• The Magazine
    • Current Issue
    • Back Issues
    • Features
      • Brewing
      • People
      • Culture
      • History
      • Food
      • Travel
      • Styles
      • Homebrewing
    • Departments
      • Coming Soon
      • Columns
        • Visiting the Pub
        • Behind the Bar
        • It’s My Round
        • The Beer Enthusiast
        • The Beer Curmudgeon
        • In The Brewhouse
        • Michael Jackson
        • The Taster
        • Beyond Beer
        • Your Next Beer
        • Industry Insights
      • What’s Brewing
      • Pull Up A Stool
      • Travel
        • Beer Travelers
        • A Closer Look
        • Beer Weekend
      • Stylistically Speaking
      • Home Brewing
      • Beer Talk
      • Beer Books
  • Events
    • World Beer Festival Raleigh – April 1, 2017
    • World Beer Festival Durham
    • Event Calendar
    • Brewery Tastings & Events
    • Beer Explorer
  • Reviews
    • Staff Reviews
    • Beer Talk
    • Flights
    • Book Reviews
  • Learn
    • What is Beer?
      • Water
      • Malt
      • Hops
      • Yeast
    • Styles
      • Lagers
      • British and North American Ales
      • Belgian and Continental Ales
      • Wheat Ales
      • Stouts and Porters
      • Seasonal and Specialty
    • Glossary
  • News
    • New on the Shelves
  • Web Only
    • Blogs
      • Daniel Bradford
      • John Holl
      • Acitelli on History
      • The Beer Bible Blog
      • Bryson
    • Video
    • Photos
    • Podcasts
Menu
logo
  • Advertise with Us
  • Subscriber Services
  • Retailer Services
Give a Gift Subscribe

Avril

July 1, 2009 Tourpes, Belgium
Reviewers: Roger Protz

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.
- Roger Protz
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.
- K. Florian Klemp

Roger Protz
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
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.

Comments are closed here.

Follow @allaboutbeer

Beer in your inbox

More Like This

  • Farmhouse Ale
  • Wailing Wench
  • Torch Pilsner

Most Popular

  • Report: Bell's Files Federal Action Against Innovation Brewing
  • Bell's Issues Response on Innovation Trademark Dispute

The Magazine

  • Advertise with Us
  • Subscribe
  • Give a Gift
  • Staff
  • Subscriber Services
  • Retailer Services

Learn Beer

  • Reviews
  • Back Issues
  • Articles
  • Writer Guidelines
  • Internship Program

Events

  • World Beer Festival
  • Craft Beer Events
  • News

All About Beer

  • P.O. Box 110346
  • Durham, NC 27709
  • CONTACT