BFM Abbaye de Saint Bon-Chien 2005

750 mL bottle received via trade with mgumby10. Pours cloudy tawny with a small, fizzy, off-white head, mostly diminishing with spare lacing. Aroma is average malt (bread, cookie), average hops (flowers, herbs), average yeast (earth) with notes of cherries, wood, and wine. Medium bodied, sticky texture, average carbonation, and a bitter finish. Long duration, moderate sweetness, acidity, and bitterness.

Thanks to JCB for sharing this at the Carolina Gathering. Poured a dark ruddy red with no head. The nose was very tart, oakey, spicy, had some cherry, vinegar. The flavor had some acetic vinegar, cherry, oak, spicy, warm, nice for the alcohol content. The mouthfeel is still and not too hot.

Thanks Davinci! (I think...?) Murky brown pour with a thin white head. Aroma of sour yeast and malt. Flavor is sweet malty, acidic, nutty and woody. Mostly though it is very soapy, like the flavor of cashews. Some vegetable. Great body though.

750ml from PhillyBeer2112 - thanks, Jeff (and also thanks to the Kansas Jayhawks)! Dark amber pour, fairly still, with just a few bubbles. It’s got a relatively potent funky aroma that, to me, recalls some De Proef beers (always a winner), but somewhere in there are some slightly indistinct harsher notes, almost like burnt soy and anise. The taste, though, is really quite nice and tart, much like a rich pinot that’s slightly more acidic than usual, backed up by some spice and malts. Can’t really detect the high ABV. This is a nice one.

Bottle. A beer in substance, an intriguingly rich mixture of cider and wine characteristics in the mouth. Very, very intriguing, very, very hearty. Apples and pears are presented in a sour cider manner, grapes and prunes presented as from a red wine. A 6-oz serving was plenty for this monster, but when taken slow, this is a unique treasure to uncover.