Unibroue Éphémère Cassis

Tried many Ephemére flavors and while the apple caught my fancy, this one was not a keeper for me not because it isn’t ’good’, but I don’t like the cassis in this beer. I do like the hint of dark- berry acidity in the aroma, care less for how the flavor comes on and the finish. ** total RE RATE ** Beautiful flamingo pink color. Great acidic-sweet berry flavors & aromas balance nicely against the belgian white beer base, masterful. This beer has come a long way. Draught at Volo.

Smelled like Cranberry and blueberries. Hard time being able to see through the beer even though its in a thin small flute glass. Very murky and hazy but a lot of carbonation rising. Created a large pillow of head that never broke down. Terribly sour and seems the flavor has gone flat or perhaps thats what was intended because i would assume this a brand new bottle since it states: Best before 01-19-2007 and its carbonation is lively. Has light sour notes of grape and apple, but very faint. I do know for a fact this is one of my least favorite fruit beers.

750ml bottle. All the Éphémères are on my regular shopping list. This one is fruity but not too much. What’s good about this one is that you can distinguist the fruit from the beer without drinking a sugar syrup. A lot of beers with fruits taste like Mccain super punch with bubbles and 10% of beer. The éphémère serie is an example of good tasting fruit beer. The carbonation was perfect (like usual).

Intense fruit aroma, almost too much, like the cassis syrup I bought in France and found a useful ingredient in white wine cocktails. Significant carbonation lends the sense that this is a sparkling wine. The flavor has more of a mineral water feel, effervescent, sweet, robust fruit. Unremarkable by appearance.

(341 ml bottle: Obtained in trade with radiomgb, thanks Jeff!) So this is an interesting fruit beer that’s confounding my expectations. It smells more like white grape juice and peaches than it does black currants. In fact, the nose is mildly sweet and not tart. And the flavor is similarly unexpected, again tasting like watered down white grape and peach juices but at least here, the flavor is tart with barely a hint of sweetness. Although I’m not reminded of black currants at all, it’s still quite enjoyable and the fruitiness tastes wonderfully fresh to me. It’s tart on the palate but not puckering, light bodied and effervescent, so this is a very refreshing beer, one that I could drink a few bottles of. The color is like pink grapefruit juice, and it’s fully cloudy with plenty of carbonation bubbles rising along the sides of the glass. The head is off-white in color with a slightly pink tint, and it rises to well over an inch before gradually settling to a very wide ring. No lacing though. Overall, I think this is better than the original apple version of Éphémère. But in comparision to the 2003 Dogfish Head Au Courant (not the purple 2004 batch!), this clearly lacks the black currant flavor that beer had, and so I like 2003 Au Courant a bit more. So, although this didn’t match my expectations, this is still a delightful fruit beer that I hope to drink again.

Hazy orange/red with a big, bubbly white head. Looks radioactive. Aroma of grapes/dark berries and a touch of wheat-simple but good. Big grape/berry flavor, wheat, yeast, sweet, and a bit of sourness, also. Bubbly medium body. Refreshing. Excellent.

Clouded amber appearance, lively head formation. Sweet fruity but subtle blackcurrant aroma. Sparkling and dry, champagne like palate, fairly light in body. Sweet blackcurrant (Ribena) flavor but subtle against the dryness, fairly close to perfectly balanced. It’s not great or complex, but definitely a fruit beer I could drink a few of.

Explodes out of bottle and pours a 5-finger+ thick white head, leaving some lace. Cloudy amber color. Medium bodied and medium carbonation, strong fruity nose. Starts and finishes sweet, no aftertaste. Strong black currant flavor. Very good fruit beer. $6.95 for a 750ml bottle from Vintage Cellar Blacksburg, Va.