Beau’s keeps sending new beers out our way and I’m happy about that. While I am mostly focused on what’s happening here locally, and what beers we can get from our local folks, I do enjoy reviewing these beers from Beau’s.th.
I did a pretty in-depth write up about Beau’s when I met with co-founder Steve Beauchesne, but I do want to reiterate a bit about the brewery. Founded in 2006 in Vanleek Hill, Ontario by father and son Tim and Steve Beauchesne, Beau’s is an employee-owned and completely independent Canadian craft brewery. They are also the official beer of Canada’s 150th anniversary.
This New Lang Syne is already available in Liquor Marts and beer vendors around the city. So now is the perfect time for a writeup of this beer.
*Writer’s Note: I did receive this beer review free of charge. *
The style of beer we are drinking today is a Beligan Tripel. The name Tripel comes from the brewing process of this beer. Essentially it means you are adding three times the malt as you would in a Beligan “simple”. This increases the sugar content in the beer and results in a highly alcoholic beer. The best Belgian tripels hide this strong alcoholic flavor making them delicious but dangerous. They have a surprisingly light color, typically bright yellow to golden, which is a result of the addition of Belgian candy sugar (up to 25% sucrose). Tripels are the most brewed of the Belgian styles and are highly adored due to their deep color, soft maltiness and unique yeast flavors. Even with their high ABV (usually 8-12%) they are highly approachable when done right. Let’s get to the beer.
What’s unique about this beer is that it has been aged in pinot gris wine barrels for 4 months and then blended with an unaged batch of the beer to provide an interesting meld of beer. It is a bottle-conditioned beer and has been described to me as bridging the gap between beer and wine. I’m excited to give it a try.
ABV – 9%
Appearance – Pours a slightly hazy golden with a nice frothy white head.
Smell – The nose brings some citrus zest, some nice sweet malt notes, along with an interesting white wine character and some oak.
Taste – This beer has a lot going on. With the use of a Belgian yeast you are getting some nice yeast esters bringing some bubblegum, apricot and pear. This works incredibly well with the white wine character which compliments these notes. There is a candied sugar sweetness that is slightly cut by the oak on the finish. The finish is a blend of this oak and yeast spice along with some tannins from the wine.
Mouth Feel – Medium bodied, nice carbonation, and very little sign of the 9% alcohol.
Overall Thoughts – Nice beer. It makes a good representation for the Tripel and brings a lot of those characteristic notes including a unique yeast character, nice maltiness combining with the white wine and oak notes from the barrel aging.
Do I like it? – I did enjoy this beer. It was unique and did bring some wine characteristics to the beer. I felt it could be described as bridging the gap between beer and wine. Overall I really enjoyed this beer and think it would make an excellent beverage for you on New Years Eve!
I hope that this write-up was informative. I encourage you to get out and try as many new beers as you can. Broaden your horizons and your palate.
Keep following along as I keep doing what I can to write about beer, breweries and brewers.
To those who celebrate – MERRY CHRISTMAS!
And, to those who will be celebrating it, HAPPY NEW YEAR!
-Beer Winnipeg
Beer Winnipeg 