La Fin Du Monde

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Lost

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Unibroue makes what I would say is easily the best weizen I've ever had. I'm glad I finally found a place that sells this.. I wish I had found it sooner. How they make the weizen-y flavors so smooth and yet pronounced is beyond me... the phenols flavors aren't sharp at all. I also don't know how they can make the beer 9% abv and yet not have an alcoholic taste when the the beer is neither hoppy nor dark and malty.

I know most of you have tried it but if you haven't then all I can say is you owe it to yourself. If you're not sure if you like weizens then this is definitely a good place to start. Anyone have a clone recipe? :D

edit: I should say that the beer is not listed as a weizen - it's a belgian strong ale, probably because of the alcohol content. But it sure tastes like any other weizen. Better than Tucher by a long shot. Of course I haven't been drinking weizens for very long so I may be way off base describing the flavors as very reminiscent of a hefe.. anyhow it's great beer, of this I am certain.
 
I've found that many strong belgian (and some belgian tripels) have a similar clove/banana flavor. It comes from the yeast methinks. I've had la fin du monde, but not in a long time. Liked it back then.
 
Yes, I see that it is not labeled as such on the bottle. However, as I said above, it tastes very much like a weizen.. at least to me it does. I think Monk hit the nail on the head.. it's those funky yeast strains the Belgians are using. I'm thinking I should try one in my next batch.. any one have a favorite strain? It would have to be from whitelabs..

Beer Advocate lists the beer as a Belgian Strong Ale, not a trippel. Of course the BJCP guidelines list it as commercial example of a trippel and they're pretty much the authority when it comes to these things. Anyhow, it tastes very very little like other tripel's I've had (St. Bernardus Tripel was probably the best). It's a lighter color and has a prounounced wheaty and phenol taste. The flavor isn't as sharp as the weizens I've had - Franziskaner Weissbier has been my favorite so far, Tucher wasn't bad but I wouldn't buy it again. Point is, whatever it is and whatever it tastes like, it's good and I'll definitely be buying it again. Or, better still, I'll make a batch if anyone has any suggestions. I'm assuming candi sugar would be invovled... but beyond that I'm really not familiar with the belgian styles.

I guess to my unrefined palate a lot of those belgian beers taste quite similar probably because of those yeast strains - they do seem to be the overriding flavor in those beer styles.
 
I've had a few of the beers as well: Fin du Monde, Maudite, Raftman, Blanche de Chambly, Eau Benite, and La Gaillarde.

Each beer has a unique story to it. Maudite for example:

The label is inspired by the legend of the Chasse-Galerie (Flying Canoe). The tale depicts a group of voyageur lumberjacks who had sold their souls to the devil, flying home in their canoes for Christmas. The devil, of course, was in the details, and apparently the fine print of their contract with the Prince of Darkness didn't include anything about landing. The lumberjacks can still sometimes be seen at night-perpetually paddling in flight.

I remember many a night in Montreal drinking these products that I don't remember many a night.:mug:
 
I was just reading what you guys had to say about one of my all time fav breweries.

The La Fin du Monde is a tripple. I think you may be confused because of the absolutely amazing yeast strain that they have. I heard that they spent a long time with that yeast because it was cultured wild (very wild). Took them a while to get it where it is today.

If you want a wheat by unibroue, buy a Blanche de Chambly! Its fantastic!!!

The worst thing is (for us homebrewers) is that we cant culture the yeast from the bottles. They are so protective of that amazing yeast that its ONLY used in the primary fermentation. After, the beer goes through a series of filterations, hence filtering the yeast strain out so no one can steal it! Bottle conditioning is with another, more neutral yeast strain.

I brewed a couple belgian style ales so far (all grain). Wyeast offers a "canadian/belgian" yeast 3864 (obviously a unibroue-style strain). I used this yeast in my tripple. My point? You MUST ferment that yeast at really hight temps to get all the complexity (and it still isnt as wild as the original unibroue strain). If you ferment at low temps, you wont get what your looking for.

Just my two cents!
:mug:
 
oh rad! You live in Calgary! Hey where do you get your brewing supplies? I made a really early transition to all-grain and since then i just order my stuff through Vancouver... place called Dan's Homebrewing Supplies (which by the way is a GREAT place run by a guy who really knows his stuff).

Unibroue clones... hmm. I maintain that the biggest difficulty you will have cloning Unibroue is the yeast man. That yeast strain that they have is so unique, and i seriously think that its half the reason i love their beers so much.

In my opinion, the best chance you'll have is HIGH fermentation... like 28 degrees celcius. The Wyeast 3864 is a good strain (i didnt ferment it high enough though...) or try some of the other wyeast belgian yeasts like the saison.

I may try to clone one... but i havent heard of any really good successes yet.....
Plus, i just (yesterday) brewed a massive oatmeal stout for winter!

pm or something!
 
Unibroue is perhaps my very favorite brewery. I love Trois Pistoles the best, I think, but Maudite and Ephemere are really great too. La Fin Du Monde is also really good, but I agree, it's not quite a wheat. Another really good one is the Terrible, which is similar to Trois Pistoles, except that it's more extreme. I plan on trying to make a La Fin Du Monde/Duvel clone using White Labs #WLP570 yeast sometime in January. I didn't know anything about going for higher fermentation temps to get a more accurate flavor though. Is that generally recommended for all belgian styles?

Finally, a fantastic commercial wheat beer is Ayinger Bräu-Weiss. It's by far the best I've had.
 
Rodan said:
You live in Calgary! Hey where do you get your brewing supplies?
LMAO...I'm starting to think that's how you great other homebrewers in Calgary given CC's ingredient procurement woes! (I'm laughing with you)

I was in the store this evening and saw two Unibroue beers I haven't seen (and can't pronounce). One was some type of cherry ale which I'm generally not interested in, but it was quite a nice bottle and is said to be very lightly carbonated such that it can be served on ice in the summer or heated like a mulled wine in the winter.

The other was a dark beer, I think dedicated to some soldiers who were sent to quash a rebellion in "New France". It was fairly "weak" for a Unibroue beer at around 6-6.5%.

I didn't bite on either as I'm doing Hennepin research.
 
That cherry stuff is Quelque Chose, I've tried it, it's pretty mulled-y, I think it's okay but there are better Krieks out there IMHO. It's expensive, and I'm not sure it's worth it.
Was the other one Noir de Chambly? If so, you should get some, as it's not produced anymore. If it's not the only other one I can think of about soldiers would be 1837, which is really good, but it's not dark.
 
Rodan said:
Unibroue clones... hmm. I maintain that the biggest difficulty you will have cloning Unibroue is the yeast man. That yeast strain that they have is so unique, and i seriously think that its half the reason i love their beers so much.

In my opinion, the best chance you'll have is HIGH fermentation... like 28 degrees celcius. The Wyeast 3864 is a good strain (i didnt ferment it high enough though...) or try some of the other wyeast belgian yeasts like the saison.

I may try to clone one... but i havent heard of any really good successes yet.....
Plus, i just (yesterday) brewed a massive oatmeal stout for winter!

pm or something!
The book Beer Captured has a Trois Pistoles clone recipe. I haven't tried it yet, but it would be fun to try.
 
Noir de Chambly sounds about right, because I actually guessed it would be a dark beer based on the name and I don't talk much of that there French stuff! Maybe I'll grab a sixer. I mean fourer.

Glad I passed on the cherry stuff...my instinct that I don't drink fruit beer served me well.
 
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