Dieu du Ciel Solstice dÉté aux Framboises

Brewed by Dieu du Ciel
Style: Berliner Weisse
Montreal, Canada

At the brewery. Appearance: PInk, with no head, like a white zinfandel. Aroma: Raspberries, gooseberries, sour and with a little strawberry too. Super. Flavour: Superb, salty, sour, raspberry with a good amount of hops and a lovely sour finish.

[2517-20091003] Rose sour raspberry flower leaf aroma has very fresh mild mango pineapple. Hazy, light pink body with a quick foamy white head. Sour raspberry seeds flavour continues with leafy fruity yeast. Medium body is quite sour. Lovely, lovely beer, very drinkable.

Heyyyyyy - look at this old rating I found! WEIRD colour, bright peachy-orange (blond? I don’t think so ...), lasting white head. Bizarre aroma - dry, woody, dusty, reminded me of scorched teak, with a hint of fruit seed, with plenty of dry lemon tartness. The taste - very, very nice - lemony raspberry, tons of yeast, extremely sweet, but the tartness was extreme enough to confuse your tongue into missing that - sour fruity goodness. Thick, acidic, extremely lively mouthfeel, with a lingering tingling acidic fruitiness in its wake. I wanted more immediately.

On tap @ DDC. Pours pink with a small head that has a short retention. Very gorgeous look. Aroma is plain fresh raspberries and tartness. Taste is like aroma. Finish is really tart but also raspberries. It is kind of sweet but not much. Quite dry and refreshing. Very interesting.

The first time I had this was from the tank before release, and it was a fun little beer with lots of tartness and bursting with raspberries. This latest sample, several years later, showed me again a bright red beer with a big, fresh, raspberry nose. The tartness in this second example was somewhat timid, more so than that first taste, and there is limited complexity. Really, I just want my berliner weisse straight up.

Looks like a ruby. Lovely raspberry juice color. Mellow nose lacks lacto sourness and is smooth and mellow. Thin, low carbonation. Not really tart and tastes like it might be past prime. Genuine raspberry flavors, slight tartness and decent amount of complexity but lacking umph.

Okay, so I felt a little less masculine drinking a glass of this purple elixir, but it was worth it - this one danced the line between refreshing tartness and lambic-like fruit skin sourness perfectly - a mild briny character slightly pushes things into lambic territory as well - however, it remains crisp, tart, and acidic, reminding you of the style it’s supposed to be - the raspberry was very forward, but never stole the spotlight from that full tartness and tongue-tingling acidity - sour without being palate-destroying (I could drink a whole growler of this), which is quite an accomplishment.

On tap a t the brewery. Flashy pink color, thin white head. This beer is really acidic, but also manage to give sufficient space to the delicious raspberry flavor. You can definitly taste the DDC! malt. Overall a sucess.