L Atrébate Brune

Brewed by Brasserie Saint-Germain
Style: Bière de Garde
Aix-Noulette, France

Serve in Snifter, Tulip

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Dark bodied beer with a relatively strong head. The aroma is bitter with a slight hint of chocolate, and the flavour is strongly bitter with quite a burn’t Christmas pudding flavour. Overall a reasonable brune beer.

Bottle@Home. Sweet aroma with raisins and hints of smoke and tea leaves. Light hazy, brown color, beige head, fair lace. Brown sugar flavor, malts, cookies, light bitterness. Sticky mouthfeel. Too sweet and a bit one dimensional.

75cl bottle courtesy or harissoni. Having read his review I wonder if this is the same stuff. Copper bronze colour. Smelt of malt. Initial taste is of malt liquor with hints of marmite. This is replaced on the finish by a malty alcoholic burn. I could detect little or no hops in this. A fairly basic beer; not unpleasant but no great shakes.

Bottle 70cl, bought in Lille. Disappointing with hardly any lacing. Low carbonation, bitter sweet aroma. Malt, toffee, very sweet, hoppy and slightly nutty to taste. Not one of the best browns I have tasted but then it is not my favourite style. Not a very complex brew at all. OK, but not a great example.

75cl bottle from Auchan, Calais. Deep brown colour with some russet. Lasting beige head. Chocolate and hop aroma. Fullish in mouth with som toffee. Great choc and then really surprising bitter hops. Did not expect the hop level on this. Tingly on the tongue. Really good brune. Drank it at room temp on a train. Soft milk choc and then tingly hop. Does not taste of 7%. Easy drinking and the drying, tingling hop on end is worth it. Probably the best French brune I have had.

UPDATED: JUN 23, 2005 (Bottle 75 cl) Light brown, filtered beer with a dense light brownish head. Very malty, nutty flavour with lots of sweetness making this hard to drink in major quantities - especially because the hoppiness is almost absent. Pretty much like a typical Danish Christmas beer. 101004

UPDATED: FEB 7, 2005 Bottled. Hazy dark ruby. Solidly malty with toffee and coffee and some blue cheese and as well as a hint of metal. Complex.

Bottle. Opens with a dramatic pop, but the beer remains in place. Sweet, malty beer. Fruit cake flavours. Pleasant drink. I prefer Brunes to Blondes. This lacks oomph, complexity, depth, whatever you want to call it. It had a surprising alcohol warmth, but it really isn’t that interesting. And even there there is that Strong Lager viscosity, the body actually feels quite thin. I think there's a distinct lack of umami in this beer. Nice and malty, but dull.

Bottle: Poured a brown beer with a huge head with standard retention. Aroma is a bit weak with only a subtle smell of malt. Taste is also on the weak end with some note of malt to begin with and a light aftertaste. There is a serious lack of complexity for a biere de garde and the body is way too thin.