Les Bières de la Nouvelle-France La Messagère

Brewed by Les Bières de la Nouvelle-France
Style: Golden Ale/Blond Ale
Saint-Alexis-des-Monts, Canada

Serve in English pint, Shaker

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[082-20061031] 341mL. Concord grapes aroma. Clear, pale golden yellow body with a small, quick white head. Flavour shouts fermented grapes with a background or base of rice, kinda skunky. Light body and light fizz. Comes together but in a bad way.

Bottle courtesy of HogTownHarry. Pours a ridiculously pale yellow, almost white, with a small diminishing white head -- man, this looks like crap. Aroma of somewhat stinky rice, grain and some sourness. Flavour starts harsh, not a good start, and it tastes of watery rice, grain and fruit and has a weird aftertaste. Light bodied. I guess if you have to drink a gluten-free beer it’s drinkable but thank goodness I don’t have to.

341 bottle from LCBO ’broken case’ basket - sold for 1.50. Almost clear runny pour with just a tinge of rusty yellow, light champagne-y fizz with minimal head. It really is like cheap apple and pear juice diluted with club soda - the metallic dryness from the dilution is unpleasant. The aroma is indescribably harsh - sort of sulfur, acetic, petrol, raw yeast - something is very wrong here. This could be way less horrid without these nasty overtones in the nose and finish, plus give it some added concentration of the fruity base flavors. Maybe add less water? Good idea gone bad I think.

UPDATED: JAN 8, 2007 Bottle (341ml). Via trade with mouton_noire - thanks, Marie-C!. Let’s get this puppy done and buried asap. Very pale yellow, small white head, looks like apple juice. What aroma there is is sour; sour grain, sour spicy yeast - sort of fruity, bleagh. Taste - oh, gawd, like cheap apple juice mixed with cheap grape juice and a little yeast - sweet, harsh, oh where’s the friggin’ sink? Watery fizzy harsh body, weird chemicals and grapeskins aftertaste ... you’ve been warned.

Brown bottle, 341 ml; eye: pale yellow, white head that resembles champagne but falls rapidly, nice effervescence at the start but that disappears as well, lacing, clear; nose: sake, buckwheat; mouth: sake, buckwheat, grapes, thin finale in sake with a slight bitterness, light body, thin texture, average carbonation; overall: special FRANÇAIS Bouteille brune, 341 ml; oeil : jaune très pâle, mousse semblable à du champagne mais qui disparaît, belle effervescence en début mais qui disparaît, dentelle, claire; nez : saké, sarrasin; bouche : saké, sarrasin, raisin, finale mince en saké avec une légère amertume, corps léger, texture mince, carbonatation moyenne; en résumé : spécial

Smells and tastes like a wine spritzer. Crazy expensive. Served it for a gluten-intolerant buddy who said it’s better than no beer at all, so it serves a purpose.

This beer is bizarre...I dont like the flavor, but I like the palate. This is the first beer where the flavor and the palate doesn’t match. This beer has a fruity and little spicy aroma and palate. The appearance is simple, it’s like any other s*** beer. I tought that this beer would have been better and with a price that compares to Unibroue products (e.g. Trois Pistoles at 9%), I do not suggest this beer at all.

Best before May 2005 bottle consumed on 10/13/2005. Light platinum blonde colored beer with a haze?? Yep! Unfiltered it is indeed, with a thick layer of sediment at the bottom. Head is white and rapidly recedes to a ring. Smells like sake. Definitely sake. Maybe some chemicals/plastic. Definitely not smelling the hops that were promised on the label. Faint soft citrusy note, sort of like light tangerines. First taste makes me exclaim how bad it is. White rice pudding, some buckwheat sweetness I guess. No hops. . . . but a nice mouthfeel! Lemon-vanilla shortbread. Actually now that it is breathing and warming, it’s not so bad. Rice and honey notes, quite sweet now, lots of resemblance to sake, but it’s pretty bearable. For a malt-free beer, I’m pretty impressed. I can appreciate that they brewed a beer for those who are allergic to gluten. It’s really quite good in that regard. Certainly no replacement for barley, but I’m sure it’s not too bad at all when fresh, as a light session beer.

Very pale white colour - very unusual almost like a sparkling white wine topped by a fizzy white head. The nose is wheaty with hints of mango, yeast and cardboard. The body is spritzy and lightly sweet with a touch of yeastiness. Kind of fruity and very dry with a light bitterness. Not good.

341 ml bottle. Sickly pale straw colour with a fully diminishing fizzy and soapy white head. Some particulate in there too. Corn oil and fusel. Sugary sweet, then acidic, then finishes with faint fusels again. Light bodied, thin, fizzy, lightly oily mouthfeel.