St. Sylvestre Bière de Noël

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

Bottle 750 ml. Appearance: dark brown with a white head. Aroma: fruit, malt. Flavor: caramel, fruit, malt.

Brassin d’Hiver. Deep reddish brown ale with a thin off white head. In aroma, spicey butterscotch, very buttery, a bit too much. In mouth, sweet caramel with light lingering hops, notes of pears, and an oily mouthfeel. Medium bodied.

(750ml bottle) Purchased at Marché Jovi in Gatineau, Quebec, for $5.79 under the name of Brassin d’Hiver. This beer poured a medium, tan head with a brownish red body. The nose is slightly eggy and butterscotch atop the regular caramel malt and sweet fruit. The flavour of butter was most dominant - though rum, cherries and plums are perhaps hidden. Not terribly good by Biere de Garde standards...

Aroma:Light malt,dark fruit... Appearance:Dark redish brown,good head... Flavor:caramel,dark fruit,good malt flavor....

Pours a clear dark amber color with a thick white head. The aroma is sweet and fruity, the malt is very present. Good flavor of cherries and malt with a sweet caramel finish. The body has a light to medium body with an oily and chalkymouthfeel and moderate carbonation. It’s an interesting "winter" variation of a bière de garde, well crafted and enjoyable.

Bottle: Poured a dark brown color ale with a medium bubbly head with slightly better then average retention. Aroma of quiet sweet malt with not really much else going on. Taste is also dominated at first by sweet caramel malt but there is a definite watery feeling at the end that I didn’t enjoy. There is also an unrefined grain taste that I didn’t particularly enjoy. I’m glad we now seem to have more and more beer available from this brewer but I would enjoy them even more if they were as good as they were a couple years ago.

Any first impressions?
-A silky head lies on a rusty copper with orange highlights.
-The delicate roasted fruitiness of cherries, grapes and apricots present a faint aroma.
-The bready malt structure and pleasing carbonation produce a classy, pillowy mouthfeel.
-The flavor is exactly what the perfume had purported, the yeast being quite understated.

What if you dig deeper?
-A spoonful of soil touches the orangey fruitiness.
-Alcohol is very well-hidden, this is deceptively easy to drink.
-A subtle dryness takes over in the finale.
-Not much personality, but nonetheless a soft and well-crafted strong ale.

Bottle; best before June ’07.

Lasting sheet of off-white foam offers gentle lacing over this dark filtered caramel robe. Soft bready yeast spread its phenolic envelope around hard-working maltiness, toasty and caramel alike. Supporting delicate flowery hops. Does not manage to grow to complex, failing to complete its statue with the hefty dates or grapey fruitiness it begs to possess. Faint mineral undertones join their weak forces with a soft tartness and fading cork notes to briefly hint at farmhouse without insisting. A sweeter finale, warming with its diplomatic rummy alcohol whispers, meaty almost at times, and managing to leave a winter impression with nutty, cloves and pumpernickel spicy aspects, though the soily caramel that was revealed in the aroma still is the dominant figure. Has this watery closing edge from very heavily filtered beer, but otherwise, I must say I like the feel, the carbonation gently expanding into a foamy texture that feels right, making it seem thicker than it is. Competent sweetish ale that would excel with a more vinous profile.