Dieu du Ciel Péché Mortel

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

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.

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.

Thanks to matta and BuckNaked for sending a bottle. Starless midnight pour with a surprising bubbly brown head. Dense microbubbles surrounding medium foamy bubbles. Leaves a nice lace sticking to the glass. Aroma is steeped in coffee, rich dark chocolate, roasted malt, burnt double chocolate chip cookies, light burnt oatmeal, and hints of brown sugar. Taste is RICH! Strong coffee, dark chocolate, burnt oatmeal, roasted malt, more burnt cookie notes, some chocolate milk notes and fresh cream. Leans heavily on the coffee. Body has mild lactose acidity and lingering bitterness but is full and moderately carbonated. Finishes with more coffee and chocolate compounding the roasted malt and chocolate chip cookies. VERY similar to Founders Breakfast Stout. As a matter of fact, I’d have a hard time differentiating between the two in a blind taste test. Both are great and very drinkable, however, it’s a shame both are so limited.

I’d been waiting for a good reason to share this beer with someone, and now that beerguy101 was in town, now was the time. This particular bottle was dated as being bottled in November 2004 for those interested. It pours an eclipse black color with a thick, viscous tanned head and very good amounts of lacing. The aroma was heavily in favor of coffee, alcohol, wood, nuts, nutmeg, roasted barley and perhaps some hints of orange. The flavor is absolutely full-bodied and tongue coating in its coffee-flavor. Also prevalent were minor notes of alcohol in the finish. Unbelievably smooth but decidedly boring in its one-sidedness. Finish is dry and coffeeish, but not overwhelmingly dry as would have been expected from a coffee imperial stout. Heavy roasted malts, some hints of marshmellow, vanilla, mocha, nuts, cherries and twigs, but in the end, coffee was predominant throughout. A very good beer I would enjoy having more of, but remarkably one-sided. I do love coffee, but even this could be called overkill.

RE-RATE: Draught (12 oz.) at Dieu du Ciel! After drinking this at the brewpub itself, I had to bump up my rating of this. Most of what I wrote below still stands, but the draught version had a fuller, richer body that made it even better. Just spectacular.

ORIGINAL RATING: Bottle shared with blankboy, HogTownHarry, jerc and tupalev - courtesy of blankboy. Aug/05 bottle. Deep brown-black colour with a moderate tan head. Aroma of fresh roasted coffee, dark malt, bourbon and fresh herbs - fantastic! Mouthfeel is thinner than I expect from an impy, so that was a bit of a disappointment. Flavour is dry and delicious, with lots of coffee and cocoa, roasted malt, green hops, and a hint of sour milk. If the body were just a bit bigger, this would be damn near perfect. [9/4/9/3/17 - 4.2]

(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!

Finally completing the missing piece of the three best impy stouts on the site. I have to say that since I have had them all, there really isn’t a clear best in this category. They all differ quite a bit with this and BA Speedway being only somewhat similar, this may get a slight edge. Sampled at the brewery from the fermenter, this is nothing short of black gold, liquid love, truely Nectar of the Gods. It’s my understanding that the partners of the brewery are working on having their beers distributed in the USA. The truth of the matter is that this could be the best made beer I have ever had the pleasure of putting my lips on. Unlike DL, you could drink a few of these, as there is somewhat of a supply (unlike BA Speedway). Now my Imperial Stout life is complete. Re-rated after drinking bottled version. The bottle is way over carbonated and the flavors are more subdued than my previous experience.

Mega Thanks to my boss Tom for procuring the brew for me!

Rating # 725
I had not intended to yet rate this beer, I was going to await a re-sampling, but I cannot get this liquid delicacy out of my head. It was an absolutely heavenly chocolate and coffee blending to near perfection. I certainly was not anticipating the joy that I found at first quaff!
The pour was so charred black, vicious and stout… Ahhhhh!!!.. it produced the biggest fattest khaki head of the century. I had my buzz cranking before I ever took my first sip! Robust oily notes of espresso, milk chocolate, raisins, and someone at the table insisted upon the spicy suggestions of tobacco… how right they were! Once this beer hit room temperature it was at its pinnacle! This was a room temp stout / coffee dream! I actually didn’t want to enjoy this beer as much as I did… I just wanted some individuality, but what I found is that the ratings don’t lie! A bad-ass beer is a bad-ass beer no mater how you want to view it! This my friends is one hell of a BAD-ASS BEER!

A more descript ReRate will someday follow!