Brewers Art Le Canard

Brewed by The Brewers Art
Style: Belgian Strong Ale
Baltimore, Maryland USA

The goblet is filled to the rim with a very dark golden colored brew. My friend’s isn’t topped off and has a thick off-white head Smells very sugary, with fruit and malts Flavor was immediately malty. It was made more complex with Belgian yeasty flavors, a little pepper, and hard candy sugar. A light bit of hops on the end added some bitterness. Smooth and drinkable, yet another fine concoction from the folks at Brewer’s Art

Brewer’s Art’s latest bottling, "Le Canard", an ode to Kwak. After disgorgement of a very toyt cork, a quick upswell of eager froth heads for the exit. With a quick slant of a tulip glass at the ready, a carefull pour unloads a massive three-inch head of eggshell. Wowza. A sight to behold in a Duvel glass. The rocky, whipped seafoam took a full five minutes to begin to fall. A cone of dense froth stood tall as the sides relinquished their grip. A rare display of extreme lacework. Ripped sheets and foam-ropes. Aromatics lead off with a blast of peach skins, orange zest, citrus-laden bubblegum, and cracked coriander. Extremely fresh and lively, and it reminds me of the first whiff of LaChouffe that blew me away, long ago. Creamy and light mouthfeel. Quite soft and somewhat pillowy. The carbonation delivers plenty of liveliness. Orange marmalade, fresh peaches, Indian coriander, and grassy overtones start the pallet. Hints of blossom honey, white pepper, candied cloves, and zesty hops follow through. Bitterness is firm and balancing, with residuals quite tame for a Belgian. Alcohol is warming only as it finishes, along with lingering citrus zests, and tropical essence. This beer blows away Kwak. Well crafted and pretty dry for the style. Hard to find any faults in this one, but I suppose some time in a Brett-laden Chardonnay barrel (or Gerwertz), would put it over the top. Big thanks to my buddy Mike for hooking me up..Proper.

[Bottle] shared by skyview. Gushing bottle pours a hazy caramel with a huge rocky beige head. Aroma is caramel, candi sugar, belgian yeast, and the alcohol is well hidden. Flavor is chalky caramel, a touch of alcohol, belgian yeast, and apples. Dryish and somewhat tart.

This is an excellent beer. Belgian yeast in the aroma with malt and spices, citrus, coriander, flowers. Sweet flavor with some salt. Orange, and lots of yeast that gives a flavor like a beer from Abbaye des Rocs.

The cork is way to far in and requires a cork screw, but this beer is incredibly well carbonated as it forcefully ejects the cork and cork screw mid pull. Luckily I had my 25cl tulip nearby and I didn’t lose any beer despite some foaming up. The head is quite voluminous and has to be scraped off twice to prevent over-flowing. I end up with a five-finger thick, pale, almost perfectly white colored head. The beer is an orangish, pale amber color that shows a hazy, but brighter color when held up to the light. The aroma is a nice mix of malt, hops and fermentation character. Spicy with notes of pepper, ginger, almost a touch of cinnamon, an earthy-almost coriander note and a wood note that are balanced by fruity notes similar to apple, pear and a light orange-blossom aromatic. The aroma is also grassy, with a nice, clean, pale malt toastiness . The hops, while slight, accentuate the grassy note and provide a touch of herbal character and something that is a bit like fresh cut, aromatic weeds. This has quite an interesting nose, it is quite easy to spend some time just smelling this without even needing to take a sip.

On the other hand, I really need a beer so sip I must. The flavor is sweet and spicy up front with a substantial citrus / orange-blossom note that is followed by spicy higher alcohols and phenolics. The finish has a mix of clove, warming higher alcohols, a piquant pepper-like note and just a touch of an herbal hop bitterness. There is quite a bit going on in this beer, in addition to the previously mentioned notes I get flavors of clove (lots of this), sweet-ripe aromatic pear, pickled ginger, a light note of sweet-tart perfectly ripe plums, a touch of damp earthiness in the finish.

An over-confident second pour leaves with more foam than I can suck down and a puddle of foam on my desk. The beer gets a bit more fruit focused as it warms up and subsequent pours have a really pepper, quite zippy carbonation as well as quite the carbonic bite. The texture of this beer is just about spot on; the prickly carbonation ensures a tongue scrubbing airiness with every sip and the body has just a touch of viscousness without keeping this from being quite quaffable. While this never actually gets hot, it doesn’t really hide its alcohol all that well; mostly the higher alcohols give this away, but they do add some interesting notes so it is certainly not all bad.

This beer is quite complex all around, it is perhaps a touch sweeter than I usually prefer, but I think in this case, this beer needs the sweetness to balance the piquant fermentation character; ample higher alcohols and phenols which could easily be too much, but here are tempered by the malt sweetness. The head of this beer is just about perfect, everyone of my four pours is fluffy, textured and long lasting, and the hazy orange-amber color is quite nice as well. A beer that is very enjoyable, perhaps even more so than I would expect.

Poured from a 750 ml bottle, yeast blended. Cloudy, sandy apricot orange appearance. Floral lemongrass and baked apple aroma; tart, and fragrant. Soft, cookie-like malt presence. Herbal tranquility presides in the flavor, cool and calm, of leafy mint, jasmine, cinnamon stalk and a whiff of vanilla alcohol. Medium-full palate is initially sharp with carbonation but easily softened; lots of creamy almond sweetness in the middle, and a warm finish of dough and caramelized pears. Classy. Thanks Bob!

750ml corked bottle. Attractive, thick amber color with a huge, foamy head. Up front crispness leads to a sweet, yeasty finish. I find it to be a little different than the draft version, assumably due to refermentation in the bottle. Not a bad thing, actually Improves the beer and makes it quite "Belgian" in mouthfeel. Very fruity and full of candi sugar and yeast richness. Excellent beer from a Baltimore institution, sort of a dry Belgian Amber.

Aroma is sweet, belgian yeast, funky with some light fruits, and a light anise. Flavor is toasty malt, bread, light belgian funk, anise, slight spice, slightly grainy the finish. Medium body with a smooth palate. Nice complexity and very drinkable.