Malheur Bière Brut (Reserve)

Brewed by De Landtsheer
Style: Belgian Strong Ale
Buggenhout, Belgium

Golden color with a medium-large head. Aroma is bready/yeasty with some sugary sweet scents. Flavor is yeasty, bready, and has some light citrus to it. OK feel, but this one disappoints relative to the Dark version.

Sampled at the Newtown Brewfest 07 with Stegosaurus. Hazy golden fluffy pour with alot of carbonation. Fruity, flowery aroma. Bready and sour in the finish. Pretty darn good.

Michael Jackson Commemorative Edition, Sampled October 2007
Well despite the careful pour, my serving this at 50°F has caused this to overflow the top of my tulip glass. I couple quick slurps of apple tasting foam and I hope I am safe now. The beer is crowned by a seven-finger thick, light tan colored froth that is quite tightly beaded, though not quite creamy in texture. The beer starts out with overly active, madly boiling streams of carbonation coming up from the bottom of the glass. The beer is a brilliantly clear, bright gold color, which makes it quite easy to watch the streaming carbonation. The head produces an excitingly varied, never disappearing, pillowy surface as it slowly recedes, all the while leaving a thin layer of lacing patterns on the sides of the glass. Aromas of apple, lemon zest, lightly herbal notes, a peppery hop note, honey-like malt notes, a backbone of toasty grain notes (think soda crackers, fresh crushed pale malt, and perhaps a touch of biscuits).

Despite the Brut moniker, this is sweet flavored with notes of honey malt and a touch of green apple. The carbonation has died down enough at this point that it is a touch creamy feeling, though it still has a nice prickle of carbonation as it slides cross the tongue. The beer finishes with a light, yet sharp flavor of hops; lemon grass, touches of basil, a nice non-descript herbal note and a light bitterness. These notes never overcome the soft malt sweetness, but do tend to linger on in the long finish along with it. This has a very smooth finish to it & I definitely like how it sits on the palate. The beer certainly hides its alcohol well too as only a touch of warming alcohol character is noticeable. As the beer rests in my glass a bit, flavors of marshmallow, kiwi, pear, and green raisins become more noticeable.

As with most champagnoise style beers, there is a lot of sediment in the second pour of this beer (I guess wine grapes just don’t have the same level of proteins that barley does, as I am sure this was bottled brilliantly clear and sediment free). The aroma of this beer just gets better and better, I don’t think that there is anything in particular in the nose that wasn’t there before, yet it still manages to pick up a level of complexity, yet still remain so smooth; I really just want to take a draught of the aroma. The flavor picks up some complexity, what I would describe as more bready, and flavor with the additional sediment, though I am having a hard time differentiating between the two pours. This is just dangerously drinkable; flavorful yet smooth; engaging, yet quaffable. Certainly a beer to be enjoyed. Even my second pour of this beer produces a still ridiculous, seven finger thick head. I really like the how the flavors of fruit, malt and Saaz hop interplay & meld into the smooth, yet still seemingly crisp, body and palate of this beer. In the end it is the fruit character that really stands out for me; the interplay of apple, pear & ripe, white wine grape notes just create such a crisp, inviting character to this beer.

Truly a beer that needs to be drunk in quantity to really enjoy; I would have written this off as a really good beer, but not great, if I had not had multiple glasses of this brew. I really can’t ask any more of either the appearance (especially if I had poured it out all at once) or the palate of this beer; it really is just spot on for this brew.

#1400 raaaawr. After loving DeuS I was really excited to try this one. Pours a hazy golden yellow with a large head, good lacing and retention. I was surprised I didn’t lose half the bottle, I was even prepared. Aroma is very lemony with notes of pepper, yeast, more fruits, light hops. I usually drink beer at cellarish temp, but for this one I started cold as recommended. Medium body that feels very light, dry finish, lively carbonation. Somewhat reminiscent of Champagne, but I’d rather have that or Deus. I really wanted to love this, but in the end it was a REALLY expensive bottle that wasn’t amazing.

Flute at Monk’s Michael Jackson toast. Clear light golden, with large, puffy enduring head, and visibly vigorous carbonation. Apples and spice aroma carries through into taste with moderate sweetness and dry, alcoholic finish. The carbonation is very apparent throughout the experience. $10/175ml

Shared with Kinz for an impromptu tasting. Clear golden body with a small off-white head. Sweet caramel and heavy spice aroma. Sweet scaramel flavor with some champagne and light spice. carbonation gives it odd flavor.

Light gold, champagne carbonation. Aroma yeasty, with white pepper. Flavor affected by a definite carbonation bite. Little to it flavorwise beyond the yeast notes and pepper. OK, not great. Like a Duvel with over the top yeast and big negative impact from strange carbonation. This scored higher than I actually enjoyed it.

Name: Malheur Brut Reserve
Date: 03/04/2005
Mode: Bottle
Source: Tasting, RateBeer SE Gathering, 2005

hazy yellow, lots of carbonation, huge foamy head, tart lemony aroma, light bubbly body, light slightly tart flavor
-------- /> Name: Malheur Brut Reserve
Date: 11/24/2007
Mode: bottle
Source: tasting

cloudy yellow, frothy white head, streaks of drippy lace, tart lemon aroma, sweet bready malt flavor, touch of lemony tartness, light spicyness, well balanced bitterness

Aroma: 6/10; Appearance: 6/10; Flavor: 7/10; Palate: 6/10; Overall: 13/20
Rating: 3.2/5.0
Drinkability: 8/10
Score: **+/4