The World’s best beer contender?

STATS
  • Country: United States
  • Style: Biere de Champagne
  • ABV: 10.5%
  • Serving Type: 750ml Bottle
  • Price: Special Occasions Only 
This beer is a collaborative effort between the brewers at Samuel Adams and Weihenstephaner (famed for being the world’s oldest continuously operating brewery). There’s a huge ammount of fanfare surrounding this beer, so Richo and I have been pretty interested to try it.

Biere de Champagne or Biere Brut is one of the newest and most interesting beer styles out there. They are often matured for long periods of time before being subjected to the “methode de champenoise”, which is the process by which yeast is removed from the bottle. They are supposedly delicate beers with high carbonation and can be spiced. This will be the first Biere de Champagne that I’ve ever had, so it should be interesting.

The high levels of carbonation promised by the style are evident straight away. The beer is just a swarming mass of bubbles which leads to an enormous head, see photo lower. The beer is an orange golden colour with the huge carbonation leading to a very large head of tight white bubbles. It’s a very pretty looking beer with excellent retention, almost certainly due to the bubbles rising from seemingly everywhere in the glass.

A large yeasty aroma is the first thing that greets the senses when one smells this beer. It has good spicy elements to it as well as have a sweetish malt aroma. There are hints of butter and even some tart green apples, as well as a bit more fruityness. I can’t get over the yeasty smell though, I’m not sure if it was meant to be this overbearing but it’s strange and I don’t think it suits the beer at all. I’m intrigued what this will actually taste like.

The carbonation is far too high and really puts me off this beer. Words can’t describe what a let down this beer is! The flavours are mostly of yeast and malt as well as a strong alcohol taste, which is too strong. There is a flavour similar to butter as well which is just really strange and is actually unpleasant. It’s not a pleasant beer at all!

I don’t know if it’s the style I don’t like but this tastes terrible to me! I really think the high carbonation has destroyed any chance of this beer tasting good. For me it destroys the palate and makes the beer taste really nasty. I’m extremely surprised Weihenstephaner have sullied their name by putting it to this beer, but it could be that I just totally don’t get the style. It’s not for me especially at the price, but maybe if you like champagne it’s for you, just don’t invite me over to try some!

Remember it’s always Beer O’Clock somewhere in the world!