Noel Des Geants
By John & Dad on January 24, 2011 @ 8 PM (No Comments)
This is a John and Dad bonus Thursday rating, made to wipe the Lone Star taste out of our mouths.
The Noel Des Geants is brewed by Brasserie des Geants (formerly Brasserie des Legendes) in south Belgium. The brewery is actually located in a medieval castle in the town of Irchonwelz. The town is famous for its annual giants parade so the brewery has a gate that stands high to allow an occasional giant to pass through. How awesome is that?
The beer is unpasteurized, unfiltered, bottle-refermented, weighs in at 8.5% ABV and comes in an 11.2 oz bottle.
For our review we used a snifter glass and got a starting beer temperature of 49.1 F. Our initial pour yielded a small 1″ frothy light brown head that left no head lacing as it dissipated quickly. It’s a dark gem of a beer – a nice opaque ruby brown color that sports a soft amount of carbonation in it.
For our aromas we got biscuit, honey, earth, yeast, cinnamon, clove, dark cherry, date, nutmeg, sugar plum, raisin, vanilla and some other nondescript spices. The dark fruits really pop in the smell.
For our initial flavors we got a heavy sweet, light bitter and moderate sour. Our finish flavors came in with a moderate sweet, moderate bitter and moderate sour. Sweetness drops and bitterness increases as you go through your sipping motion. For our tastes we got honey, clove, coriander, dark cherry, pepper, sugar plum, raisin and some more nondescript spices. Not all the aromas come out in the taste, but it’s a great taste nonetheless.
The finish length is long, the mouthfeel is creamy and the tongue hit is on the front and sides. There’s no body lacing left on the glass as you quaff it down and on the malt to hop scale it comes in 2.5 clicks to the left of balanced on the malty side. That’s a really nice malty sweet edge.
For our bottom line notes we got a yes to drinkable, balance, harmony, memorable, wow factor and buy again. The only no was to repeatable as one was enough.
The Noel Des Geants is loaded to the gills with dark fruits, so if you like beers like Chimay Blue or Trappistes Rochefort 10 you’ll like this one. It brings something new to the table though – a prominent sourness. Along with that there’s a very pronounced sugariness to it that hits the spot and adds to the complexity of the beer. It is an absolutely perfect Winter/Christmas seasonal beer – you want to cozy up to it and take your time enjoying it, because it’s a treat. Highly recommended.
