Dieu du Ciel Solstice d’Hiver

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

Serve in Snifter

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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!

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.