Review: Dieu du Ciel Herbe à Détourne

I was checking BeerCrank.ca's great friend 42 Bières' Facebook page today and discovered that Brasserie Dieu du Ciel is going to be doing an international collab with Dogfish Head and British brewery Beavertown. Upon hearing this news, I got a mighty craving for some Dieu du Ciel, and since my Bièrcation to Quebec City won't be taking place for another two and a half weeks, I decided to take a beer out of the old hoard.

I've had this bottle of L'herbe à détourne sitting in a box for longer than I knew, forgetting all about it - I finally realized I had it and needed to baby it when I was doing a bit of spring cleaning last month. L'herbe à détourne is a new world tripel with citra hops. I love tripels and I love hops so vas-y!

Appearance: Just putting the bottle against the light, I can see a great deal of yeasty sediment floating around in the bottle, not as sedimenty as my bottle of Unibroue Quatre Centième that I've been hoarding for just about 5 years now. Pours an unclear copper orange, looks like a saison a bit, decent amount of sediment collecting at the bottom. A thin amount of beige head that's not going anywhere, looks almost like if one was making some Good Host Iced Tea and put a couple heapful tablespoons of the sugary powder into water.

Aroma: Considering this was sitting at room temperature for who knows how many months, the citra hops are still very pleasant, citrusy and floral and mouth watering. Great aroma of Belgian yeast, an overall booziness that's akin to a good barley/wheat wine, sweet and a bit of caramel malt.

Taste: Upon the very first sip, I was in love, it's a great tasting Belgian-style triple that retains a great amount of citra's floral hops in the flavour, a sweet caramel flavour, a bit of a booziness to it as it's 10.2% ABV, a bit of honey, smidge of lemon, standard dose of coriandre and just a medley of everything that makes Belgian-style beers as amazing as they are. It has a bit of similarity to the Wheat/Barley wines I've had in the past few months, mainly the boozey impact to the palate, and incredible sweetness.

Overall Thoughts: L'herbe à détourne was bottled just under a year ago (April 2012) and has stood the taste test of time. Considering it was sitting in a box for 6+ months, the hops retained a citrusy and floral goodness, and it's overall a very sweet, nearly dessert-like tripel. At 10.2% ABV, it's going to give you a bit of a buzz.

I can't wait to try lots of other beers on my bièrcation in Quebec City in a few weeks!