St Feuillien Cuvée de Noël

Brewed by Brasserie St-Feuillien / Friart
Style: Belgian Strong Ale
Le Roeulx, Belgium

Serve in Trappist glass, Tulip, Tumbler

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Pour is a nice mahogany with tan head. Aroma is beautifully belgian and spices, a touch of alcohol. Taste is fruit and spice with caramel and raisin, with a sweetness balanced with a nice hop bitterness that lingers. Mouthfeel is nice, medium body, less carbonated than many belgian beers. Very nice, very cheery.

Brewed for Christmas...2010. Still seems alright though. Yeasty, candied out nose, light brown color. Initial bite of alcohol, follow through of brown sugar and yeast. A bit flat by now, though I suspect it might have have some zest when new. Too sweet for me.

April 2009: Brown 33cl bottle, best before Oct 09, it had been hanging around in my stash for a couple of years and I decided its time had come! I knew it could produce a stupidly large head, so I used my equally large ’Judas’ glass to review it in. Because the glass could take it, the beer looked fantastic. The body was a dark ruby colour, but clear when held to the light. On top sat a wonderfully full off-white, slightly tanned head. At the end of the review there was still a full covering of head, thinner but still a full covering, with heavy lacing down the glass. The smell is toffee apple with malted biscuits, cinnamon and liquorice, I’ll let you decide which is the strongest when you try the beer. A hidden sweetness comes through in the taste, not the sickly over-sweet flavour some Belgian Christmas beers have, but never-the-less, it has a sweet side to it. For me the liquorice is the dominant feature of the taste, this gives the beer a dryness that the first sweet impression doesn’t even hint at. Other Christmas type spices arrive as the beer warms (chives?), very moorish! Rich but not creamy (the liquorice sees to that), the flavours do hang around and the 9% was more and more evident as the review progressed. For the last two years I’ve been to the ’Belgian Christmas Beer Festival’ in Essen. I like to think I know a bit about this type of beer and this one is worth getting hold of.

Tap at Broken Barrell---cloudy copper color with a large head. Aroma of yeast, candy and caramel. The taste started off with caramel, sweetness and some sugary fruits on the end. A little thinner than I had anticipated.

Amber pour with small off white head. Aromas of yeast, caramel, citrus and a hint of cherry. Taste is slightly sweet caramel, grapefruit, malt, yeasty and a dry finish.

Bottled under Speciale. Red tinted amber with a retaining off white head. The nose is my only complaint as it is a bit shy and doesn’t develop much. The palate however... this enters with some sweet flavors, develops defined sweet cherry and caramel through the mid palate and a bit of black tea on the finish. Gorgeous!

On tap at Poechenellekelder, Bruxelles.
Opalescent cloudy brown one with a superb creamy-foamy tan head. Intensive aroma of yeasts and coriander, candy sugar and toffee. Well balanced one, smooth mouthfeel, a lot of coriander, fruits like green appl and peach, caramel and light toasted-roasted grains.

(draught) mostly clear deep copper with soapy light tan bubbles. Nose of caramel, Belgian candi sugar and mildly spicy yeast character, sweet bread, and just a hint of odd fusel alcohol. Winter spices on the back of the nose. Taste of gingerbread, dark candi sugar, bits of dates, light alcohol, and brown sugar. Holiday spices linger on the palate. Light clove, cinnamon and nutmeg. Low carbonation is fine for this one.

Kastanjebrun lätt grumlig öl med beige ganska livligt skum. Doftar mycket sött av torkad frukt och bränt socker. Även smaken är söt och kan ersätta julens gottebord. Kola, marsipan, fikon, torkad frukt. För söt för mig.

2012.02.27 - 750ml bottle in a tulip glass. St. Feuillien Speciale. Pours dark ruby brown, similar in color to but slightly darker/more opaque than Newcastle Brown Ale. Active foamy head dissipates but leaves full cap and lacing for the duration. Aroma is lovely to my nose, a distant dull approximation to the taste itself. Taste is a dryness mixed with a spiciness. Not sure of the source of this taste but similar to (IMO) Affligem Noel and Unibroue Trois Pistoles. A lovely taste. An initial faux alcohol bite on the tongue recedes quickly leaving a spicy aftertaste which lingers and beckons you to drink more. Mouthfeel is fairly light for the beer, the head is pretty foamy. No complaints here, I’ll be buying more of this.

Pours a murky, cloudy dark amber color with some reddish highlights and a small off-white head. Aroma of dark fruits, candi sugar, caramel malts, dry and dusty grains. The flavor follows suit. Pretty simple and sweet. Medium-bodied, with a smooth mouthfeel and low carbonation. Definitely some alcohol present.