Dieu du Ciel Corne du Diable

Brewed by Dieu du Ciel
Style: India Pale Ale (IPA)
Montreal, Canada

Thanks Dave. The beer pours to a deep amber body with a really creamy off-white bubbly head. The aroma is extremely hoppy with strong grasses and weeds with herbs and a strong cereal grain. The flavor has a bitter grassy hop and earthy Chinook or something like that. Dark amber malts. Bitter grassy palate. It’s dense and moderately bodied.

Bottle. Good pine and floral aromas. Amber body with off white head. Decent citrus flavor and caramel in the background. Good brew.

TAP: Fresh hop nose, dark gold color, lathery head. Creamy caramelly malt front that bursts into a powerful hop bitter across the entire mouth. Great British IPA with a New World touch to it. Excellent.

Cask at Volo Cask Day 2006. Slightly hazy reddish-orange colour. Aroma - wow! Fresh, sweet, citric hops with a good malt backing. Flavour is big and hoppy with sweet caramel malt to balance. Really nice.

Deep hazy, chunky copper/brown coloured body with a thinnish tan head - wierd for an IPA! Aroma of metal, fresh hops, caramel, nuts and a bit of pine. Medium-bodied; Strong assertive hops up front with no backbone, just showing a pale grassy and pine hop flavour. Aftertaste shows some caramel, a bit of metal and a bitter malt flavour. Overall, a strong, sharp and potent IPA - not showing enough hops, rather more malt and a bit of sweetness. Decent to try, but I prefer more of an American-style IPA. I sampled this 330 mL bottle purchased from Ramsey Liquors in Ramsey, New Jersey on 19-January-2009, sampled at home in Washington on 29-January-2009.

12 oz bottle, via puzzl. Pours a deep copper body with a slight yeast haze under a sturdy tight bubbled beige head that had excellent retention. Nice crisp citrusy and slightly piney hoppiness over a toasted caramel malt body. Very well balanced in the aroma, a nice light nuance of yeast. Big bitterness up front dominates and grabs your attention quickly, but it fades nicely as you reach the finish, showing off it’s big malt backbone with just a subtle lingering bitterness. This is really a showcase for the dry hopping technique, so bright and hoppy, but not harsh in the slightest. Mouthfeel is medium to full bodied for the style with a great creamy texture and perfect soft bottle conditioned carbonation. Wow, this was just a fantastic beer!

12oz bottle. Pours a clear, orange-amber color; textured light-tan head with great retention and foamy lacing; great pour. Solid amounts of candy sugar, earthy and citrus hops, and pecans in the aroma; some tea; interesting stuff. Medium-to-full mouthfeel: creamy, lightly carbonated feel; resiny citrus and orange; zesty, tasty IPA. Medium finish: oranges, toastiness, and some husks.

November 2007 Bottle Date; Sampled April 2008
Pours with a frothy, initially fat-two-finger thick, light tan colored head. The beer is deep amber color, but shows lightly hazy, orange-tinged, light red color when held up to the light. The aroma is a mix of dominant hop aromatics and supporting, but noticeable malt notes. Aromatic notes of grapefruit, pine, then lychee, apricot and candied citrus peel are supported by caramelized malt sugars and drier soda cracker & biscuit-like aromas. The hops provide some spice character too which seems to accent the fruit / citrus components of the aroma. The smell of this beer makes it seem like a rich, full bodied example of the style (the color might influence my expectations that direction too).

Lightly sweet tasting, but only so that it accents the dominant hop character. This is not aggressively hopped by extreme standards, but still is way hop balanced. Caramelized malt flavors play a big role here, and the beer is definitely on the chewy side though it is so thick as to keep this from being reasonably drinkable. The front of each sip is dominated by astringent, herbal, pine & menthol flavors that are sharp and biting. Just underneath these notes is a solid citrus oil component that is reminiscent of the zest from grapefruit, tangelo and some lychee flavors. This beer has a fair amount of bitterness to it & the astringent notes just add to this, having said that the chewy malt does a good job of not letting this combination get overwhelming. As it warms up the malt becomes a bit stickier and is definitely outside my personal preference for an IPA.

An interesting tasty beer, but somehow it just doesn’t do it for me. Between the sticky, slightly too heavy malt notes and the aggressive, astringent hop character this just seems a bit chaotic and unbalanced. Might be scored a bit low for me, but for some reason I expect more from this brewery.