Dieu du Ciel Péché Mortel

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

Fresh :
Tremendously rich coffee cake, as thick as tar...Overwhelmingly sensuous icing that lasts forever...The fattest milk chocolate... Absolute equilibrium of roasted malt bitterness, coffee beans and dessert sweetness...I want this to be my birthday cake...

2-year-old from bottle purchased to drink on the premises :
A bit less creamy and decadent than the tap version, but the body is all that is affected...The generous coffee beans still love their well-endowed milky chocolate and their monogamous communion just never ends...Truly in a league of its own...

First batch bottled for Shelton Brothers, exported to the US:
Where is my Péché Mortel? I have had every batch of this, and on numerous occasions, yet I don’t recognize my Péché Mortel. Near violent roastiness blends malt and coffee beans well. Bitterness is of mythic proportions and carbonation is much livelier than any other batch I’ve had. But where is my Péché Mortel? Where is the tiramisu cake icing? Where is the sweet crème brûlée? Where is the truffle mousse? Don’t get me wrong, this isn’t bad by any means, but this is NOT the beer that deserved a place in this site’s Top 50.

Cask:
This is as smooth as the nitroed version, but perhaps silkier. Extremely easy drinking, dangerously so. This "in the nude" version is as delicious and effortless as the regular version, and showcases the beer’s true virtues for those who thought nitro was masking most of its character. Back roastiness may linger longer, or appear to. This is a marvelous creation, any way you look at it.

Newly bottled batch (oct.2007):
the nose is full of roasted coffee beans. Mouthfeel is rich but not obese, rendering drinkability to this nourishing imperial stout. Malt roastiness and coffee are seamlessly integrated, creating a chocolate espresso paradise. The finish is quite bitter, but not overwhelming; just a pleasant continuation of the elaborate and near decadent flavor profile. A Dieu du Ciel masterpiece!

Bottle. It looks just delicious in the glass, with a jet black body and a small, dense brown head on top. Wonderful aroma with roasted malts, coffee doing a lot of the job, and some alcohol to give a little punch in the nose. Lovely coffee-like flavor with sweetness to prevent it from going all dry, burnt malts, and bitterness from hops and also a coffee-like malty bitterness. Smooth as hell, quite dry, full-bodied and a bit warming. Lasting finish with hoppy and coffee-like bitterness and some alcohol. Just f’ing lovely. I’m soo sad I didn’t buy more of it. (081127)

Botted: Pitch black coloured. Huge brown chocolatish head. Loads of sweetness, coffee, roast and coffee, coffee, coffee. Flavour is light hoppy and has these roasty coffee notes as well. Full bodied. Has some malty notes. This is very heavy stuff. And I love it. Almost like licking coffee grounds from the filter bag. Is quite bitter and very roasty in the end.

Imperial stout? The first thing to dominate this beer is coffee, coffee and more coffee. How about adding something other than roasted coffee and malts to an Imperial Stout for a change?

Tap at the brewery. Black pour with a thick creamy tan head. Aroma is loaded with rich coffeeish character. Dark, well-extracted expresso, crema and a real espresso roastiness. Light cocoa and coffee. Very rich deep cocoaish malts. The body is thick and unctuous with an excellent balance of sweet chcocolate and coffee. It’s not vegetal at all in this incarnation. Strong roasty finish with a kiss of vanilla and a lingering dry roastiness on the back. Much, much, better than the bottled version. Bottle Deep brown beer thick brown head. Massive coffeeish aroma leading caramel/toffee sweet malts. Creamy texture, loads of coffee, roast, over a chocolate maltiness. The flavour seems a little bit vegetal and the beer is a little bit peppery as well, but as it warms it comes a bit more into balance. Really massive brew.

Nitro/CO2 mixture on draft
Consumed at at Dieu du Ciel in July 2004
This is US batch #2, released in September 2005, but on tap for RateBeer in July 2005.
Poured with a huge fluffy head of light tan color, ice-cream texture and standing very tall. At first after the pour it’s a cascading gradient from the deep brown body of the beer to the light tan head at the top, but then it settles into a solid cake-like layer about 1/3 tall relative to the glass. The nose is intense sweet chocolate and espresso beans, creamy dark roast coffee abounding and just satisfying the senses perfectly. Unbelievable texture - frothy, thick, and extremely smooth, to the point that I can’t believe what I’m drinking. At times it reminds me exactly of warmed, melted ice cream with chocolate syrup. An amazingly complex bourbon and dark chocolate coating in the finish just sends this beer over the top. There is nothing about this beer that I could improve or want differently. It’s a different beast than others that I score very highly, such as Alesmith Speedway or Rogue Imperial Stout, but it’s no less perfect. Praise to the DDC brewer, this is one of the best stouts in the world.

This is a very good beer. I’m not sure how its reputation got so overly-hyped, but it’s not the great brew that I was led to believe. It does have a very handsome pour, dark, thick black with a creamy brown head. The aroma is mainly coffee backed up by a roasted barley smell and traces of anise. The flavor of coffee overwhelms the contributions made by tastes of roasted malt and barley, licorice, some chocolate, and a hint of alcohol. The finish is a long dry one, filled with coffee. As I wrote, this is a good ale, but it’s a bit too one dimensional to be "great."

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’04 Bottle. Near black color with a taller dark tan Head Nice rings of lace. Initial aromas of raw coffee and green beans are quite volatile and quickly driven off (thank god) and are replaced roasted barley and burnt coffee. There are some hints of less charred malt, but only faint and well past the charcoal. Flavors show promise. Charred marshmallow come to mind at first, followed by dark chocolate covered espresso beans. Acidic finish, very much a strong cup of joe. As much as I enjoy a good cup of coffee, I am not the fanatic. I leave the espresso to others. The linger is very soothing though, with a mild coffee and caramel mix that invites one to try some more... a hint of its predecessors?