Why hello my fellow drinkers of the beer...
Wait let me try that again a little less awkwardly.
Hello fellow Beer drinkers.
Okay so I figured that I'd give this whole #beersaturday thing a try since I was recently invited to participate by in his beersaturday contest post. You can find that post Here if you're interested.
It seems kind of funny that I drank a beer on Sunday and now I'm posting about it on a Monday for a contest that's held on Saturday...
Okay, I guess it's not that funny. Moving on.
Brasserie du Mont Blanc
The beer that I'm going to talk about is a French beer called La Blanche. It's produced in the Haute Savoie department of France in a city close to the Alpine mountain range. The brewery is called Brasserie du Mont Blanc and has been in existence since 1821.
I stumbled upon Mont Blancs amber beer a few weeks back when looking for a new beer to try and basically fell in love with it. True to life though, the store that I buy my beer at sold out of the amber almost immediately and I haven't seen it there since. It's bit of a shame for me because I really prefer amber beers and almost never buy blonds.
But their blond beer is very good as well and it's always fully stocked so I've actually been drinking it quite a bit lately. You could say that I'm on a bit of a Mont Blanc kick at the moment.
Characteristics
According to the brewery's website this beer is brewed with glacier water from the Mont Blanc mountain.
It's described as light and refreshing, and tangy and citrusy, with notes of spice in the finish.
The style is Belgium.
It's a wheat beer that is top fermented (which means that it uses ale yeast). The alcohol is 4.7% abv and the bitterness is 13/120 IBU.
Food pairings are cheese, oysters, raw vegetables and raw fish.
It's also won several World Beer Awards over the years, including best beer of 2013 and 2015.
Something that I like is that the 75cl bottle comes with a compression stopper. It allows me to drink half a bottle and then save the rest for later without the beer losing all of its carbonation. I often drink the other glass the following day and there is still plenty of fizz.
Something that's a little different is that the brewery recommends serving half of the beer, then shaking the bottle and serving the rest. I haven't done this myself and I don't exactly know what that is all about to be honest. The beer is unfiltered so maybe it's to mix some of the settled yeast into the brew? In that case I suspect that it may be a translation error on the breweries English website. I think they might mean to swirl the beer a little oppose to outright shaking it.
Beers do change their flavors as their carbonation dissolves though so maybe they want you to shake out some of the carbonation? Anyway, let me know in the comments if you know more about this.
My Experience
Color
The color of the beer is an inviting golden yellow, approaching on orange.
It's slightly cloudy from being unfiltered and has a light head, with small delicate bubbles that dissipate quickly.
When I see that in a beer I generally think that it's probably naturally carbonated or bottled conditioned, which I personally prefer.
Aroma
For me the nose is predominantly grass and hay with subtle floral notes, and some citrus and spicy coriander.
Taste
The taste is fresh.
Its crisp and clean with mild citrus and spice notes coming through.
It's also dry and sort of reminds me of champagne in a way. I'm guessing that comes from the yeast used for the fermentation process. Specifically, it reminds me of a light saison style of beer.
Feel
For me the mouth-feel is sharp and light.
Conclusion
I generally prefer my ales to be darker. I rarely like wheat beers and as mentioned I almost never drink blond styles of beer. That being said I actually really like La Blanche by Mont Blanc. Its crisp, light and fresh making it an excellent beer for almost any occasion. I highly recommend it if you ever come across it.