Dupont La Bière de Beloeil

Brewed by Brasserie Dupont
Style: Bière de Garde
Tourpes-Leuze, Belgium

Bottle, 75 cl ’2006’ on the cork. Dark amber with creamy white head. Aroma typical orangey and yeasty of Dupont with sweetish notes of grain biscuits and spices pepper ?. Medium body. Taste is hoppy, spicy bitterness in the aftertaste. A "special, but, good beer" Re taste @ 15.09.09.

Hazy copper beer with a huge lasing creamy white head. Aroma is sweet,spicy and full of orchard fruits with a slight liqourice-citrussy taste...very nice beer.

Bottled. A hazy orange/ginger coloured beer with a big thick creamy looking white head. The aroma is funky, with nice bitter orange fruits and peppery hops. Quite restrained yeast notes, and a fizzy welcome. The taste is juicy and fruity. More oranges but this time they are quite sweet. A good whack of yeasty Belgian alcohol and a long satisfying finish. A lovely beer.

Corky, musty nose hides a hugely malty nose. For Dupont, that’s a lot of sweetness, thick grainy malts along with dried pear, banana, peach and apricot nuances. Underneath it all, a fair dose of oxidation hides mushroomy, old honey and damp earth suggestions. Unexpressive hops can do nothing to save the cause. The carbonation also feels like it might have been heftier at one point, now being very smooth for Dupont. Good potential, but I’d make sure to have something very very fresh the next time.

<b>In short: </b>A splendid farmhouse Biere de Garde with a Saison character. Kick-ass.
<b>How: </b>Bottle 750ml, consumed relatively fresh (almost 2 years before best-before date)
<b>The look: </b>Cloudy dirty golden body topped by a medium off-white head.
<b>In long: </b>Nose is really farmhouse, somewhere between a french Biere de Garde and a Dupont Saison (Moinette Biologique). Body could hardly be more satisfying, a ton of cereals, a whole lot of yeast, very chewy and fluffy. The Dupont signature yeast is all over the place and the beer is as much a Saison as it is a Biere de Garde if not more. A lot of cobweb. A lot of floral hops that feels like a garden flowers petals mash. More cobweb. The juicy garden flower petals is followed by a nice dryness in the finish. No alcohol presence at all. Dupont, a name that inspire all the respect and admiration that a name like Bush does not.

Any first impressions?
-A veil of foam sits atop the cloudy orange-amber.
-Cork has seeped into the nose, and takes a while before its evaporates completely.
-Peach and apricot jam lead to honey sweetness, trickling onto dry earth.
-The fluffy, soft effervescence is fitting but the flavor profile is somewhat overwhelmed.

What if you dig deeper?
-Once the cork emanations have mostly disappeared, vague fruity yeast esters show, as does nascent oxidation.
-A dry finish heralds earthiness, and tired grassy hoppiness.
-There is a touch of wilderness within.
-Obviously, our bottle hasn’t evolved too well, and the cork might have been the main culprit here. A shame really, since the beer underneath must have been really interesting without these problems.

Bottle; best before 09/2007.

Tasted 28/08/2006. 750ml bottle from Rumble’s, Wellington. Bright, copper, tending amber, with an off-white head that balloons then thins and laces. Huge caramel nose, lovely and rich, with background notes of pepper and wood. Some clove-like phenols come through as it warms. Off-dry in the mouth with pepper, cloves and a slightly vinous middle. Fruit and sweet malt linger. Medium bodied, and relatively soft carbonation for a Belgian strong. Excellent.

Bottle. Greyish brown beer with a strong white head. The aroma is lightly spiced and mulled and the flavour uses strength as its base with an added vinous lightly dry white wine quality. Overall a very average beer.