Exclamation Points For Everyone!!!!!!!!

Beer #78 Derniere Volonte / Brasserie Dieu Du Ciel!, St. Jerome, Canada

On a lovely sunny, Sunday afternoon I'm opening a Derniere Volonte from Brasserie Dieu Du Ciel!, straight outta Canada.  This blond ale has a hazy apricot color in the glass, and you're instantly greeted by a light and sweet floral aroma.  The beer has flavors of bread, honey, with a hop bitterness throughout.  Much hoppier than the average Belgian blond, so be prepared for that if you're not a fan of hops (looking at you, Marci....) in your beer.  Derniere Volonte brings along a 6.5% ABV, and it's a nice alternative when you want some good hop flavor while still getting a subtle sweetness to your beer.

A few things to add here:
1. This beer is completely appropriate for me to drink on Sunday, as the brewery names translates to "God in Heaven!"  No word on whether God's attorneys intend to file copyright infringement suits.
2. Yes, the brewery includes an exclamation point on the end of their name!  Okay!
3. The name of the beer translates to "Last Will", so between this and the Farewell Ale from Haand last Friday, I'm clearly working on a morbid theme here.
4. In the spirit of this morbid beer theme, did you know my first paying job was working for a funeral home washing cars?  My friend's dad was the funeral home director, and paid us something like $7 or $9 per car, depending on whether we were washing a hearse, limo, minivan, Cadillac, etc.  To a 14 year old kid in the early 90's, that was an awesome job and good pay.

Thing to Think About Today:
If we're being morbid, let's at least enjoy the ride.  No better way to do that than to encourage you to watch Zombieland, an epic tale of surviving a zombie apocalypse.  Starring Jesse Eisenberg, Woody Harrelson, Emma Stone (still under the radar at that point), and a hilarious Bill Murray cameo, this film is guaranteed to entertain.  If you don't love it, I'll ask Woody Harrelson to personally call and apologize.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8m9EVP8X7N8

Beer 57: Rosee Hibiscus or Some Labels Really Matter

Thanks to some very generous friends of Gary, we were gifted some interesting beers when this blog was in its early days.  One of those beers has stared at me from the beer shelf for months.  I’ve done everything to ignore it.  Moved it to the back and yet she (yes, she…there’s a chick on the label) kept creeping back to the front of the field.  Why the wariness?  Take a gander at this label:

Tell me that you find that appealing.  The description certainly sounded like something I would like -- ale brewed with spices and hibiscus flowers.  But that label.  Oy!

Today I broke down and decided to end the refrigerator battle that Rosee (as I’ve decided to call this beer as I sip and type) and I’ve been having.  Honestly I don’t know what’s wrong with me sometimes.  This is a tasty beer.  The color is somewhere between a rose wine and fruit punch.  It barely had a head when I poured it and there isn’t even a bit of lacing left behind.  If I were to just wander past this glass without knowing what it was, I’d say it was some kind of fruity iced tea based on looks.

The scent has some very minor floweriness to it but there is also something citrusy.  The taste is not flowery as I would have suspected.  There’s orange, maybe vanilla.  Good hop flavor.  Not much carbonation and it finishes with a tang.  Overall I find it to be very good.  At 5% ABV, one could definitely drink a few of these.

I’ll definitely be on the lookout for more offerings from Brasserie Dieu Du Ciel.  There are a lot of very interesting flavor combinations that I think I would really enjoy.  Cheers!