Cuvee du 8eme

Origin: Switzerland

Type: Strong Ale 

Color: Brownish amber

Alcohol content: 7.5%

Recommended serving temperature: 7ºC/45ºF

Brewery: Brasserie des Franches-Montagnes

Webpage: http://www.brasseriebfm.ch/pg/bieres

I have decided today to add another country to those featured on this blog.

I am going to do so by writing about a Swiss beer, Cuvée du 8ième, which, oddly enough, I had to go and try this summer in the USA. Mind you, I have been to Switzerland many times, but I have never really managed to drink anything other than average lager and/or German beer. Now I know that I have to try harder.

This beer pours more or less like your average abbey style Belgian beer, it has an orange amber tone and quite a bit of haziness. It has however much less foam than your average abbey style beer (because it has almost none at all). This makes the beer settle faster and the haziness almost disappear pretty soon.

Despite the lack of foam making the smells more subdued, you can easily make out the extra ingredient this beer is brewed with. Because this beer (I am still undecided of whether to call it a wink to its origin or a Swiss cliché), is brewed with cocoa powder.

The smell of cocoa powder gives it a powdery sweet aroma, that is balanced with other more acidic smells, reminding me of vinegar and lime, giving the whole thing a very original feeling, and almost erasing the comparison to abbey beers completely from my mind.

The cocoa powder is also pretty straightforward in the taste, even more so than in the smell, but it has to share the spotlight with other flavors, which you do not really get in this beer's smell.

The main one is that of dark fruits, like red grapes and berries. These come to interact with the lime and vinegar, already noticed in the smell, giving the impression that the berries are either old or heavily matured, providing a certain tartness to the sweet fruitiness they would usually have.

A certain spiciness is also noticeable in the taste, just before the cocoa powder powders and bitters up the flavor and making the whole experience a feast of contrasts. Contrasts not everyone will probably find enjoyable, but for some reason, really tickled my fancy when I tried it.

It is certainly a whirlwind of flavors, jumping from slightly sweet, to tart, to bitter, thereby making it a feat to pair with one specific food. Nevertheless, if you are prone to embarking on wild adventures without moving from your couch, like me, I would recommend trying to match this beer by pairing it with a strong herby cheese.

If you are still reading after the above, and would like to try this beer, let me just finish by warning you, act fast because this beer is no longer made, so what has been brewed already is all there will be.