Les Frères Houblon Fontaine du Diable

Brewed by Les Frères Houblon Microbrasserie
Style: Old Ale
Trois-Rivieres, Canada

Serve in English pint, Snifter

The label proclaims it as a brown ale but it is a porter. Looks like a porter and tastes like a porter.

Bière opaque, couleur de mélasse et coiffée d’un léger col beige, laissant une large dentelle au verre. Des arômes très boisés de café et de cacao. Légèrement amère avec une certaine salinité. Bière ronde à la texture huileuse, elle est très délicatement effervescente. Elle laisse en bouche une fin légèrement amère et saline avec un délicat bouquet d’arôme.

Aroma: chocolate, nuts, malt, plastic, weird. Appearance: thick black liquid, frothy beige head. Taste: complex, lots of good, lots of bad. Nuts, chocolate, kind of stouty, but also tastes of chemicals, plastic, leaves, other weird stuff I couldn’t figure out. Tastes like it has gone through some kind of manufacturing, rather than brewing! Palate: smooth, good finish.

pours dark murky brown with a thick and creamy beige head. very chocolatey, nutty, lots of malts, and yes some port, vinous, some smokiness. soft carbonation, oily mouthfeel. good brew.

Bottle: Thanks JoeMcPhee! Pours a dark brown, ruby edges in the light with a tan poorly retained head. Wafery papery aroma. Oxidized, slightly infected notes of mild lactic hints. There’s a touch of cocoa roasted malts. Spritzy thin body- overattenuated. Papery malts- apparent oxidation. Mild thin roasted malts with a cocoa note. Something’s wrong...

Bouteille 500 ml. 7.7%. Couleur brune très foncé, brouillée. Mousse beige fugace. Arôme de bois, caramel, malt, chocolat et terre. En bouche, c’est une surprise, n’étant pas un amateur de la micro Les Frères Houblon. Crémeuse, douce, notes de porto, chocolat, cerise. Finale sans amertume réelle, avec de petites effluves d’alcool. Très bonne.

Red brown dark clear appearance, brown cap. Smells sweet (chocolate, fruit) yeasty and a whiff metallic. Has a balanced sweet flavor showing hop dryness and malty roast, touch of smoke, with a dark fruit sweetness and malty sweet Demerara taste. Slightly herbal, touch of lemon and root spice. This grows on me a whole lot, not one for a tiny sample you need the bottle.

Found this one interesting when I read the front label - Port taste (as I am a Port lover). Pours a dark brown colour with a beige head that looks creamy and has medium retention with decent lacing. Red highlights are showing with active carbonation. Molasses aromas with roasted malt, dark fruits and port. They say "lightly smoked" on the label, and it is true. The smoke comes out in the aftertaste. Before this, you have yeast, the burnt malt and the fruits. All well-balanced making this a very nice beer.