With good wishes from Brasserie Dupont in Tourpes, Belgium, comes the classic holiday saison Avec les Bons Vœux. Originally brewed as a new year’s gift for select clients, this dry-hopped farmhouse ale is now widely available. Each winter I consider it Dupont’s personal gift to me.
The head on the Bons Vœux is so lively and thick that it’s a challenge to pour. The quite creamy and long-lasting head sits atop an unfiltered, opalescent beer the color of gold. A dry hoppy aroma greets you at first, with a bit of barnyard mustiness as well. Biscuity malt character follows, balancing the herbal hop nose. This is one of those delicate and complex aromas you can easily get lost in.
The flavor walks the knife’s edge between dry hoppy and sweet malty. An herbal bitterness is balanced by bready sweetness. The clean malt character grows into a strong alcohol warming, betraying the almost ten percent alcohol. A strong effervescence keeps the heat from growing too biting and brings out the piney and herbal hop flavor.
The Bons Vœux is a pinnacle of understated complexity.
Avec les Bons Vœux de la Brasserie Dupont
4.2 (5-9-7-4-17)
Tags: 12 beers of x-mas, Avec les bons Voeux, Brasserie Dupont, Dupont Bons Voeux, saison