Dieu du Ciel Péché Mortel

Bottle. Pours jet black with thing brown head. Like motor oil. Aroma is like sticking your head in a bag of coffee beans, but with some sweetness. Surprising light on the palate, though a bit oily, considering the thickness of the pour. Flavor is mostly coffee on the tongue, but then then the after taste builds with banana and vanilla. No alcohol presence. This beer comes off as one note on the palate, but it is so much more. Truly a great beer.

Bottle. Pours black with a thin tan head. Amazing smells of toasted coconut, banana, coffee, vanilla, oatmeal, and bitter chocolate. Tastes mostly like that with some alcohol warmth and a nice bitter coffee finish. Syrupy and delicious

Aroma - Wow, smells like fresh coffee grinds, roasted malt, and hint of vanilla. Appearance - black as midnight with a thin tan head which has good retention. Flavor - light sweetness, lightly bitter like dark chocolate, and most of all it taste like black coffee w/ 1/2 of a sugar and a vanilla finish. Palate - medium body, creamy, flat, very long finish. Overall - If you like black coffee, you’ll love this beer. It’s awesome, expensive... but awesome.

Draft. Pitch black with a thin mocha head with good retention and great lacing. Aroma is coffee, roasted malt, sugar, chocolate and a touch of vanilla. Flavor is very similar to the aroma with a full body and oily mouthfeel. Very good coffee imperial stout.

12oz bottle poured into a small glass. True to style, this stuff looks just like motor oil, except for the dark tan bubbles on top. Black, opaque, sticky. Imagine the strongest and most complex French roast from your favorite coffee shop. Next, imagine a massive beast of a stout, bursting with roasted malt flavors and balanced by subtle yet powerful hops. Now, bring those two mental images into a unified experience, and you’ll be imagining the Peche Mortel. I’m not talking about some half-and-half blend of coffee and stout -- what I’m talking about is a true union of the best of those two beverages, a union on the molecular level. For those who love both coffee and beer, this is paradise.

THOUGHTS: I had been this sitting around for over a month when I finally tired it. I mad a large beer run and wanted to save what I thought would be the best for last. It was worth the wait. Incredible beer. It hid the alcohol well. A great Imperial stout that had a little coffee instead of just a strong coffee stout. I was amazed by the quality from a twist-off-cap bottle. TECHNICAL: Bottle. Poured an opaque, very dark brown that was black in the glass with an average, tan head that kept a thin sheep and left excellent lacing. The aroma was moderate to heavy, roasted, milk chocolate and mild coffee, light yeast, dark fruit, very slight banana, and then slight alcohol for the ABV. The initial flavor was very sweet and lightly bitter; while the finish was extremely sweet, then bitter and sour with and average to long duration. There was chocolate, dark fruit, coffee, roasted and burnt malt, and sour, bitter coffee. The full body was fairly oily then dry with fizzy carbonation and a light alcoholic finish.

On tap at Deep Ellum. Black body with dark brown chalky hues at the edges. A dark tan head that is both creamy and loose seals in all that coffee goodness. Nose is roasty and full of espresso notes. Flavors of dry dark chocolate, rich oily espresso, some hazelnut and lots of chewy thick malts. The bitter coffee flavors are really strong and welcoming and the sugars seem to dry up at the end of each sip. The only knock I have is that the pallate falls a little short. It gives up and doesn’t have that sharp espresso bite that challenges my tongue. Would I like this beer more aggressive? I guess that is what I am saying. But, damn, this is a very nice brew.

Bottled. Dark color, short head. Aroma of burned wood, sherry, coffee. Licorice, woody. Some tartness of the burned wood in flavor as well. Pretty good.