Alpine Beer Company Chez Monieux

Brewed by Alpine Beer Company (CA)
Style: Sour Ale
Alpine, California USA

Pours clear gold with orange hue and white head with a faint pink quality. The generous use of cherries showing up even before I get the first impression of smell or flavor. The aroma starts with a hint of cherry fruitiness that quickly becomes tart, sugar sweet-tart candy and mild funk in the background. The taste is much the same with a quick pulse of cherry sweetness then turning tart. The tart quality isn’t at the ‘all I can taste is tartness’ level. It graciously allows notes of sweet cherry fruit to shine through from time to time. It ends dry and refreshing.

bottle, blood orange color, with citrus cherry nose, flavor is big red all the way, very nice effervescent body and finish

Thanks to beerbill for sharing (and double-thanks after discovering how much this stuff cost!) - clear red pour - moderately funky and acidic aroma, with some spice and cherry character that reminds me of christmas somehow - nice at tart, with mild acidity, a touch of phenolic character, and some mild funk on the back end - cheek-tingling acidity and cherry manifests in the finish - oak is present, but not overpowering - lacking a little bit of the leathery, earthy complexity I wanted, but still nice.

Shared by beerbill. Pours a completely clear reddish amber color. Aroma is light paint thinner and cherry cough syrup. Very artificial flavor sweetener flavor follows. Candy sour sweetness with a quickly fading flavor. Finishes with a cheap, inauthentic, acidic sourness. Very light bodied as well. Man, I love sour beer, and this was really a miss. I do not see too many upsides in this beer. It wont age and its not good fresh, comes off as a cheap knock-off lambic.
750mL, Heart of Darkness thick walled tulip.

22 oz. bottle. Pours a clear pink gold. Pleasant aroma of sour cherries, some light funk, and some light oak. The flavor is very similar with sour cherries being the dominant flavor accompanied by light funk and some oakiness. The sourness lingers for a few seconds after the swallow. Moderately bitter at the finish. Effervescent. An interesting beer, but at $28/bottle, not something I would buy again.

Bottle. Nice aroma of tart raspberry/cherry and earthy funk. Flavor tart cherries with a sweet pineapple funk. Very nice.

Bottle shared by beerbill. Pours an orange/red with a small white head. Aroma of funk, tart sour fruits (cherry), oak. Flavor is quite tart and oaky. Ok, nothing too exciting.

I need to give props to Pat & crew...If Pat is still the crew, who knows...it’s been a a while since i paid any attention to the brewing industry, but in any event...They deserve praise for doing this beer. Alpine came out of nowhere with its "Pure Hoppiness" and blew the IPA fans away...Then, they beat us over the head with Exponential Hoppiness before double IPAs even became a normal thing...You never really saw two many belgian ales come out of Alpine until somewhat recent...at least, not that i ever saw...Then there’s the Chez Monieux..This cloudy playdoh/blood orange fluid is damn right inviting if i do say my damn self. The nose was a floral garden of vinous cherry with old citrus/ruby red grapefruit waves. Flavors were vinous and slightly citrusy with floral sweetness riding along. Its perfectly clean throughout with no major flavor flaws...the floral fruitiness is down right fun...the sourness is solid, and well, the beer is fucking cool man, shit.