Dieu du Ciel Péché Mortel

Brewed by Dieu du Ciel
Style: Imperial Stout
Montreal, Canada

Bottle 11/04... Explosive, poured opaque black color with a medium sized tan head that left nice lacing on the glass. Great aroma of coffee, chocolate, brown sugar, vanilla, bourbon, and anise. More of the same in the taste, lots of coffee and light alcohol. High quality beer, I actually am excited to try this on nitro, because as others have said, the extra carbonation is the only drawback.
Nitro Draft 7/05... Creamy mouthfeel with a great balance of chocolate and roasted coffee malts. Faint alcohol in the background. Now I see what the big deal is.

Black color with a thick tan head of foam. Holy coffee! Both aroma and taste is strong on a French roast coffee. The malt and hops really fade to the background and the alcohol does not make itself known at all. I really had a hard time seeing this as beer, but since I love coffee, I thought it was a fine beverage.

Bottle. Black colour with a tan head. Aroma is coffee, roasted, hop. Flavour is coffee, roasted, smoked, alcohol, hop, cacao. Full bodied beer. world class beer.

22 oz bottle at the Moan and Dove release party. September 04 vintage. Served lightly chilled in a Trappist chalice.
I actually held this for about 10 minutes, just taking in the aroma. Very deep and powerful coffee nose. Black roast coffee, espresso, charred/burnt coffee notes, a strong nutty/beaniness, as if you can actually smell the very coffee beans with which it is made. Some light hints of dark, bitter, dry, baker’s chocolate. The beer looks magnificent, with sediment at the bottom of the bottle. Deep, coal black body, with a dark burnt-tan head, that slowly recedes to nothing.
Upon first drink, I can’t deny to being a bit taken aback. I’m used to being slapped in the face by hops (young Expedition comes to mind), or even slapped in the face by alcohol (WWS, enough said), but never have I been assaulted by an all out coffee dominance. Adding to the coffee, is a very dry, dry roasted malt backbone. As it warms and breathes (and believe me, I took my time drinking it), there is some relief from the coffee, and hints of lightly bittersweet malt are noted towards the finish. A definite lactic feel in there. But as much as I strain to get the sweet malt flavors, there is a large amount of astringency that seems to persist on the palate. Little to no hops apparency, no alcohol apparency. Medium to medium-full body, with too much thinning on the end. In the end, I have to agree with what Casey says, this tastes more like a strong coffee drink, than a beer. For what it is, I really enjoy the coffee flavor, but I can’t seem to get past the uninspiring body. Perhaps that’s just my preference, but I like a nice thick, chewy body on my Imperial stouts, with a good amount of malt sweetness 8/5/7/3/15
September 03 bottle consumed 3/5/05 and another on 3/6/05 The age did not seem to dull the coffee, I can’t deny to still being put-off by the massive espresso and dry bean-like flavors. Extremely dry to start. I let it warm up to the temperature of the bar and swirled out all of the carbonation. This actually helped. I’m finally getting some sweet-lactic notes and a bit of sweet vanilla on the finish. The body on this seems to be a bit thicker and chewier than 1st export batch. This has aged gracefully. MUST GET THIS ON DRAUGHT! 8/5/7/3/16

Draught be damned!! I’ll take it straight out of the conditioning tank! 4/16/05 with MartinT and Beerbuzzmontreal, a very sublime day, all told. Very gracious thanks to J.F. for the sample (which I think he gave me just to shut me up). Same fantastic appearance, chalky-grey-tan head atop a beautiful black body. The aroma has relaxed on the coffee! It may still be the dominant flavor, but not by much. Now it allows for sweet lactic notes, rich and creamy, rich vanilla beans and light chocolate. Flavor just knocks me back, though. A lightly sweet/sour lactic flavor, with chocolate, vanilla and roast. The coffee is there, but provides support, not the main show. The huge drying astringency is gone. Chocolate, prunes, figs, milkshakes, fudge. . . wow. Rating is for this version.

(66 cl bottle, thanks Marsiblursi!) Labeled 9% ABV. Dark brown to black color, tan head. Grainy, coffee, chocolate, alcohol and vanilla ice-cream scent. Grainy, acidic, alcohol, but mostly roasted coffee beans taste. Long coffee aftertaste with warming alcohol. Smooth soft still big oily mouthfeel. Medium high bitterness.

Tap RBSG 05. Pours a deep brown/light black with a long lasting deep beige head. Aroma is pure dark coffee, and roasted malts with hints of chocolate and some wood hints. Almost had a bit of a burnt smell as it warmed up a bit. Unlike a lot of microbrewed coffee stouts here in the US. Selinsgrove, and Ottos in PA both brew a coffee stout that has a much cleaner taste. This is a bit more complex with a bit of oak, hops, smoke, and the traditional roasted and dark malts. Almost had a licorice like /anise taste as well. I also noted that the smell was similar to a frappachino due to all the coffee. Very smooth and creamy finish.

(Draught) Finally found it on tap this early November - Finally! This is the first time of five tries; and was it worth it? Yes... and No. For me, the Péché Mortel isn't as good as the Aphrodisiaque. Its as complex and rich but I definitely prefer the chocolate cake flavour to Péché's carbon taste. Pours a brown head and opaque body. Cascading rise of bubbles is quite mesmerizing... Charcoal nose with hints of unsweetened German chocolate. Rich, full flavour of dark chocolate in a vat of recycled motoroil. Smokey. Bitter. Thick. Delicious!

355ml bottle (Pikkulintu, Helsinki)
Jet black, large tan head, settles to a small ring. Coffee and sweet spicy peppers aroma. Taste matches the aroma - coffee and even more spicy peppers. Slightly fizzy on the tongue, otherwise quite sticky in the mouth. Swirling it softens it nicely. Covers the alcohol perfectly. Great sipper, but so tasty you want to glug it. The spicy sweet peppers wow me all the way to the bottom. And the coffee’s not caricatured, all very well balanced.