Les Brasseurs du Hameau dHam Blonde

Dark sunset golden hue is completely opaque, bottle-conditioned. Initially decent white head mostly diminishes until nothing is left. Light doughy, baking cookies or gingerbread yeastiness appear in the aroma that is brought further through a fitting mild dose of limey hops. Intricately juicy palate (mandarine, mango, kiwi, peach, banana.. rather exotic), helped in its cohesion by the malt’s breadiness and the ester abundance. Slightly sour, though in a fruity and nowhere offending fashion. The finish might not be perfectly refined and rounded yet as the yeast leaves a slightly gummy, bordering astringent lasting impression where you would have hoped for the hops to show, but it’s not abusing any threshold. Pleasant light carbonation stays engaging despite its moderate levels for a belgian, improving on the juiciness. Remarkable first offering!! I was pleasantly surprised to just find it growing on me with every sip. A nicely drinkable ale, very soft and juicy. Perhaps a touch of wheat to pair along the fruitiness and enhance head retention and keeping the fine-tuning of the yeast strain and this would be worth buying by the 6-pack.

750 ml bottle shared with several Quebecois and one other drunk American at tiggmtl’s going away party in Montreal, from a New Belgium glass. Dark gold, hazy and yeasty thick, an off-white creamy thick head but no real evident lacing....faint grassy, yeasty nose with subtle buttery hints that seem appropriate, still nothing exciting or bold overall....definitely more of interest on the tongue, smooth and easy-drinking yet quite full of body, lightly yeasty and bready, touches of lemon poundcake perhaps....beautifully carbonated and creamy, thirst-quenching; a small gem and another lovely addition (like they need any at this point!) to the superb Quebec beer scene.

Any first impressions?
-A gorgeous head settles atop the hazy amber.
-A mineral touch pierces the foam, as dry wooden hoppiness shyly welcomes the nostrils.
-A fruit salad juice glides into a rising grassy hop bitterness, all linked by bready maltiness.
-The frothy carbonation and svelte maltiness aptly emulates classic Belgian ale mouthfeels.

What if you dig deeper?
-Caramel and plantane sweetness resides within the bready maltiness, offering a nice complexity development.
-A minty, herbal hop character diversifies the finish.
-It smells as though the yeast is trying to produce some fun esters for the pleasure of the nose, but there isn’t one which is able to really stand out.
-A clearly unpretentious Belgian Ale with subtleties for those who care to look for them.
-This is most probably their first bottled batch to hit the market, so we’ll have to keep in touch.

Bottle; no date.

Sweet and fruity aroma offers some toasted malts, light grassy hops and a grapey character. Hazy blonde body is topped by a decent, fine bubbled, off white head that recedes to a lasting cover. Toasted malt and grassy, citrus hops with some pineapple fruity esters in the flavour. Medium body with moderate, fine bubbled, soft, fizzy carbonation. Simple, straight forward, well made and enjoyable. Bottle sampled with beerbuzzmontreal, ClarkVV, MartinT, muzzlehatch, Olivier_MTL and Yowie. *

2006 12oz capped bottle consumed on 8/25/06 and 750mL champagne-corked bottle consumed on 8/27/06.
Immense, enamel-colored head is dense, very bottle conditioned and slow to recede, creating prominent lacing as it does. Beer is highly hazy, with an absolute ton of sediment sitting in the bottom, despite its very young age. True blonde color to the body.
Yeasty (yellow fruit esters), somewhat doughy in the nose, but with a fresh wildflower and grassiness coming from the hops, albeit lightly. Seemingly quite dry, bit of chalk and minerals, though a grainy maltiness is very fresh and unpasteurized. Smooth, fluffy, vanilla-flavored angel-food cake. Perhaps some lemon and banana?
Dough collects on the palate, rather quickly, but this blossoms in to a light vanilla wafer and cookie-like sweetness, moderated by the dry yeast and light, but well-placed hop bitterness. Sumptuous, highly unpasteurized body is probably not what most would expect from a blonde ale, but the high level of attenuation helps make up for this. A strong body conveying light flavors. Carbonation is pesky at first, but easily settles out with 5 minutes of breathing. Honey-vanilla notes from the pils malt are somewhat harried by the very high yeast apparency on the finish (lots of esters). It muddles things and creates a blandness that shouldnt be present. Almost a salty, baking soda/aluminum-like note, though not as strong as that sounds.
The yeast seems extremely slow to flocc and probably they could have left it in secondary longer, or cold-conditioned it for a while. That or they just bottled too much sediment/yeast. Aside from that, it’s strikingly high in potential for the first batch from this new brewer.