Dieu du Ciel Équinoxe du Printemps

Brewed by Dieu du Ciel
Style: Scotch Ale
Montreal, Canada

An initial caramel aroma with subtle hints of "hot" maple, wood, and vanilla. Just a thin head with slight lacing above the nut and earth brown liquid. Highly malty, of course, with flavors of banana, vanilla, caramel, and maple in the finish. Mouthfeel is a bit thinner than expected. Still smooth, but the alcohol is a little higher than would be optimal. This is the closest thing to ’bananas foster’ in a glass that I have come across. Maple is not overpowering, but consistently present. If you are a fan of the brewery, and a ’malt-man’, you should sample this solid brew at least once.

Pours an amber brown color with tan head. Aroma is burnt caramel, maple syrup, toast, and some earthy sweetness. Flavor is caramel, maple syrup, biscuit, and a syrupy alcoholic finish.

Bottle thanks to bu11zeye. Hazy red brown pour with beige head. Aroma was melon, sake, raisins, banans and caramel. Flavor had a strong alcohol bite, esters, bananas, caramel. Syrupy mouthfeel.

Pours milky mud puddle brown with a 1 finger, creamy beige head that fades pretty quickly. Aroma is caramel, overripe banana, lots of maple... more like fresh cut maple wood, or sap than syrup, dark fruit and just a hint of orange glazed cranberry muffin. Flavor is sweet, woody malts, sweet nutty toffee, rich caramel, praline, overripe banana covering fresh baked banana bread. Finish is caramel, brown sugar, maple and some light solvent notes. Palate is pretty heavily bodied with a creamy entry, creamy/oily middle and dry, yet slightly oily finish. Pretty good stuff, but it seems to trade off the rich caramel, sometimes woody, smokey and nutty flavors with maple sweetness, which is a neat experiment, but doesn’t really do the style justice.

Bottle. Pours cloudy copper/amber. Aroma is malt, sugar, maple, and fruit. Flavor is malt, maple, caramel, fruit, vanilla, and alcohol. Rather sweet, with a medium body. Sweet in a good way, though.

Bottle. Pours a clear amber color with a small off-white head. Has a sweetish woody malty caramel aroma with hints of maple. Sweetish malty caramel and sugary maple flavor with hints of dark fruit, Has a sweetish malty dark fruit finish with some hints of maple.

341 mL bottle. A lovely shade of ruby-brown with a medium beige head that fades, but never quite disappears. The aroma is sweet, almost candy-sweet, with some wood, berries, and caramel malt. A little alcohol at the end. The maple finally arrives in the flavour, where it is a subtle but pleasant influence on the caramel, brown sugar, marmalade and mint that share its space. Doesn’t have the burnt caramel of most scotch ales. Body is quite full. Low carbonation. A unique take on one of my favourite styles.

330 mL courtesy of Glouglouburp. Pours a cloudy red/brown with a small, tan, rocky head that fades fairly quickly. No lacing. Aroma is big bubblegum (?), lots of tannins, big malty presence, vanilla extract, alcohol, hints of maple. Taste is similar: big malt, some vanilla, not much maple. Lots of cloying.