On draught at Dieu du Ciel with Muzzlehatch, Tiggmtl, Bret Kuhnhenn and his father and sister. 6/2/2005. Served in a weizen glass. Fantastic pink-tangerine-ruby red grapefruit sort of appearance, with different layers of colors, lightly hazy and having a large pink-yellow tinged-white head atop it, plenty of retention and lacing. Aroma is soft raspberries, tart wheat notes and a bit of lactic/sour yeast character. Vanilla and raspberry seeds as well. Flavor is immediately dry, lightly tart from the raspberry flavor and then quite full of wheat. Ends lightly sour, not overly so, not as much as you would expect a full-on b. weisse to be. Though aside from that, the balance and body are wonderful. Not watery, and nowhere near syrupy, cloying or candy-like, this is artfully and tastefully done, with just tart, fresh raspberry flavor. Creamy wheat, vanilla, bits of woody underbrush are lightly present aside from the lactic sourness and raspberries. Wonderfully refreshing and drinkable, with a medium to medium-light body, but no thinning. A real masterpiece, so I think. I have to give this a couple more points overall than normal, just because the execution on this must be so difficult.

Sample at Mondiale 2005: Poured a light clear pink color beer with small bubbly head with almost no retention. Aroma of raspberry syrup is clearly identifiable with also some sourness. Sourness clearly dominates the taste and is well balance with the raspberry, which are not overly sweet. Reminiscent in some ways of some lambic fruit. Very interesting and very refreshing beer.

22 oz bottle at the Moan and Dove release party. September 04 vintage. Served lightly chilled in a Trappist chalice.
I actually held this for about 10 minutes, just taking in the aroma. Very deep and powerful coffee nose. Black roast coffee, espresso, charred/burnt coffee notes, a strong nutty/beaniness, as if you can actually smell the very coffee beans with which it is made. Some light hints of dark, bitter, dry, baker’s chocolate. The beer looks magnificent, with sediment at the bottom of the bottle. Deep, coal black body, with a dark burnt-tan head, that slowly recedes to nothing.
Upon first drink, I can’t deny to being a bit taken aback. I’m used to being slapped in the face by hops (young Expedition comes to mind), or even slapped in the face by alcohol (WWS, enough said), but never have I been assaulted by an all out coffee dominance. Adding to the coffee, is a very dry, dry roasted malt backbone. As it warms and breathes (and believe me, I took my time drinking it), there is some relief from the coffee, and hints of lightly bittersweet malt are noted towards the finish. A definite lactic feel in there. But as much as I strain to get the sweet malt flavors, there is a large amount of astringency that seems to persist on the palate. Little to no hops apparency, no alcohol apparency. Medium to medium-full body, with too much thinning on the end. In the end, I have to agree with what Casey says, this tastes more like a strong coffee drink, than a beer. For what it is, I really enjoy the coffee flavor, but I can’t seem to get past the uninspiring body. Perhaps that’s just my preference, but I like a nice thick, chewy body on my Imperial stouts, with a good amount of malt sweetness 8/5/7/3/15
September 03 bottle consumed 3/5/05 and another on 3/6/05 The age did not seem to dull the coffee, I can’t deny to still being put-off by the massive espresso and dry bean-like flavors. Extremely dry to start. I let it warm up to the temperature of the bar and swirled out all of the carbonation. This actually helped. I’m finally getting some sweet-lactic notes and a bit of sweet vanilla on the finish. The body on this seems to be a bit thicker and chewier than 1st export batch. This has aged gracefully. MUST GET THIS ON DRAUGHT! 8/5/7/3/16

Draught be damned!! I’ll take it straight out of the conditioning tank! 4/16/05 with MartinT and Beerbuzzmontreal, a very sublime day, all told. Very gracious thanks to J.F. for the sample (which I think he gave me just to shut me up). Same fantastic appearance, chalky-grey-tan head atop a beautiful black body. The aroma has relaxed on the coffee! It may still be the dominant flavor, but not by much. Now it allows for sweet lactic notes, rich and creamy, rich vanilla beans and light chocolate. Flavor just knocks me back, though. A lightly sweet/sour lactic flavor, with chocolate, vanilla and roast. The coffee is there, but provides support, not the main show. The huge drying astringency is gone. Chocolate, prunes, figs, milkshakes, fudge. . . wow. Rating is for this version.