Unibroue Maudite

Brewery: Unibroue (Unibrew)

Style: Strong Ale

ABV: 8.0%

Maudite, a French word translating loosely to accursed or damned.

I had high hopes for this French Canadian brew as I have tasted both the Trois Pistoles and La Fin Du Monde, both of which I will review at a later date. Needless to say though those two left an impression and created high expectation for our brewers from Québec. Complexity is one thing they are well known for along with their bottle conditioning.

So as with their other recipes I found myself rolling this bottle trying to get the sediment mixed in. Once I felt a sufficient rolling was completed popped the cork and began the pour. The color of this beer was of dark caramel with a thin lacy head that turned to just a ring around the glass.

The aroma was very malty with a hint of roastiness, pretty sure thats not a real word outside the world of beer. The smell went will with the color of the liquid sitting in my glass.

The initial sips of this beer left nothing to be desired, an amazing flavor fills the mouth and hits every taste bud. While my palate isn't the worst it was difficult separating the different flavors. The brew was very malty with a slight sweetness that was well balanced by only a hint of bitterness. The finish was that of caramel which was expected based on the shade of brown in my glass. After a few sips I began to also pick up a hint of ginger. I am sure there are things I had missed with this and as my palate gets better I plan to try this one again to find them.

This gets a solid A+ from me as a beer I plan to enjoy more of. My mother, who doesn't care for beer, even said she enjoyed the taste that came with this one!

-Roy

More of my photography

Beers in Bo's lineup

I just got back from Whole Foods in Vienna, VA and am pretty excited as to what is currently in my fridge. Here is a quick peek at what will be reviewed in the following days:

Stone Russian Imperial Stout
St. Bernardus Christmas Ale
Mikkeller Santa's Little Helper
Gouden Carolus Noel
Sierra Nevada Celebration Ale
Fuller's London Porter

These are all highly rated beers, so maybe I'm stacking the deck a little bit here. I also have a penchant for Holiday Ales as you can see.

-Bo

NoVA Homebrew Club & Delirium Noël

In renewing my interest in homebrewing, I decided to look up any local homebrewing clubs to see if I could find someone who was doing an all-grain batch so that I could learn from them.

To anyone not familiar with homebrewing beer, there are a few "methods" generally used to make some delicious brew. One way is called "Extract Brewing" where people use a can of malt extract and pour it directly into the boil kettle in order to have yummy fermentable sugars for the yeast to gobble up during the fermentation process. Another way, which commercial brewers use, is called "All-grain" brewing. As the name implies, you get all your fermentable sugars by steeping a pile of cracked grains in hot water for an amount of time, before transferring that goodness to a boil kettle.

Anyways, I managed to contact the Nothern Virginia Homebrew Club and asked its members if anyone was doing an all-grain brew anytime soon, and if I could observe/help them. Turns out that one of the founders, Mitch, was doing a brew and invited me out. It was a great experience. He ended up using his new 3-tier brewing "sculpture" to brew. It ended up being a fairly long day because of a combination of his recipe requiring long periods of time and a few errors on our part :)

A tradition of homebrewing for most people is to drink a homebrew during the brewing process. Since I didn't have any homebrew, I offered up to Mitch a bottle of what is one of my favorite beers: Delirium Noël.

Delirium Noël is a seasonal beer and is only out for a few weeks close to the winter holidays, so I suggest that you go out and snag one ASAP. It is a strong belgium ale that sits at 10% ABV. My picture doesn't do it justice, but it pours an amber color with an orange glow to it. The aroma on this beer is excellent, and smells like a combination of citrus notes and holiday spices like cinnamon and nutmeg. It has a very slightly roasty flavor characteristic, but mostly the taste that comes through is the sweetness of the malt. It has a pleasant citrusy/ale aftertaste and the alcohol in this beer is sure to warm your belly on a cold winter night.

I give this beer an A+ and will certainly be grabbing another bottle or two before the end of the month. Cheers!

-Bo