Driftwood Belle Royale

Brewed by Driftwood Brewery ( Canada )
Style: Fruit Beer
Victoria, Canada

Serve in Flute

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not super impressed with this one. the belgian-ess is a bit odd, kinda musty without being farmhouse musty. cherries are quite subdued and if I didn’t know they were there I would probably not have picked them out. interesting experiment though and with a bit of tweeking it could be quite good. I’d like to see it as a ’cleaner’ belgian with more cherry character.

Thanks to Derek for this. Pours a clear, pinkish red with small carbonation and a white rim. Aroma is cherry and yeast. Taste is dry like a white wine, sweet cherries, grain and yeast. Simple, yet elegant.

UPDATED: APR 3, 2012 From the 3/2012 3R6P tasting. +++Sampled from a 22 oz brown bottle this beer poured a dark orange-amber color with no head and no lacing. The aroma was bread, yeast and faint cherries. The flavor was sweet tart cherry, cherry pits and cherry pie filling. The finish was long cherry pie filling and yeast. Moderately full bodied. The alcohol was well hidden. Nice.

pours reddish-copper, minimal quickly dissipating head, medium CO2 size, barely any retention, zero lacing, average speed CO2 streams. Very fragrant Morello cherry nose, almost cotton candy like. Deep 2/10-sour 5/10-tart cherry start, puckering mouthfeel at 14C, slight bitterness near the mids, zero traces of alcohol. Low-medium complexity, medium-depth, great balance, good carry, excellent drinkability. This beer goes especially well with salty foods. Quite refreshing when drunk at 3-5C. Creeper alcholic effect.

The search was for tartness, being cherries and all. What I liked was it wasn’t too sweet. Bottom line: Rather neutral, not bitter or sourness or too sweet, but also somewhat dull. I liked the yeasty Belgians, and secondary cherry flavour, so drank the bottle. I do not mean to rain on the parade of great BA reviews before me. Thanks Derek for the bottles.

Sour fruit really comes through on the nose, mild alcohol. The taste is very similar to the smell - sour cherries, yeasty, little bit of bitterness. Sour cherry flavour lingers and then the alcohol warmth comes out. A good beer for the style.

Nose of nice tart fresh cherries on top of light bread, dust, and lightly phenolic belgian yeast. Pours pinkish red with a fizzy white head that settles to nothing. Nice color though. Flavors of fresh tart cherries, light spicy/sweet belgian yeast, a hint of hay, dust, and bread. Nice lingering cherry flavor never becomes medicinal or gross. Light alcohol starts to come through as it warms. Good stuff.

2011 bottle. Beautiful pink colour, large head that deosn’t last long. Aroma of cherries and some malt. Flavour is sour cherry with a light malt backbone, very well melded together. Delicious beer, some alocholic warming but no harsh alcoholic burn. Fruit flavours work well with malt, not overpowering.

Bottle. Papaya color, sparkling. Yeasty peach and nectarine aroma is a bit candylike but nice. Mild body and is easy-going. Slightly thin but is actually quite pleasant that way. Has a Marachino sweet-tart Kirsch thing going on. Finishes dry and Kirch-like too.

Thanks Jonas (and CapFlu?). Slightly pinkish, light amber. The aroma has candy cherry with some alcoholic notes. Sweet alcohol on the palate with some cherry notes. Fairly straightforward brew, not much going on. Most of these strong fruit beers don’t work out well.

22oz bottle from 16th St Liquor in West Vancouver. Pours a murky orange brown with a rush of carbonation that diminishes the cream head very quickly. Aroma of yeast and cherries, slight hint of bubble gum. Taste is full on spice and cherry, slight vanilla and marzipan hints, some treacle sweetness. Seems thinner than it should be at this strength. Finish is lingering, slightly boozy and yeasty with the cloying cherry hit there for a long while. Decent.