I like the style of this brewery's labels and brew branding. They all have a folk arty drawing off of a local character from the past. My French is so poor that I can't tell the tale of Joe - but I do note "Houblonée a Froid" in that green circle, cold hopped. You can't really see it in the picture provided care of my dying camera. It's starting to look like art, isn't it? It's not another dead digital camera to join the pile. It's the art camera.
This DIPA pours a deep orange amber with slow moving carbonation hinting at thickness. The head is rich creamy foam and froth. Heat, sweet herb and bready malt on the nose. In the mouth a bit of a surprise. Big but not huge. Sweet creamy with heat, grapefruit pith sweet malt and some very singular herbal notes. A bit burn at the end. Quite nutty with star anise as well. More of a semi-sub-DIPA than an IIPA. You know know what I mean?
It gets some curious looks from RateBeerians perhaps from its sub-imperial reality but great respect from the BAers. Its a seasonal special for autumn but I am not sure that it's the autumn of 2009 or 2010. If it is a year old, it has held up very well even if that hint of star anise is not going to be everyone's favorite thing.