Unibroue Éphémère Cassis

Brewed by Unibroue (Sapporo)
Style: Fruit Beer
Chambly, Canada

Poured a copper color, pinkish hue, with a large, light pink head that left nice lacing on the glass. Aroma of currants, strawberries, yeast, and light barnyard. Taste of sweet grapes, akin to a fruit seltzer water with no alcohol noticed, with a good deal of carbonation.

Some other brewer christened themselves with the moniker "Champagne of Beers". Well, Éphémère is as close to champagne as a beer can get. Happy effervescense loads the glass and continues throughout the tasting, leaving a pink head atop a hazy peach body. Yeasty aromas contained peaches, grapes, and whiffs of alcohol. Sweet through and through with a wheat-beer sourness. Ends dry. A bit "frou frou" for me, but my wife enjoyed it.

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On tap. Pours an orange ruby with a white head. Really nice nose. Can really smell the cassis. Taste is slightly tart, but still with a lot of cassis flavor. Would work well as an aperitif.

750 ml. big ole brown Belgian bottle. Corked & caged. No freshness date seen. Loud pop when opened. Cork was very hard to remove though. Poured out a hazy, purple color, with a pinkish tinted head. Very effervescent, almost champagne like. Frothy pink head fades back to an island of foam in the middle of the chalice. Aromas are of sweet grapes, pear juice, some tropical fruits, a little oak barrel, and some Belgian funk. Brettanomyces is very subdued, but present. Lactic wheat tang rounds out the flavors. Decent mouthfeel. Very bubbly & tingly on the tongue. Rich mouthfeel, especially for a lighter bodied beer. A decent fruited Belgian beer overall.

Foamy pour. Huge, frothy white head with a slightly reddish tint. Wow, this one immediately strikes me with band-aid and cough medicine in my nose. Equally unappealing flavors. Very much like the purple cough medicine I loathed in my youth. Drain pour. First time I’ve been disappointed with a Unibroue product.

Looks and smells fantastic - that opening is getting blase for my unibroue ratings. This one, however, takes a nosedive as soon as you taste it. The fruit flavoring from the black currant grapes is just sickening really. The finish is dry and ill-tasting. The first truly bad beer from unibroue.

Pours a slight violet/ light amber with a massive thick white head which lasts and leaves good lace. Aroma is very fruity and sweet, whereas the taste is only slightly sweet, tart and moderately acidic. High carbonation and a moderately smooth mouthfeel. I seemed to like the apple a little better.

The weather is finally nice here in Buffalo. I’m writing this on a break from cleaning the garage at the new house. Well, this used to be a garage... Now it has 3 walls and no roof. Someday soon I’ll have a grill and a picnic table out here.. and hop vines growing across the open roof. Right now I’ve got Ephemere Cassis in my Schneider Weisse glass. The beer is a cloudy purple/red orange with a towering head. The nose is so nice and sweet - currant, yeast, wheat, strawberry, bread. The taste is almost milky (?!?) with currant, tart wheat, a little wood. Fruity finish. Yum. I want to try this one with cheesecake.