First, I should tell you about the bottle. It is a really majestic bottle, no doubt. Its shape is that of a champagne bottle for reasons to be made clear. The label is styled to evoke the look of European wine labels. I guess that may be a very American observation, and, if so, deserves extra credibility because 'Murica! Fuck, yeah. As you can see from the pictures, the label does feature many of the stylistic bells and whistles one might expect from an old-world booze label.
The full text of the name is pretty impressive, "Beyond The Best of Deus Brut des Flandres, Cuvee Prestige 2011" What balls! Seriously, that's like just hanging a pair of nuts on the bottle. The back label talks about how it is bottled in Belgium, then shipped to France for the "traditional 'remuage' and 'degorgement'." I could look those words up, but the internet is difficult and filled with kitties and porn. Everything about the bottle is designed to ask the shopper, could this bottle be worth $34?
So, Diego bought it for me, I took it home, shoved it in the fridge over night, and pulled it out today to do some drinking. Before I get to the drinking, though, I had to read the leaflet. I'd hate to drink it wrong, after all. The leaflet has two points to make: one, this beer has been very carefully treated like a bottle of old-school champagne, double fermented, bottled, aged, spun daily, de-yeasted, and re-bottled just for me, and, two, serve chilled. Not just a little chilled, either, chilled like a son of a bitch. Specifically, 6-12 hours in the fridge, then either 10 minutes in an ice bucket or 20 minutes in the freezer, finally poured "gently" into chilled fluted glasses, with the bottle re-chilled between pours. Now, there it sits, in my chilled, fluted, fancy-pants glass, and here I sit, hoping that with my first sip, I will grow a tweed jacket with elbow patches.
I tasted it. It is light, sweet, sparkly, yeasty, and pretty fun. No spontaneous tweed yet, sadly, but not a bad sip of beer. I still feel more like Xander than Jiles. That's not such a bad thing, but an auto-Jiles elixir would be pretty awesome. I could compare it to a cross between champagne and a malt-martini, but that just sounds gross. Its not gross, its good. The intent of the brewers was an aperitif or dessert beer. The sweetness certainly makes that the right direction.
This is the kind of beer that you don't just drink, but sip and stare at in the glass. You thoughtfully watch the bubbles and try to decide what you think of it. Part of you kind of just wanted a damn beer and what the hell is this shit, but at the same time, you kind of dig it. Sure, its different, not what you expected. Do you like it? Hate it? By this point, you are on your second glass, and when the shit did that happen? You finish that glass and the next, but you still don't know how you feel. So, there you are, staring at bubbles hurrying up to the top of a straw yellow liquid, trying really hard not to think it looks way too much like urine, wondering if you like this beer or not. The answer is, yes you like it. If you didn't spit it out at the first sip, then, yeah, you like it. Maybe grudgingly, maybe outright, but you do like it.
That is where I fall on this beer. I like it. I'm not 100% sure why I like it, but I'm several glasses in with no regrets. It was fun to be extra fussy about chilling and pouring it. Also, Diego was the chump that paid for it, so even better. You'd have to be some kind of chump to pay $34 for this stuff and not even taste it for yourself. #DiegoRules
I don't know how it got into the glasses, but I'm glad it did. I think.
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