Unibroue - La Fin Du Monde

After realizing that most of my recent beer reviews have been beers with funny sounding foreign names that are pretty tough to find in Baton Rouge, I decided to flip through my archive and feature a beer that has a funny sounding foreign name but is easy to find, even in Baton Rouge!  The flagship of the Unibroue brewery in Canada... La Fin Du Monde.  Unibroue is out of Chambly, Quebec and they pride themselves in maintaining traditional European brewing methods and bring them to North America.  Their specialties are Belgian-style ales (the La Fin Du Monde is a tripel) but also do some dark lagers and fruit-inspired ales.  

My first encounter came during my first trip 'Around the World' at the Chimes.  After starting off with some beers that I knew well I decided to cross Canada off the list and go with this funny sounding beer.  I can promise you that at first I didn't like it one bit... way too strong and different for me.  Fortunately as my tastes have developed I've grown to appreciate different beers, and this is one of the world's best. 

True to the style I poured this one into a goblet, after letting it warm a few degrees from fridge temperature.  The beer pours a hazy orange, small white head with good lacing. The smell is a mixture of citrus and hops, hints of floral flavors.  Exactly what you want from the style.

The taste bring out more of the floral flavors... a little bit of fruit, toasted malts on the end of the sip. I'm not picking up the hop presence from the aroma, but it's still a fantastic beer. A medium body on this one, superbly drinkable... the 9% is masked extremely well by the flavors.

A top-notch tripel and one of the best you're going to find outside of Belgium.  This one can be find all over Baton Rouge in the better beer bars (like The Chimes, Port Royal, The Cove, and The Bulldog) as well as the stores with the best beer selections.  If you want to try one of the beers that helped me get into craft brews, pick one of these up next time you see it.

 

My Rating: A

BeerAdvocate: A

Tripel

St. Ambroise Apricot Wheat Ale

Alright, I'm starting to catch up on all these reviews from pre-Christmas... and once I catch up completely I'll have to break my diet every now and then to try some new beers!  I found a 6-pack of these (or maybe it was a 4-pack?) at the Bet-R store by the Perkins overpass.  There's a surprising beer selection there for such a small local store.

Next up is the St. Ambroise Apricot Wheat Ale.  This one comes from McAuslan Brewing up in Quebec, Canada.  While a lot of Canadian beer is categorized as 'moose piss' I've found several really good beers from the French Canadian side of the country.  Unibroue is certainly the most popular, but they're not alone when it comes to great beer from north of the border.

Now on to the beer... you can see the pour, from an 11.2 oz. bottle in to an imperial pint glass.  The beer is a clear golden-orange color with a thin white head. Quick to dissipate, lots of bubbles, looks like a lot of carbonation.  Almost has more of a cider look to it than a beer, but I'm not all that prejudiced against ciders, so I'll reserve judgment for now.

The aroma is strong on the apricot, dominant even.  It's not bad, just nothing else there.  The taste is a little better balanced, but still dominated by the apricot flavors. There is a little malt up front, but it's quick to be overpowered by the fruit flavors.  Light body, lots of carbonation... it's not a bad fruit beer but it's nothing TOO special.  Solid and drinkable.  I'll definitely give McAuslan another try if I see their beers around town, but I don't think I'll go out of my way for more of this one.

Taste: B-

Value: C+

Fruit Beer