Brasserie Dupont
Tourpes, Belgium
Imported by: VanBerg & DeWulf
Cooperstown, NY
Available: AL, AK, AZ, CA, CT, FL, GA, IL, IN, IA, KY, LA, ME, MD, MA, MI, MN, MO, NE, NV, NJ, NM, NY, NC, OH, OR, PA, RI, SC, TX, VT, VA, WA, WI
Brasserie Dupont is one of Belgium’s best-known saison producers. Avril is the brewery’s bière de table, a low-alcohol table beer with a recognizable saison pedigree.
ABV: 3.5
ABW: 3.8
Color: 3-4
Bitterness: 23
Original gravity: 1029
Dupont is renowned as the classic producer of the style known as saison in Belgium, originally a seasonal beer produced by farmers to refresh their families and laborers during harvest time. The style is now produced all year round and Dupont has added several new beers to its quiver, including this organic version. At 3.5 per cent by volume, it’s a modest brew compared to the regular 6.5 per cent saison but the hazy gold beer still delivers plenty of aroma and flavor. There are spicy and peppery hops on the nose with herbal and floral side notes and a delicious hint of sherbet. Bitter hops dominate the palate with toasted malt and sherbet followed by a dry, bitter, hoppy finish with continuing hints of spices, pepper and sherbet.
Billed as a "bière de table," Avril harkens back to the low-gravity farmhouse ales of yesteryear in rural Belgium. Lemony in color, with a fluffy head, and feathery lace, Avril looks the part of saison. The aroma is amazingly busy, with that distinctive Dupont musty forest character and notes of cedar, lemon, pepper and cinnamon. Lots of spice in the flavor, with cinnamon again, leathery Brettanomyces, and a resinous bitter mélange of hops and clove in the brisk finish. The mouthfeel is somewhat stark, as expected, but the yeasty haze gives some earthy grit back. This adds a precocious friskiness to farmhouse ales specifically, and sessions beers on the whole. Incredibly complex for its gravity.
Roger Protz is the author of Complete Guide to World Beer and 300 Beers to Try Before You Die. He is a respected beer authority and editor of the CAMRA Good Beer Guide.
K. Florian Klemp is an award-winning homebrewer and general hobbyist who thinks there is no more sublime marriage than that of art and science.
