Canadian

Today is the Winter Solstice so it's only fitting that I crack open a bottle of Brasserie Dieu Du Ciel's Solstice d'hiver. This beer is a 9.8% Barleywine, a style of beer that is almost as big on flavor as it is on alcohol. I haven't had much luck finding a Dieu Du Ciel beer I've liked so I'm holding out hope that this is the one. Barleywines are a style of beer I drink rather sparingly because of their incredible richness and double digit ABV. Will the planets align today, on the shortest day of the year? Will this Canadian Barleywine be a hit or a miss?

Brasserie Dieu Du Ciel's Route Des Épices packs a lot of flavor into a beer that's only 5% alcohol. This beer's flavor profile is deceptive though... while it tastes like a much bigger beer it flavors aren't really coming from fermentable sugars. Rather, this beer's flavor comes from a combination of hops (to a lesser extent) and peppercorns (which dominate your palate). I can't say I'm not surprised. After all, this beer's name translates as Spice Route. The spices in this beer aren't what you usually get when someone says a beer tastes spiced. Peppercorns are, well... peppery. This beer is so peppery that it really takes away from the other flavors in this beer. Malts, which are obvious on the nose, are barely noticeable when you take a drink of this beer.

Unibroue's Terrible is anything but terrible. I went into this beer expecting it to max out on the fermentable flavor chart like some quadrupels that I've had, but it is really much more tame than I'd thought. This really does work to the beer's advantage. Because the Terrible isn't at the extreme end of the flavor spectrum, you can really pick up on all of the layers in this beer. Most noticeable up front is the roasted, almost dark chocolate, base of this beer. There is a bit of spice up front which is what makes this beer so reminiscent of a quadrupel. Under all that spice and roasted malt is a sweet component that mellows everything out on the aftertaste. Don't get me wrong, this beer still packs quite a punch at 10.5% but it's put together in such a way that you could drink the whole bottle without coating your palate in fermented spice.