New Belgium describes this beer as having a "celestial orange hue" ... well it's orange all right. Well like a dark reddish orange. Celestial? Yeah, sure, why not? It's like staring through a telescope at the very surface of Mars. Never mind, that's pushing it. There's an interesting saltiness and a mild tartness in the aroma. The body is very light. As you can see by the stats it's a highly attenuated beer finishing at 1.011. The wild brettanomyces plays a subtle background role. This is not a La Folie and your mouth won't pucker up with each sip. A lot of malt flavors come through. You can taste some caramel and soft oat flavors. The lemon additions are much more mild than i anticipated, but I am cool with that. This is an excellent beer to share with a friend who wants to try a sour, but isn't sure that they will like them.
Again in 2012, we are pleased to offer one of our favorite harbingers of spring, Biere de Mars.
With earthy tones of ripe mango and lemon verbena, this bottle-conditioned ale reflects the hearty character of the southern Belgian and northern French countrysides. Brewed with barley, oats and wheat malt, Biere de Mars' celestial orange hue inspired the planetary play on words.
Brettanomyces, a wild yeast strain, added for bottle-conditioning creates a refreshingly sour flash across the palate. Lemon peel coupled with the lemon verbena imparts fruitlike character and a citrusy finish.