Organic IPA commissioned by some kind of agricultural company in the Périgord region; the label is very cryptic about where this is effectively brewed, but Lapépie seems the most plausible candidate, considering locality; I dare the admins to find out and correct me, because if my guess is wrong, I would love to find out if there is another brewery in the village of Plaisance which could be accounted for brewing this beer. From a 75 cl bottle with crown cap and simple but eye-catching label with a magpie depicted on it, thanks Craftmember for sharing (and for giving me a lot of work trying to figure out where this comes from...). Egg-white, cobweb-lacing, moussy and very stable head, misty orange-glowing peach blonde robe, getting a vague beige tinge with sediment. Aroma of orange zest, mandarin, dry cookies, dried lemongrass, soggy white bread, blossoming lemon thyme, faint hints of lychee and lavender. Cleanish onset, light pear and dried apricot hints, dryish with medium carb and full, bit fluffy body; bread-crusty, slightly dry cookie-like maltiness with a vague toasty edge, connecting smoothly with a leafy, spicy and citrus peel-like hop bitterness, pushing up retronasal notes of persimmon, grapefruit zest and hardy kiwifruit, but then fading a bit and despite lingering subtly, not quite able to maintain power till the very end, so that the finish becomes a tad thinnish. Promising nose, though, and in the end a really well-balanced and well-structured beer - actually, considering its relative obscurity (especially outside of its region, as with most of these present-day French craft beers), this is a damn fine IPA, all things considered. France really keeps surprising me, it seems as if every département harbours an array of great American style craft beers nowadays, very few of which are even known outside of their own small region. This is a country in dire need of more scrutiny and zytho-geographical mapping by beer archivists with a lot of time on their hands.

Bottle from Craftmember, cheers! French brown ale, very agressive gusher, with beer exploding from the bottle upon opening - about 1/3 went straight down the sink. Sigh... Very thick, dense and frothy, lightly lacing, pale yellowish beige head over a misty, deep mahogany brown beer with vague purplish hue, but very dark in general appearance. Aroma of pear syrup, chestnuts, black tea, treacle, caramelized sugar and caramel sauce, hazelnuts, coffee cream, incense, black cherries, candied figs, dry tree leaves, honey, dry baker’s yeast, cranberry sauce, old dusty chocolate bars, sweet blue grapes, raisins, dried banana, liquorice, dry earth, faint iron. Estery onset, sweeter hints of plum, dried fig, banana and pineapple mixed with a deeper sourishness of blackberries and elderberries - yet missing the sherry- or red wine vinegar-like ’depth’ of a true Flemish red, with the sweetness prevailing; sharp carbonation, slick and light body. Very (hazel)nutty and slightly toasty malt middle, bready and butterscotch candy-like aspects here and there with a thin metallic edge, dusty and powdery yeast feeling in the end, dryish with a herbal, earthy hop bitterness to it, yeastiness lingering, otherwise on the watery side (unsurprising for a 5-% ABV beer), with that slightly metallic nuttiness persisting after swallowing. This was classified here as a Flemish red (sour brown) but the sour aspects of it seem unintended and the result of infection, which probably accounts for the strong gushing as well; in its general make-up, its hazelnutty maltiness and ’light-bodiedness’, this seems to be intended much more as an Anglosaxon brown ale. Not too bad in that sense, compared with Newcastle Brown, Sam Smith’s Nut Brown Ale and the like, the bitterish-sweet nuttiness actually works well here, but obviously the sourish infection aspect, the metallic side notes and the very violent gushing are undeniable flaws.

Ambar, marrón, nebulosa. Algo de sedimento. Aroma bastante lupulado, herbal y floral con alguna nota de levadura. En boca sigue manteniendo carácter muy lupulado, ligeramente picante. Base malteada y agradable sabor herbal y floral. Cremosa y bien de gas. Bastante buena.