Unibroue Éphémère

[Yuri_Rage]

At the recommendation of Chairman Cheyco, I gave Éphémère a try. It's pretty tasty stuff. It's very light bodied, highly carbonated, and lightly flavored. Like many Belgian style beers, its redeeming quality is a strange one - sour apple! The aroma is full of yeast and esters, almost like a fruit lambic, but the flavor is very soft with a pronounced green apple note. This is a very easy drinking, refreshing summer beer. Give it a shot!

EDIT:
After a bit of searching, I see there are a few requests for a clone brew - I haven't a clue as to the ingredients. Unibroue mentions that the recipe contains "apple wort," whatever that is. I'm guessing this isn't a terribly popular beer among homebrewers. The last attempt at an HBT discussion about it (2005) went nowhere.

 

[solbergg]

I had this recently at my local watering hole. I also enjoyed it quite a bit. I pulled off a new feat with it as well. Everyone here makes claims about being able to attract the BMC crowd to certain beers......well, I had my wine drinking friends into Ephemere!

 

[Ice9]

I was tempted buy a bottle of this a few months ago but I ended up not getting it. Sounds like I need to go pick up a bottle. Thanks for the review.

 

[mr_cad]

I found one of these in town about a year ago. I enjoyed it very much. I am not one for fruity flavors but this seemed rather enjoyable. I went back to the store and bought the rest of the case. Sadly they are all gone and I have not seen it since then.

 

[Dycokac]

I Personally have a really light wheat i made with only 4lbs wheat LME, the wyeast american wheat yeast (forget which hops) and 1oz of bitter orange. I also have a fresh batch of Apfelwein (minus the 2lbs corn sugar and with montrechet yeast). doing a mix of 80/20 or so I get something similar to the apple taste profile of Éphémère.

So I bet you could get pretty close by making a whit with some bitter orange and a greenapple version of appfelwein then blend the two around 80/20 and call it pretty close.

 

[Evan!]

I like the black currant (cassis) version more than the apple---but it's hard to find. I made a clone awhile back...it's hard to find actually black currants when they're not in season, so I used the looza juice in the fermenter, along with some currant jelly, then added some essence/flavoring at bottling to taste. It turned out great. The base beer was essentially a wit without the spices.

 

[Chairman Cheyco]

They also make Raspberry and Peach as well. The former is easy to find but the Peach along with the Black Currant version are about as rare as hen's teeth. If you ever see either of them and you like fruity Belgians (er...) buy as many as you can afford.

 

[Professor Frink]

I had it for the first time recently and really liked it, and the SWMBO wants me to do a clone. The closest I've found is the BYO Jolly Rancher Lambic:
http://***********/recipe/1330.html

 

[brewt00l]

I like the black currant (cassis) version more than the apple---but it's hard to find. I made a clone awhile back...it's hard to find actually black currants when they're not in season, so I used the looza juice in the fermenter, along with some currant jelly, then added some essence/flavoring at bottling to taste. It turned out great. The base beer was essentially a wit without the spices.

I've had the apple and thought it was kinda meh...haven't seen the black currant version so I'll have to keep a lookout for that.

 

[Kevin Dean]

Ephemere was one of the beers that triggered me to start trying different beer, which essentially led me to homebrewing.

It's kind of rare, I've seen it in two places and they'd sat there so long the shelves under them were discolored.

Though, oddly, the ONE time I actually CRAVED Ephemere I was in Keene, New Hampshire and asked the bartender of Vendetta for one and he had it! I was blown away.

Ephemere is good.

 

[Sluggo]

Finally tried one of these tonight. I'm not sure what I think about it yet. While drinking I couldn't taste any apple whatsoever, but the longer I sit the more i can taste it in the aftertaste. Not bad. One thing I really don't care for is the high level of carbonation.

Now to find a bottle of the currant stuff.

 

[Ice9]

I just had my first one of these. It reminded me very much of chardonnay, but carbonated. Kind of champagne like. I really enjoyed the light tart apple flavor. This bottle had been sitting a while, the best by date was October 2007. I would definitely buy this again.

 

[ohiobrewtus]

I've had this as well. It's a good beer to have on occasion, but a batch of it may sit around my place longer than CCA has.

 

[Damonic]

I'm trying to slowly expand my SWMBO's beer horizons and she really liked the Ephemere. I'd love to see a clone and brew something she'll actually drink.

 

[climateboy]

I just had this over the weekend and thought it was excellent. What a great beer to drink with cheese and charcuterie. I think you could get close by making a low-gravity belgian style (the beer is 5.5% ABV), and "dry-hop" with a bunch of cut-up green apples. The apple to me is much more aroma than flavor...I think I tasted Hallertau or some similar flavor hops underneath, supporting the apple aroma. Of course, aroma influences taste.

 

[skyler]

A couple years back, I was inspired by Ephemere Apple. I brewed a beer/cider hybrid, and I called it Apple Pie Beer. I scaled back a Hoegaarden clone recipe to 3 gallons, spices and all, but with Northern Brewer as bittering agent and without any aromatic or flavoring hops. Also, I added a couple cinnamon sticks to the kettle and a couple into the primary. I also added 1lb of lactose to the wort. I then juiced several pounds of apples directly into the fermentor. It ended up being about 60/40 wort/apple juice. I fermented with Kolsch Yeast and primed with cane sugar. The result was a sour, pleasant, but strange brew that did not taste like apple pie. However, it was drinkable enough that I only ended up letting a few of them age for longer than 6 mo or so. I drank a couple that had aged for 2 years, and they were spectacular, though overly carbonated (they just kept carbonating forever).

 

[CnnmnSchnpps]

I loooove the Cassis (black currant) version of the Ephemere.. Seems I gotta try the others too now

 

[Rahjah]

I am having an Ephemere black currant right now and am planning to try a batch once a carboy is free! Thanks for the insights into possible clones

 

[wedge421]

Yah this is a great clean drinking beer. Their La Fin Du Monde is an amazing Triple as well