St. Sylvestre 3 Monts

Brewed by St. Sylvestre
Style: Bière de Garde
St. Sylvestre-Cappel, France

Bottle. Orangy golden color with white head. Poured with floating yeast. Aroma is alcohol with floral fruit. Dry finish. Very nice golden ale from a style I’m just starting to get into.

(7 Aug 04) Bright and golden sparkling body with a fizzy white head that forms an island when swirled but refuses to lace. The flavour is dominated by unripe grapes (these appear liberally in the flavour too) and also features light resiny hop notes, a doughy yeast, and a cookie-like, caramel malt. Body-wise it is oily, creamy, alcoholic and a little syrupy. The unripe grape flavours mask the sweetness but it is still slightly apparent, and there is a moderate bitterness that grows into the long finish.

Pours a brilliantly clear, bright gold color. It is well carbonated, which holds up a fluffy, thick, white head. This has a wonderful sharp, herbal, grassy aroma, with noes of lemon, hay, and vanilla. The taste is lightly tart with a lemon zing to it. It is just so light and refreshing. With all of the carbonation this beer dances across my tongue. The finish is sharp and herbal, with a peppery bite from both the carbonation and the yeast by-products. In fact, this beer is quite floral in some ways, quite dry as well. Contradictorilly, this has some the nice clean notes of a pilsner (crisp malt notes up front), which compliments the other flavors quite well. This is very akin to a dry white wine, perhaps a Savignon Blanc, though it is not as acidic. It does have the sharp, spicy, dry fruit that a S-Blanc has. This is quite good, and quite enjoyable.

750ml bottle. The appearance is a golden yellow with a quantity of fine effervescence, a nice creamy white head and smooth/sticky lacing. Quite an active initial encounter. The aroma is fruity, bubble gum with undertones of apples (somewhat tart). The flavor is slightly sweet with a tart middle and progresses to a more bitter finish. The MF is smooth (almost watery) with a dry finish. As the beer warms the body and mouthfeel deteriorate. IMHO: Normally, higher alcohol beers improve with a lowering temperature. This one however, begins to show all of its weaker characteristics. Not a flattering contrast of what are usually a good combination of flavors and textures. It is what some American breweries have done to pale ale?taken away all subtlety.

Hazy orange color, lovely, nice & bright, with a big, snowy white head. This beauty’s in it for the long run! Aroma: BOOM! Perfection, right from the start! Sorry, you skeptics, but when you smell it, you know it! Sugary-sweet, yet light, and fruity, and still utterly profound. Deep and dazzling. Taste: huge hoppiness dominates the palate, dances and drizzles the senses....mmmm! That’s all I’m reduced to, just...mmmm! Very tasty! Bold, spicy, flavorful, warm, and wonderful....yum.... And this point my grasp on objectivity in discernment loosened and my spirit was let slip and surrendered itself into the very glass, creating a time when man and beer are truly one.... It was that kind of beer...you kinda had to be there...

750 ml brown, big ’ole Belgian bottle. Weird gold plastic overwrap, and an even weirder looking big steel staple holding the cork in the bottle. This is the first beer I ever had to use a screwdriver to open. If there was a freshness date, I didn’t see it anywhere. Opened with a loud pop. Very effervescent, almost champagne like. Poured out a pale golden color, with a huge white head at first. It slowly slid back to a thick matting on top of the beer itself. Aromas are of a damp basement, week old boiled eggs, stinking refridgerator, fresh cut hay, malts, cheesy hops, and yeast. This is definitely an aquired taste, for these Flanders Ales. No aromas of alcohol, despite it being 8.5% ABV. Strange, huh? Slight Brett to it as well. Tastes are of Brett, damp earth, funky old farmhouse, wet hay, some toffee, strangely enough, tobacco, and a strange nuttiness to it as well. Walnuts or Brazil nuts come to mind. Slight caramel in the finish, along with a spicy hops bite, which in itself was rather surprizing. Medium mouthfeel, nothing special here. Very drinkable, once you get past the smell and the inital tastes. Paired well with my last chunk of Maytag Blue cheese.

Nice lively beer with warm golden color and good airy head. This beer has a full fruity aroma with hints of sweet apple and crumblecakes. It also has a rich and full taste with a round mouthfeeling ( Is it the alcohol?). The afthertaste is ending dry.

Darker golden beer; off-white head, dwindling. Sweet nose, as sweet pastry (patisserie), bit of lemon and faint spicey. Dry liqueurish taste, as a sweet, strong liquour, very alcoholic in character; alcoholic, spicey finish. White candi sugar. Very dry, well bodied, well attenuated. In the aftertaste, some nutty flavour detectable - maybe some madeirisation (no BBDate)? A good beer, sweet but the alcohol/liqueur taste is just a tad too sharp for me.