La Moneuse Speciale Noël

Brewed by Brasserie de Blaugies
Style: Belgian Strong Ale
Dour-Blaugies, Belgium

750 ml bottle labeled as "Special Winter Ale" with the Shelton Bros. Christmas tree and starry sky label, opened for Thanksgiving ’09.

Approximately two years of age (I don’t remember quite when I bought this), the cork explodes off and slams into the ceiling hard enough to make me think I probably dented it. Some sourness, decided funky character -- surely this is fermented with Brett -- not so sweet but instead like a dark rich spicy Orval (not as good as Orval, mind you). First sip is a bit of a surprise, but this one grows on me as a very different approach to a Belgian Christmas ale. Well worth a revisit.

Bottle. Pours a deep amber body with a tan huge head. Chewy fruits and etoh latent fruit with a plumy citrus and light toffee notes. Spicy yest and brown sugar with a drying tobacco esk finish. Nice Ale.

750, corked and baled. Pours a murky dark toffeeish amber with a loose white smear of film across the top. Almost tripel-like with some dust and green apple notes up top. Creamy lightish body that goes a bit watery in places. A little bit of light hay and grass on the mid-palate, blended with dust and green apples. Mild finish. Rather understated.

Bottle from the rake had at home. Aroma is yeasty with banana and pineapple esters, slighty dusty with some lightly oxidised pear notes. Taste is similar, quite carbonated and overly yeasty, pale malt is nutty and sweet thought the over carbonation is balancing slightly. Interesting beast.

Musty spicy aroma. Pours amber gold thick white head. Dry, funky, fantome-like flavors, spicy, corriander and grains of paradise with honey malts. Very good!

Cripes! This one is all head! At least six fingers of foamy ivory filled my glass, and then it slowly, gracefully drifted away into a marvelous web of fluffy lace. The aroma was fruity and spiced as it wafted upwards from the cloudy, almost orange body. The taste mirrored the aroma, but slightly sweeter. The mouthfeel was full and rich, and it finished smooth.

75cl dates end 2008. Cork out with a bang, but not a shooter. Surprising obvious sour edge which soon becomes almost addictively pleasant. I’m sitting here having finished the bottle and wishing I had another beer like it. This would be like the old Chouffe with extra balls. A typical Wallonian spiced ale with a quality yeast. I say typical, but with the old yardstick, La Chouffe now ruined and tasting like a pissy Flemish tripel, this is a rare and valuable example of a beer type that’s now so hard to find.

Pours cloudy amber with off white head. Caramel and bread dough aromas with some earthiness. Biscuit and earthy flavors with a tart, dry finish. Some peppery spices. Light to medium body with crisp carbonation. This was much more like a saison to me.