Les Trois Mousquetaires S.S. Rauchbier

Brewed by Les Trois Mousquetaires
Style: Smoked
Brossard, Canada

(BCTC, 750ml bottle) Dark red-brown body with medium beige head. Aroma is moderately sweet, milk chocolate, caramel, some smoke. Taste is moderately sweet, bittersweet and milk chocolate, some smoke. Light-medium body, light stickiness.

(750ml bottle, courtesy of blutt59) Pours a cloudy brown body with a moderate creamy beige head. Aroma of smoke, grilled meat, and roasted malt. Flavor of smoke, roasted malt, some chocolate, and hops (herbal).

Bottle… Dark brown, almost black beer with a mid-sized, wispy, tan head. Great retention. Chocolate, campfire smoke and smoked meat are the true olfactory standouts. Full-bodied and very creamy with tingly carbonation. The flavor is all about caramel, chocolate and smoky goodness – malty sweetness; adequate bitterness. Finishes smoky and a touch bitter. Nice smoked porter.

Pours a transparent dark copper mahogany with a frothy light tan head. Aroma of lightly sweet toasty dark caramel and smoked malts with some bready yeast. Starts with good fullness and a light toffee sweetness with good light smoke flavor and a hint of dark fruits before a drier smooth bittersweet finish. A pretty good smoke beer.

My Bottom Line:
This idiosyncratic Rauchbier thrills with its chocolatey, smokey lengths which carry along beechwood dryness, fruity angles and whispering greenery. Neither a Rauchbock, nor a Rauchschwarzbier, and not your typical smoked lager either, this is purity, personality and drinkability rolled into one.

Further Personal Perceptions:
-Bobbing foam settles on top of the brownish blackness.
-Bready sustenance almost becomes caramelly underneath the rauchmalt.
-A green, herbal touch plays around, but it is hard to tell if it is from hops or Frontenac malt -if there is any in here.
-The big bubbles are quite peaceful and the body very healthy, making for a very agreeable mouthfeel.
-The colour would make you expect more roast character, but there is barely any.
-There is a lot of flavor in here, yet the entire experience is never intense.
-A few more 750s of this and I might very well consider this world-class. Looking forward to "testing" it again and again...

Bottle.

750ml courtesy of savvy1982. Pours dark brown with a nice, tan head. Smells of smoke, caramel, roasted malt, touches of chocolate. Tastes of smoke, pepper, spice, chocolate, caramel. Nice.

Bottle. Dry chocolate ashtray malt and stale coffee grounds in the nose. Smoked malt shows up more as it warms but doesn’t redeem the awful malt in this beer. Burnt and smoked nut shells and a mild plastic note join the old coffee grounds and ashtray. It turns slightly sweet (bacon/maple) in the finish but is killed by a watery and thin body.

Bottle. Head is initially average sized, frothy, brown, mostly diminishing. Body is dark brown. Aroma is moderately malty (roasted grain, dark chocolate, husks), with light notes of smoke and charred wood. Flavor is moderately to heavily sweet, lightly to moderately acidic, lightly to moderately bitter. Finish is lightly to moderately sweet, lightly to moderately acidic, moderately to heavily bitter, slightly unclean. Medium to full body, velvety/syrupy texture, lively/soft carbonation, moderately alcoholic. Rather dull, with some rough edges (poor malt character, unpleasant twang and aftertaste).