La Croix du Rat Reviews

Alengrin	3.6 La Croix du Rat La Légère Pale Ale The newest Croix du Rat beer to date, a session pale ale suited for the hot southern French summer coming up; apparently the second batch, differing from the first one in containing different hop varieties (first batch was a single hop beer). Thanks to Craftmember for sharing. Brief gusher, but this was probably more due to temperature contrast than anything else; snow white, irregularly edged, moussy, coarse, medium sized head on an initially clear, ‘metallic’ orangey-tinged old-golden beer, turning misty and somewhat apricot-tinged with sediment. Aroma of field flowers, unripe peach, dry hay, pear peel, minerals, crackers, mugwort, moist white pepper, touch of orange pith, bread crust. Fruity onset, lightly sweet with accents of light apricot, apple and a dash of green Conference pear, moderately carbonated with refreshing minerality (much welcomed in this kind of low ABV beer), cracker- and bread crust-like, bit cereally but ‘pure’ pale maltiness, supple and elegantly hopped by a flowery, hayish, lightly citric hoppiness, bringing lovely ‘summer meadow’ aromas of lemonbalm, sweetclover, meadow oat grass and eventually even wormwood; the bitterness lingers, becomes powerful enough to add a quenching dryness and to lend body to the finish, but never becomes too dominant. Utterly well-balanced, feeling very ‘genuine’ and down to earth without too much sleekness; a kind of ‘Euro-hopped’ or Belgian style ISA if you will (without actually being an IPA), very well measured, a tad yeasty and in all respects very solid. One to drink by the gallon on a bright and warm summer afternoon. Thursday, June 1, 2023
JorisPPattyn	3.2 La Croix du Rat Bière au Miel du Périgord Small but rather stable off-white head over orange-ochre beer. Honey, but in a strange, dry, aged way, I honingbollen /I. Dry, seems pretty attenuated with just the non-fermentables of the honey left. Felt, dried yellow fruit, dry sweets. Medium bodied, very slick, good carbonation. Better than decent. Sunday, August 22, 2021
Alengrin	3.8 La Croix du Rat Bière Rousse - Red Ale Relatively new addition to this range, brewed by an Irishman in the Périgord region in France; 75 cl bottle shared by Craftmember. Egg-white, irregularly lacing, thick and creamy, stable head on a hazy, ruddy-bronze beer with deep caramelly, almost brown core. Aroma of wet toast, caramel, dry tree leaf, rye bread, dried cranberries, rosehip, apple peel, dried field flowers and a very slight whiff of DMS, which fortunately fades quickly. Fruity and crisp onset, lots of lively and minerally carbonation playing through impressions of dried red fruit, apple peel and some fig; supple, rounded, full body, brown-bready core with slick caramelly edges, toasty-bitterish towards the end in a gentle way, becoming ever more dry. A light herbal hop bitterness further aids the malt bitterness but the malts, in all their juiciness and breadiness, even fruitiness in this case, get the last word here. Very balanced, dry and quenching, malt-forward beer, very well done - this may in fact even be the best Irish red I had so far, taking into account that this style is not a very common one, neither industrially, nor in craft beer terms. Monday, August 9, 2021
Zilb	3.4 La Croix du Rat Blonde 1 mois après embouteillage. Énormément de mousse. Belle carbo. Houblon saaz au nez et strisselstap en bouche. Amertume sèche. Bien équilibré. Pas mal ! Wednesday, July 29, 2020
zacgillbanks	2.8 La Croix du Rat Bière au Miel du Périgord Bottle from Villefranche-du-Perigord, Dordogne, France. Hazy dark golden coloured with a very large rocky head of white foam. It has a sweet honey, toffee and malty flavour with almond and slight 'plastic' honey on the smooth, creamy finish. Ok. Saturday, December 8, 2018
yaff	3.7 La Croix du Rat Bière au Miel du Périgord à la maison. Le nez surprend d'abord par ses arômes de cire , belle robe blonde. Cette bière ne tombe pas dans le piège d'être trop sucrée . bel équilibre . Monday, November 26, 2018
yaff	3.3 La Croix du Rat à la Châtaigne à la maison. Bonne trouvaille , bière peu sucrée et très agréable. Robe blonde Monday, November 26, 2018
tderoeck	3.1 La Croix du Rat à la Châtaigne 18/VIII/18 - 33cl bottle @ Gents Bierfestival - BB: VI/2020, bottled: VII/18 (2018-1042) Thanks to Vincent for sharing the bottle! Pretty cloudy orange beer, irregular yellowish head, bit adhesive. Aroma: caramel, bit sweet, some vanilla, dried fruits. MF: lively carbon, medium body. Taste: soft bitterness, bit sweet, caramel, banana, little sourish. Aftertaste: soft bitterness, bit malty, yeasty touch. Actually one of the better chestnut beers I've had, probably because there's not too much in it, I guess. ;-) Thursday, September 6, 2018
tderoeck	2.8 La Croix du Rat Blanche Foncée 18/VIII/18 - 33cl bottle @ Gents Bierfestival - BB: VI/2020, bottled: VII/18 (2018-1041) Thanks to Vincent for sharing the bottle! Clear to little cloudy beige blond beer, small creamy off-white head, little stable. Aroma: very yeasty, alcohol, banana, floral notes, perfume, weird... MF: soft carbon, medium body. Taste: bit sweetish start, very malty, banana, yeast. Aftertaste: slightly bitter, yeast, banana, bit oxidized, meh. Thursday, September 6, 2018
77ships	3.2 La Croix du Rat Blanche Foncée Thx! 330 ml. bottle sampled @ GBF 2018. Deep hazy orange, creamy white head. Nose is dull stale bread, sugar, fruity, leaves,… Too fizzy thin with poor bread, wheat, stale bread, sugar, soap, esters, far from impressive. Tuesday, August 21, 2018
kraddel	3.4 La Croix du Rat Blanche Foncée Pours unclear darker amber, but not nearly dark enough for a Dunkelweisse. Small white head. Smell is bit caramelly, mild wheat. Not as characteristic by the yeast as it should be. Taste is full, tad sweet, bit plastic, but not troublesome. Some caramel, bit wheat, tad to sweet. Saturday, August 18, 2018
fpio	3 La Croix du Rat à la Châtaigne Friday, August 18, 2017
fpio	3 La Croix du Rat Blonde Friday, August 18, 2017
fpio	4 La Croix du Rat Blanche Foncée Friday, August 18, 2017
stijnemans90	3 La Croix du Rat Blonde ietwat hoppig blondje, wel Belgische stijl. ongefilterd, mooie schuimkraag, zacht. smaak 7, totaal 3.1. Thursday, August 17, 2017
stijnemans90	4 La Croix du Rat Ambrée Bier uit st cyprien. Kleur is duidelijk een Amber maar smaak neigt naar een dubbel. duidelijke tonen van gebrande mout. zacht van smaak, bijna romig. helemaal niet verkeerd. smaak 8, totaal 3.7. Sunday, August 13, 2017
Zilb	3.7 La Croix du Rat Stout 6 mois avant DLC avec sandwiches jambon sec et camembert. Biere noire opaque avec très beau col de mousse beige à tres bonne tenue. Arôme chocolat amer 100% cacao. Pointe alcool. Douce et cremeuse en bouche. Final légèrement amère très bien dosée. Super équilibre global. Pas mon type de bière mais cette bière me plaît vraiment beaucoup. Tuesday, February 28, 2017
Zilb	3.7 La Croix du Rat Bière au Miel du Périgord Bue 7 mois avant DLC. Ambrée à beau col de mousse très bonne tenue et carbo importante. Arôme de fleurs, alcool et malt. Biere équilibrée entre sucre et amertume. On ne sent pas le miel par contre. Tres bonne biere de Dordogne ! Wednesday, January 25, 2017
Zilb	3.6 La Croix du Rat à la Châtaigne Bue 1 an et 2 mois avant DLC. Bière ambrée avec gros col de mousse à très longue tenue. Carbo faible. Arôme de houblons très légers sur agrumes/mangue. En bouche, crémeuse, ronde. Très équilibrée entre douceur, légère amertume. Final avec une longueur sympathique, longue mais pas très forte sur le feuillus (même houblons que la blanche et l’ambrée de la même brasserie a priori) et une pointe d’amertume. J’aime Tuesday, August 30, 2016
Zilb	3.6 La Croix du Rat Blanche Foncée Bue 11 mois avant DLC. Bière rousse/blonde à très forte carbonation. Col de mousse épais à très bonne tenue. Arôme de bananes, léger fruité dan sun 1er temps. Puis sur la fin, alcool dominant et malté. En bouche, très ronde, douce, quasi sans amertume. Final sur l’alcool (bizarre pour ce style de bière ??!), le malt rond. Belle découverte. On ne s’attend pas du tout à ça quand on voit écrit "bière blanche". Levure bue à part : acide et astringent, gout de houblons/lière pas terrible mais ça passe. Friday, July 29, 2016
Zilb	3.3 La Croix du Rat Ambrée Bue 1 an et 4 mois avant DLC. Biere ambree foncee avec gros col de mousse qui tient. Carbonation moyenne. Arome de caramel, de malt grilles. Final sur les malts grilles, tres grilles, limite une pointe de cafe comme sur une biere brune. Amertume moyenne maus tres bonne longueur en bouche. Une bonne biere qui ne casse pas la barraque non plus. Wednesday, June 29, 2016
Alengrin	3.4 La Croix du Rat Ambrée Bottle straight from the brewery, thanks to Craftmember. Medium thick, moussy, pale greyish white head retaining fairly well, colour is a pure, deep, warm orangey amber, lightly hazy with deposit. Aroma of freshly baked brown bread, dried orange peel and even a touch of marmelade, deep-fried potatoes, cake, chestnuts, dried apricot, straw, earth, artisanal honey, hints of fragrant field flowers, oude ’jenever’ but no sign of the DMS I encountered in most of his other beers. Dried fruits in the onset, with a restrained sweetness of apricot and mandarin, well balanced with a basic, background sourishness; carbo is medium. Bready and lightly nutty malt body, soft and supple, sweetish with a gentle bittersweet toasted edge to it somewhere at the back; breadiness increases towards the finish, which combines earthy yeastiness with an equally earthy, leafy, mildly spicy hop bitterness. Last impression is of a juicy, bready, pleasant maltiness along with a dash of ’jenever’-like alcohol which should have been better hidden for a 6% ABV beer, but does not really disturb otherwise. This is somewhat of a pleasant surprise actually: there is a refined honeyish sweetness in the nose and in the mouth, it behaves gentle and quite well-balanced. Nothing spectacular in any way, just a very decent quencher, but to me, this is a lot closer to a refermented Belgian ambrée than to an EPA, which is apparently the style category stated above... Saturday, November 14, 2015
Craftmember	5 La Croix du Rat à la Châtaigne Thursday, September 3, 2015
Craftmember	4 La Croix du Rat Stout Thursday, September 3, 2015
Craftmember	5 La Croix du Rat Blanche Foncée Thursday, September 3, 2015
Craftmember	4 La Croix du Rat Bière au Miel du Périgord Thursday, September 3, 2015
Craftmember	5 La Croix du Rat Blonde Thursday, September 3, 2015
Alengrin	3.2 La Croix du Rat Blonde Belgian style blonde from the Périgord. Medium sized, moussy, pale greyish beige head; colour deep and warm orange blonde, flirting with amber, with fine sparkling and minute yeast particles divided over the liquid; turns from light hazy to fully cloudy as the bottle progresses. Restrainedly fruity and straightforwardly malty aroma (like all their other beers) with hints of biscuit, dry cake, sweet orange peel, cumin seed, roasted peanuts, vague strawberry, field flowers, earth, coriander, autumn leaves, and alas, DMS again (cooked vegetable), though fortunately not as strong as in their Blanche. Soft fruity onset with faint hints of orange peel, redcurrant and apple, minerally carbonation drying a bit, leading to a very bready, lightly toasted and somewhat nutty malt middle phase with some yeasty spiciness on top of it; finish has continuing bready malt sweetness, while an increasing yeast effect adds even more ’breadiness’. A certain dried orange peel flavour appears as well, and so does a light peppery, spicy, leafy and somewhat resiny hop bitterness, which even lingers a bit along with a bittersweet ’coriandery’ resin effect; I also get a whiff of warming alcohol all the way at the back, more so than expected from a beer of only 6% ABV. Malt-forward but relatively subtle thirst quencher, with a very bready character, just too bad for the DMS. In terms of style, this has a lot more in common with certain Belgian blondes (or even ambers, as its colour is darker than average for the style) than with actual bière de garde from the north of France. Cheers to Craftmember for bringing the entire range of this brewery from the Périgord to Belgium! Saturday, August 29, 2015
Alengrin	3.4 La Croix du Rat Bière au Miel du Périgord Had this one before a couple of years ago but at the request of Craftmember, now re-rating from a comparative tasting: a 75 cl bottle from March 2017 versus a 33 cl bottle from November 2016, apparently each made with a different (local) honey. In general, a beer with a moussy, thickly lacing, egg-white and well-retaining head, a bit more loose and less stable on the 33 cl than on the 75 cl, over a warm peach blonde beer with amberish hue, lightly hazy at first but slowly shifting to a mud pool-like ochre as the sediment is gradually added. The 33 cl version looks a tad paler than the 75 cl version. Both have hints of bread, orange peel, peach, dried apricot, recognisable honey, red apple, caramel, dough, chestnut, camomile, baker’s yeast and dried herbs in the nose, with the 33 cl more ’bright’ and floral than the 75 cl, which comes across as more bready, more caramelly and more ’candied orange’-like, suggesting that perhaps a darker variety of honey has been used; the 33 cl also has more actual honey aroma. Fruity, mildly estery onset, dried apricot, apple and peach, crisp and vivid, with the 33 cl a bit more ’fresh’ (in spite of being older) and radiant, with a sharper, more coarse carbonation and a tad more sourishness than the 75 cl. Pleasantly bready malt sweetish middle, the sweetness accentuated by an elegant caramelly edge as well as by residual sugary sweetness which I assume is a remainder of the honey - with again the 75 cl being more ’sedate’ and more rounded than the 33 cl. This delicate sweetness lingers in the finish without ever becoming cloying, balanced by the breadiness of both malts and yeast (the latter especially after adding the sediment, obviously, even a bit ’clay-like’ in the very end especially in the 75 cl); an earthy, rooty hop bitter touch shows up at the very end and provides background structure against the sweetness. Its bittering properties are more obvious and outspoken after adding the sediment (no surprise, of course) and more so in the 75 cl than in the 33 cl. In all, I’d recommend this from a 75 cl bottle, which is a bit ’deeper’ and better balanced than the 33 cl. A pleasant enough beer especially in the context of southwestern France; could pass for any Belgian honey ale, really - if I hadn’t known that this is brewed by an Irishman in the Dordogne, I could have easily believed that this was made by some traditional Belgian ale brewery. Tuesday, August 25, 2015
Alengrin	3.3 La Croix du Rat Blanche Foncée Thanks to Craftmember for this bottle. Unspecified wheat beer with thick, creamy, densely lacing, snow white head and brownish peach blonde colour, hazy but completely murky with yeast deposit. Aroma of dough, chestnut, soapy wheat but subtle, earth, dried leaves, bitter honey, straw, apple peel, peach; a smaller bottle tasted earlier yielded strong DMS (cooked cabbage) but this was not present in a 75 cl bottle so I’ll take the latter as the basis for this rating. Soft, restrained fruitiness in onset, faint hints of apple and peach, quite crisp feeling with a soft mouthfeel, light and ’deaf’ background wheat sourishness, straightforward bready maltiness, yeasty to the point of becoming powdery in the end; low, leafy hoppiness without strong bittering properties, as usual in wheat beers. "Blanche foncée" in this case is basically the same as "tarwedubbel", rather than Dunkelweizen, and I do think that ’genetically’ this is more closely related to the Belgian witbier tradition than to the German Weissbier tradition. Tuesday, August 25, 2015
Alengrin	3.3 La Croix du Rat Stout The darkest beer from this small brewery in the Périgord. Stable, moussy, light beige head over a deep, dark mahogany brown beer - but not at all black as the ’stout’ designation would suggest. Aroma of toasted bread, hazelnuts, pear syrup, some vanilla or another elusive ethereal whiff, lots of caramel candy. Restrained estery fruitiness in the mouth, touch dried banana, bit oily mouthfeel, nutty, caramelly and toasted malts, light peppery hop touch but fading as quickly as it came, earthy, with above all continuing malt sweetness. In itself a pleasant enough beer, but in terms of style, this is clearly a miss: the brewer allegedly names it a stout for commercial reasons, but why not relabel it as a (brown) porter, which is much closer to the truth? I am confident that the local French audience will get used to it and that way, beer consumers from elsewhere will feel less ’fooled’... Anyway, thanks to Craftmember for sharing this and I did enjoy it, so I will not take "truth to style" into account here. Monday, August 24, 2015
Alengrin	3.4 La Croix du Rat à la Châtaigne Chestnut beer (litterally) from a micro brewery in the Périgord region of France, thanks to Craftmember for sharing. Stable, lacing, creamy, yellowish beige head, misty amber colour. Aroma has a perfumey lavender soap-like quality to it, sweet chestnuts, acacia honey, field flowers, caramel, roses. Soft fruitiness, dried apricot, hint of apple peel, nutty with a strangely but pleasantly sweet chestnut quality to it, ’fluffy’ mouthfeel, yeasty finish with a very light leafy hoppiness without truly bittering. Unusual and interesting. Monday, August 24, 2015
77ships	3.6 La Croix du Rat Stout Thank you for sharing! Sampled bottled @ Gents Bierfestival 2015. Dark brown, little mocha. Nose is sweetish cacao powder, sugar, light toffee. Taste is sugar, caramel, light roast, cacao puffs, a bit weak & thin, caramel, malty, light bitterness. A bit thin & sugary. Decent but not outstanding. Sunday, August 23, 2015
77ships	3.4 La Croix du Rat à la Châtaigne (23/08/2015) Thank you for sharing! Sampled 330 ml. bottle @ Gents Bierfestival 2015. Hazy orange, little white head. Nose is light yeast, corn cereal sweetness in a pleasant way, sugar, what I assume are chestnuts. Taste is same pleasant interesting corn cereal, sugar, candy, chestnut sweetness, malt. Light candy body. Quite pleasant, a nice one, good sweetish beer. (3.9/5) (21/08/2015) Changed recipe apparently. Thx! Sampled @ Gents Bierfestival 2018. Tried again, way less of a fan, thin fizzy mocha, leaves, stale BE, rating way lower,... (3.4/5) Sunday, August 23, 2015
Martinus	3 La Croix du Rat Stout Brown colour, off-white head. Malty aroma, caramel, sugars. Sweet malty flavour, caramel. Finish malts and caramel. (from 33cL bottle @ VIP school, Gent. Thanks for sharing, craft beer enthusiast) Sunday, August 23, 2015
Martinus	3.5 La Croix du Rat à la Châtaigne Hazy warm golden colour, white head. Aroma of chestnuts, malts. Sweet flavour, chestnuts, malt. Sweet finish, chestnuts, brown sugar. Well made, lots of space for the humble chestnut to shine. (from 33cL bottle @ VIP School, Gent. Thanks for sharing, enthusiastic GBF visitor!) Sunday, August 23, 2015
Syfher	4 La Croix du Rat Stout The Greatest ! I’ve drunk that in a Trappist glass. Great stout with nice aroma and taste (coffee and chocolate ofc). Nice deep black colour. Tuesday, November 18, 2014
Syfher	3.8 La Croix du Rat Blonde Bottle of 33cl, in a Trappist glass. Oh Saint-Cyprien and it’s english brewery... I will never forget. The blonde one is just very very good ! I just love her ! We got a nice light aroma of hop, enhanced with the bitter/hop taste. Nice colour and head, with a palate very very good ! Tuesday, November 18, 2014
Syfher	2.9 La Croix du Rat Blanche Foncée Bottle of 33cl, in a Trappist glass. Oh Saint-Cyprien and it’s english brewery... I will never forget. Well, the Blanche one. Here we got what I’ve hate the most (no offense). Not the best of all the series : fade aroma and taste (not much different of the others). But she’s a good one tho. Try it ! Tuesday, November 18, 2014
Syfher	3.7 La Croix du Rat Ambrée Bottle of 33cl, in a Trappist glass. Oh Saint-Cyprien and it’s english brewery... I will never forget. The Ambrée one is good, but not the best. Nice aroma and taste, strong and lil bit smoky, but the palate is maybe too light. It’s a good beer, so try it and love it ! Cheers ! Tuesday, November 18, 2014
Syfher	3.9 La Croix du Rat à la Châtaigne Bottle of 33cl at brewery. Nice chestnust beer ! In fact she got strong aroma nor appearance, but the ligth palate and smell of chestnust is just great. Try it, love it ! Cheers ! Wednesday, October 15, 2014
Ingevara	3.1 La Croix du Rat Stout Very high head, slowly shrinking. Yeasty smell at first when the bottle was opened. Coffecolored hazed stout of full Irish quality despite its origin in the heart of culinaric France. Flavor of smoke and bitter chocolate. Slightly sweet. Mr Dunne put a lot of love into this and the result is a stout that anyone could bu proud of. I’m not a stout lover myself, but I’d have another one of these anytime. Tuesday, September 17, 2013
Ingevara	3.6 La Croix du Rat Ambrée (75 cl bottle from market at Saint-Cyprien, Dordogne) Big foamy head. Fresh fragrance of fruit and malt, a bit of damp cellar. Edgy, oaky flavor, modestly restrained. Never too much, but just right, on a hot summers day or early autumn first chill. Congratulations to Stephen Dunne. Thursday, August 15, 2013
rolickstamp293	3.2 La Croix du Rat Blonde Bootella. Yellow hazy colour, lively nice creamy like head, ok lacing. Aroma is fruity and spice like with some yeast. Good mouthfeel. Flavour is fruity, spiced like, with some yeast, citrus, sweet like and with a good bitterness from the hops. Tuesday, September 13, 2011
rolickstamp293	3 La Croix du Rat Stout Botella. Dark brown colour. Aroma of caramel and roasty malt, some chocolate too. Ok mouthfeel. Flavour has roasty malt and caramel, bit chocolate like, sweet, medium bitterness. Monday, September 12, 2011
Theis	3.4 La Croix du Rat Stout Bottle at Papsø’s - Thanks. Clear brown - white head. Roasted, nutty, high malty, coffee, chocolate, roasted, nice malty, licorice, caramel, light bread. Monday, August 29, 2011
Theis	3 La Croix du Rat Blonde Bottle at Papsø’s - Thanks. Cloudy yellow - white head. Citrus, herbal, wheaty, yeasty, light phenols, ok hoppy finish, light flowery, zesty notes, straw. Monday, August 29, 2011
joergen	3.3 La Croix du Rat Stout Bottle at Papsø. Hazy orange brown coloured with a small off-white head. Fruity and light roasted aroma of caramel with notes of dark chocolate. Fruity and light roasted flavour of caramel and liquorice with notes of dark chocolate. Light roasted finish. Thursday, August 25, 2011
joergen	3 La Croix du Rat Blonde Bottle at Papsø. Hazy yellow coloured with a medium sized white head. Fruity aroma of spices and citrus peel. Fruity flavour fo spices with notes of citrus peel. Spicy finish. Thursday, August 25, 2011
Ungstrup	3.5 La Croix du Rat Stout Bottled. A hazy red-brown beer with a tan head. The aroma has notes of malt, caramel, alcohol, and a bit of roasted malt. The flavor is sweet with notes of roasted malt, caramel, and a bit of bread, leading to a dry roasted finish. Thanks humlelala for sharing. Wednesday, August 24, 2011