Corne du Diable (Horn of the Devil)

Apparently, more than one Canadian has figured out how to make good beer. Until recently, Unibroue was arguably the sole brewer of quality beer in Canada. You might disagree if you consider Moosehead quality beer. Presently, there seem to be a rash of good breweries popping up in Quebec  (the snooty, French provincial sister of Canknuckleheads). Something is going on there.

Sticking with the American IPA tribute theme, please allow me to introduce Qubecious brewery Dieu Du Ciel's "Corne du Diable." The name means "Horn of the Devil." It features a full hop bouquet with notes of fresh grapes and citrus leaning toward grapefruit. The flavor emphasises citrusy hops, which vastly out weight the malt flavoring, leaving it with a lighter body than the average IPA. The malt flavors resemble unsweetened iced with a mild, easy going bitterness. The beer is not balanced, but that isn't necessarily a bad thing if you like hops. Many American IPAs are more about the hops than remaining balanced.

Yesterday, I was relaxed in a comfortable chair, wearing a robe and slippers, prepared to sample a beer. As I sniffed my beer, I noticed it smelled like Old Spice, an odd aroma for an IPA. I suddenly realized I had been catching whiffs of Old Spice ever since that Supercuts haircut I got earlier. I cringed as I recalled the barber, with his stylized quaff of hair and self-proclaimed "magic" hands. I briefly wondered if he, or at least his hands, were sponsored by Old Spice. It would be laughable to write a beer review and mention Old Spice in the aroma, so I decided to take a shower. Looking in the mirror, with my Supercuts 'do appearing more like a toupee than actual hair, I realized something. Haircuts and beer have something in common: You get what you pay for.

Houblon Chouffee Vs. Urthel Hop-it

Here we have a battle royal showdown between two Belgium ales inspired by American IPAs. Houblon Chouffe bills itself as a Double IPA Triple, while Hop-it calls itself a "superior hoppy blond ale." Both ales are well hopped Belgium style beers, and each has it's own interesting qualities. Hybrid beers such as these are always worth a try if only to sample their uniqueness.



The Houblon Chouffe begins with a well retained, craggy mountain of a head. There is a flowery, zesty hop aroma followed by soft, fruity flavors. The Houblon's malt flavors are much closer to a Triple than an IPA. The body is light, and fluffy. Basically, the Houblon Chouffe has the aroma of an IPA, coupled with the more traditional flavor and body of a Triple.



Urthel's Hop-it did not pour with a massive head. The carbonation and head were more reminiscent of an IPA. The aroma was not overwhelmingly hoppy like the Chouffe. It smelled of toasty champagne yeast with a lemon hop accent. Hop-it's flavor features an IPA malt flavor of raw cookie dough. The lemon hop flavor carries into the flavor lending an acidic aspect. The Hop-it tastes like an IPA but retains a Belgium ale's body and mouth feel.


Head-to-head, there's no clear winner in this showdown. They are similarly billed hybrid ales inspired by the American IPA and maintain a Belgium ale's mouth feel. Both beers also have crazy cats on their labels. The similarities end there. Hop-it's flavor profile sticks to the classic American IPA model, while the Houblon Chouffe stays truer to a Triples flavoring. However, both beers are creatively inspired and worth a try.

Tripel Karmeliet

Many beers share characteristics with wine. Tripel Karmeliet is one such beer. The body features a creamy, champagne-like quality with lively carbonation and a dry finish. There is even a satisfying pop when it is uncorked.


Tripel Karmeliet drinks best when close to room temperature. It begins with bright apricot coloring. The aroma is fresh and similar to spearmint. The spearmint carries into the flavor. On the malt side of things, Tripel Karmeliet is nearly too sweet. If it were any sweeter, it would be sickening. However, the sweetness is the only criticism I can dredge up. Tripel Karmeliet is otherwise a delicate and lovely ale.

Mikkeller Big Worse Barley Wine

Mikkeller Big Worse is aptly named. The label features what looks like a mug shot, and at 12% abv I can understand the choice. This beer is very heady, and a mellow but heavy buzz becomes apparent after a few sips. The coloring is deep maple. It's very malty with a spicy fresh baked bread aroma and flavor. The body features a long flavor, and a chewy aspect that brings the phrase liquid bread to mind.


There are a couple qualities of this beer that make it unique. For one, it is not very sweet. This is an oddity considering the amount of malt it contains. Beers this big are usually boozy or slightly pungent. It is also very dry. Combined, these facets mean almost all of the available malt sugars are converted into alcohol during fermentation. Thus, Big Worse is an extremely well crafted ale.

Oude Geuze

This lambic comes from Belguim's Brouwerji Drie Fonteinen. It's a bottle conditioned blend of one, two and three year-old lambics aged in oak casks.

Lambics are the hippies of the beer world. Unfiltered and unpastuerized, lambics thrive on the growth of wild yeast and bacteria. In a sense, lambics are to beer what hippies are to people who shower on a regular schedule. The most common style of lambics are sweetened with fruit to make them more palatable to women. Geuze are unsweetened and only bring the funk.

Lambics are spontaneously fermented by wild yeast. The wort is left in open air over night where natural yeasts accumulate to do their thing. The beer these yeast turn out does not resemble beer in the usual sense, and many flavors strange to beer accumulate by their virtue.

Oude Geuze begins with a murky brownish-orange coloring. There's a mellow aroma with hints of cork, oak, funky sourness, and Bret (wild yeast). Perhaps there is a bit of unshowered hippy in there as well. This particular bottle was produced in January 2004 and the flavors have mellowed over time. Geuze are usually salivary gland pumping sour, the way a mouthful of vinegar would be. But the Oude Geuze, while sour, is not mouth puckeringly so. The flavor is sour in general and contains several elements I cannot even begin to describe. There are random jolts of anise, and a mellow barnyard funk. Oude Geuze culminates in a dry finish leaving a confused drinker scratching their head.

Full Sail IPA

Full Sail is a brewery out of Hood River, Oregon and they offer an India Pale Ale. Considering I'm in New Orleans, and the demand for IPAs here is about as low as the demand to revoke the right to bear arms, I was lucky to find this beer. It's not the most amazing IPA, but it's a hell of a buy for the price.


Full Sail's IPA has a good aroma with hints of orangey citrus and pine. It has the same aromatic dynamic as Pine Sol, without the nasty chemicals (I mean this in a good way). There's also a slight bready or dough flavor to the aroma.


The flavor has great balance. No one element of malt or hop outshines the other. It begins with a sweet fruit flavor of orange peel, then a doughy malt flavor opens up. It ends with a slight bitter finish out of the blue. It is very clean, very dry and barely leaves any residual flavors on the palate.

Sierra Nevada Bigfoot 2008

I miss barely wines during the summer. I know everyone wants their light, zesty drinks during the hot summer, but I'm sitting in air conditioning right now so what does light and zesty matter? I want some complexity that packs a punch. Today I found it. A beer buddy of mine gave me the heads up on a store that still has the elusive and summer averse Bigfoot. I'm not even giving out the name of the store in case there are actually people reading this and they fiend for Bigfoot.




Anyway, I'm having a Bigfoot and his big ass is stomping on my senses. Bigfoot comes out in winter, so the one I'm sipping now is aged six months and it's already changed. When it's released Bigfoot is has a hop character like an Imperial IPA. I've heard people claim it's mislabeled as a barley wine and is really an Imperial IPA. I don't buy the argument because the malt flavor is richer and more dominant in Bigfoot than in Imperial IPAs. Bigfoot is well hopped but it's not crazy hopped like Imperials. There's also that maple syrup coloring that Imperial IPAs don't usually have. However, I can see where an argument like this come from. Beers like Great Divide's Hercules Double IPA can blur the line between a big IPA and a barley wine. Bigfoot is aptly named. It's flavors are epic, and some of them are reminiscent of the forests Bigfoot is said to lurk in.


After six months the hop aroma becomes less aggressive, and a spicy malt aroma is more apparent. The aroma still has a deep pine forest character, there is just more malt accent with light aromas of spice, beef broth, cinnamon, sherry and spice.


The mouth feel and flavor of aged Bigfoot become leaner and longer, respectively. The body is more syrupy, but the thick malt still sticks to the side of your mouth. The malt flavor and hop bitterness are more harmonious, while the malt flavors develop new characteristics like caramel. There is still an aggressive bitterness in the finish, but it's fitting, pleasant and more in harmony with the other flavors. There are strong flavors of unsweetened dark chocolate and pine, with slighter notes of fig, char, forest, spice, earthy autumn leaves, and dried fruits (cherry, apricot). Bigfoot is less drinkable at refrigerator temperature and livens up as it warms.

Rogue Hazelnut Brown Nectar

Rouge's Hazelnut Brown Nectar is Frangelico in beer form. Frangelico is the amazing hazelnut liqueur with a bottle shaped like a woman, kind of like a bottle of Aunt Jemima. However, I was taken aback when I read Frangelico's label the other day. It turns out that the figure I so admired in a liqueur bottle is a monk's body. Not a nun's body, not even a woman's body. All I can say is the monk's robe looks like a matronly dress, and Frangelico is a girl's name. Apparently, I've been duped by a lady man once again.


Rouge's Hazelnut Brown Nectar comes with no such trickery. The bottle is not shapely, nor is the pictured man wearing a dress. It's still a very appealing beer. The best way to describe it is Frangelico dressed up like a beer.

Schneider Aventis

Schneider Aventis is one of the world's unique beers. Misspellings are always fun and this beer is categorized as a weizen doppelbock. A tranny of the beer world, this beer is a combination of a hefe weizen and a double bock. The abv is high and the color is dark like a double bock while the carbonation and aroma are reminiscent of a hefe. The flavor has elements of both styles.

Aventis begins with an aroma of cloves, but not knowing what cloves smell like, I had to deduce this. Hefe weizens are said to smell of cloves and Aventis smells like a hefe. The aroma also has hints of banana. The flavor begins with deep, malty complexity later softened by fruity flavors like fig and banana that culminate in a dry finish. This is truly an oddball beer.

Just to bring up my favorite beer label enablers at Bodymore, Murdaland's Clipper City, I will mention that their 'Hang Ten' is a tribute to Aventis. However, one look at the Aventis label lets you know the bearded man depicted would bash that pirate out of principle.

Mississippi Beer Tour

A couple months ago I went to Mississippi for a beer tasting. Up to that point, Mississippi was just a part of the Waffle House corridor on the way to Biloxi. I had never hung out with real Mississippi people before so I was a little apprehensive. Turns out, my as fears were baseless. People in Louisiana are much worse than Mississipians.

The first stop was Lazy Magnolia Brewery in Kiln, Mississippi, which may be the only brewery in Mississippi. Not seeing any hicks lurking in the bushes with shotguns, I ducked into the brewery unscathed. Their main beer is called Southern Pecan. It's a brown ale brewed with pecans. I'm still waiting on their crayfish spiced ale. Lazy Magnolia also sells something called Party Pigs. The only bummer about the tour was that it's against the law for breweries in Mississippi to serve or sell alcohol, so there were no samples. Mississippi has a grocery list of regulations regarding alcohol. One example is that it's illegal to sell beer with an abv higher than something like 5.5% [It's actually only 5%]. You can still buy whiskey though. We rolled on to my boy Beer Buddha's [copyright used by permission] friend's house for the tasting. This dude had a cellar the likes of which I've never seen. Two closets full of beer. He gets around the medieval beers laws in Mississippi via the internet. He finds people from all over the country online and trades beer. He even had something that could chill a warm beer in under five minutes.

The first beer we tried was Mt. Carmel Stout from Cincinnati. It had a nice brown head with tiny bubbles. There were a nice subtle roasted flavor, like roasted vanilla. The body was thin and creamy but the mouthfeel had weight.

The next beer we sampled was Alesimith's IPA from Cali. It came equipped with a large hoppy bouquet in the nose followed by a lemon citrus flavor, high acidity, and a bitter kick.

Next up was Hvedegood from Three Floyd's, a favorite brewery of mine. This was a wheat wine, or a barley wine brewed with some portion of wheat. It smelled like a barley wine, with a sweet, deep aroma that wasn't boozy or pungent. It's lighter in body and mouthfeel than other barleys with a strong flavor of orange rind. The flavor also had hints of toasted bread and cookies with a bitter dose of hops in the finish. It's well hopped like most Three Floyd's brews, but this isn't overwhelming apparent in the nose and flavor.

Then came Alesmith's Old Numbskull with it's pleasantly sharp bitterness. It had a beautiful deep red coloring. There was a hint of curry in the aroma. The flavor was creamy and layered with complexity containing hints of chocolate and pine needles that stuck to my mouth.

Last up was Goose Island's Bourbon County Stout. Goose Island is out of Chicago, and this beer is a stout aged in Bourbon Casks. The was a strong, spicey note of Bourbon in the aroma with a rich vanilla flavor in addition to roasted malt. It was very oily and rich.

Leinenkugel's Sunset Wheat

Most breweries come out with a summer beer brewed with a portion of wheat for a lighter, more refreshing beer suited to hot days. Fuck that. Where are my barley wines at in the summer? Most of these summer wheat beers are pretty awful. If I wanted wheat in my beer I could save some poppy by buying Bud, and get some rice in there too boot. Leinenkugel's Sunset Wheat is an exception to the bad wheat beer rule. I can't pronounce the name, but it's perfect for a hot day by the pool (unless you've gotten a bunch of pool water in your mouth beforehand). It's light, crisp, sweet and refreshing. I get a sugary lemon lime fusion in the aroma and flavor. Everyone else tastes Fruity Pebbles. And that's cool because Lebron likes Fruity Pebbles too. Check out his Fruity Pebbles kicks.

Twin Sisters Double IPA

I learned some sign language working in a beer store. There was a new girl hired who was hot but hard to communicate with. She had a massive hearing aide that didn't do much good, so she could only understand me if she was looking at my lips. I was always shouting at her to no effect and constantly surprising her because she couldn't hear me coming up behind her. One day we were looking at the Left Hand beers and she got excited. She started flashing her hands around. She explained she was signing "left." Left Hand's Sawtooth Ale has sign language on the label. She taught me more sign language after that. Hello, good night, that sort of thing. She didn't stick around for too long and my sign language got rusty. The last time I used sign language, I inadvertently asked a woman if she wanted to make out all night. The gaff ended my dabbles in sign language.

The Twin Sisters are identical mountains on Colorado's Front Range and the namesake of Left Hand's Double IPA. I'm not much for the Rocky Mountain tributes unless it's concerning Jackson Ho. I'm more interested in finding the other three sisters from the Left Hand logo. The twins are big gals and weight in at 9.8% abv according to the bottle.

This is the second time I've sipped the Twin Sisters. The one I'm drinking now was brewed two years ago. Since then, it's sat in my "beer cellar" (AKA the cardboard box of beer in my closet) for two years. My first glass of the aged Twins was lovely. There were strong hints of creamy oak followed by dark chocolate flavors reminiscent of a barely wine. There was little hop aroma and flavor in the aged version, The hop bitterness remained in the finish but with more harmony than a younger ale. It was crazy hopped in flavor and aroma the first time around. My old notes indicate a piney hop aroma similar to the Maharaja coupled with a soft body like the Houblon Chouffe. The aged version is still light of body for such a big beer but it tastes more like a barely wine than double IPA.