a murky rust colored with smaller beige head and a fair amount of floaties. Smell is rich fig, caramel, chocolate, and sweet cystalized sugar. Taste is initally sweet caramel followed by dark fruits, chocolate, a little coffee and then finishes a tad boozy. Texture is very smooth and velvty. Really nice brew.

341ml bottle. Dieu du Ciel pours a dense oily amber body with reddish tones. Nice big head for a barley wine, creamy mocha, with decent retention. Aroma is sweet and yeasty, with a good dose of hops, caramel, nice breadiness, floral, prunes. Taste is astringent, wormwood bitterness, good dose of malt, hops, late summer grass, late alcohol heat, aggressive hop aftertaste. Good.

Bottle from Timfoolery. Pours a very dark brown. Very strong taste of carmel flavor. Full-bodied barleywine that goes down smooth without any alcohol burn.

Wow. Where do I start....Smells like raisins, honey. Head pretty much disappears right away, but who cares. Colour is a cloudy blood red/amber. Tastes like honey, strong alcohol disguised in a kind of almost grapefruit bitterness that has a good lasting power. A sexy, complex beer. Liked this more than Peche Mortal even.

Murky dark brown pour with a small amount of head. Nice lacing on the glass. Aroma is caramel and roasted malt. A little nuttiness and some sweet fruit too. Tastes almost like a brandy. Lots of caramel malt but the alcohol is present throughout but not overpowering. Hops come through a little in the end for a bittersweet finish. Pretty complex, I’ve not had a beer like this one. Very good sipper.

Dark brown beer with hardly any carbonation or head. Hardly any aroma. Strong taste of dark burned malts, some caramel and a lot of alcohol. Herbal, spicy but all ruined by the overwhelming alcohol warmth making it very unbalanced.

Not my kind of thing. The aroma was understated, not a lot there. Flavor was strong but somehow a little flat. Dry, kinda perfumey. Sort of an oily body. Alcohol a heavy presence on the exhale. I enjoyed the first half or so but was tired of it by the end.