Goose Island Pere Jacques

Brewed by Goose Island Beer Company (AB-InBev)
Style: Belgian Strong Ale
Chicago, Illinois USA

Serve in Trappist glass, Tulip, Tumbler

send corrections   |   shelftag   |   edit barcodes   |   add pic

Really a very nice offering from GI. I’m not sure how many stabs they’ve taken at Belgian styles, but this one does pretty well. A nice color, but the nose is fairly weak and lacks fullness. Flavor is slightly bitter, but good. Needs a few more elements to be top notch.

Hazy copper with a full, foamy beige head. Pleasant aroma of sweet fruit, malt. Oily feel in the mouth. Full bodied. Smooth. Flavor was sweet and fruity and pleasant and rewarding. Quite good.

UPDATED: SEP 19, 2004 Well not too bad if you like your Belgian strongs with only mild sweetness and a bitter aftertaste. It is a good beer similer to say Chimay blue but my taste run more to Duvel or Chimay red. Nice packageing and a good job. Not worth the price unless you cannot get real Belgian stongs by you. Aroma a little weak

This is the first bottled "premium" beer from Goose Island I’ve seen in my area. Pere Jacques poured ruddy orange-brown. Medium light tan head persisted until the beer was gone and clumped in a manner suggestive of the presence of wheat malts. Rich aroma of banana, apple peel (slight), earthy fruits and a twinge of wet socks. Flavor began with sweet, lightly caramely candi (brown?) sugar, toast, and bready yeast flavors. As the beer warmed a sweet, fruity (cherry) aspect developed as did peeks of banana. Ethanol permeated the toasty finish. Not the most complex Belgian Strong Ale but classy, rich, and interesting nonetheless.

this was a wild brew from goose island! not what i would ever expect from them, and very tasty indeed. very malty, slightly fruity and alcohol was somewhat noticable. not a bad out from the big goose but not my favorite either. leave belgian strong ales to well...belguim. but nice try!

Malty aroma (like a doppelbock), dark amber color with a thin white head that diminishes quickly. The malt flavor is rich, but is quickly overpowered by the heavy alcohol taste. The finish has a slight sourness that is hard to get rid of. It kind of reminds me of the aftertaste of a cough syrup. This beer could be a bit smoother as well. Typically I’m a big fan of Goose Island, but this one is definitely not up to par.

UPDATED: DEC 23, 2005 Rerate. I saved this beer for about 2 years, waiting until I graduated from college. While this was originally the first belgian strong ale I ever had, I’ve seen had a good deal. On the second try, it is quite good. I’m not sure if it is because I’ve had more of the style or the aging made it better but it’s good. this is the first "belgian strong ale" i’ve ever had and i thought it was kinda gross. it was kind of sophisticated because it changed flavors like 4 times over the course of the bottle. the aroma was bad, like alcohol but it might have been my half indian friends old glass.

Nearly opaque dark brown, slight mahogany glow towards the bottom, a whipped and frothy smooth, dusty tan cap grows to about a half inch, poofs down slowly to a thin haze and sufficient collar. Lace is drippy, some big globs stick, but also drip back in after a while. Aroma is a bit restrained at first, but pleasant with a nice fruity display of banana and raisin, bits of bready yeast, caramel, and a light interplay of alcohol proceeds within. Warmth brings it up a notch better which is accompanied by medicinal phenolic heat. Taste is eager yet yielding of some inobtrusive raisin, dark grapes, banana, and plum. A bit vinuos in tang and alcohol, dark caramel seeps from underneath with a moderate chocolate sweeping just before the finish which gathers in slight dry leafy hops and alcohol spice with smaller hints of leftover fruits. Subtle, warm, with a classy flare of fruityness. Nice. Feel is quite warm, well-rounded, firm, creamy fullish body, but there’s a trustworthy fluffy texture that insues within the carbonation thats really nice. A well heated, covetous, complex body and character that kept me inticed the whole glass through. It was around mid-glass where it truly blossomed into its own and became quite nice. From there on in, this was a real treat. Not overly complex, but has a real nice relaxing quailty to it.

stem glass / dated 041604: hazy red brown body with peach highlight that lays under a big, tight, and lingering off-white head. it smells fruity, sweet, and spicy. it tastes fruity, sweet, and spicy. it’s very nice. it's mostly sweet and malty... a bit syrupy, but not cloying; a bit evident of alcohol, but not offensively so... medicinal? nearly. hmm, indeed... after having some IPAs a good pere jacques and steak hasn’t tasted any better! it's fairly straightforward and very good! ("flavor will continue to develop over five years" !!!) perhaps i need to save a bottle for some years later...

Draught somewhere in Chicago: This is a nice version of an Belgian ale. More sweet and malty than most Belgians and more fruity. Very nice and a pleasure as a substitution after 6 pints of IPA.