The title of this morning's radio program was inspired by the weirdo beer I drank yesterday. Brasserie Dieu du Ciel's Rosée d’Hibiscus—an ale that's brewed with spices and hibiscus flowers. In other words, it's "faerie beer", as in faeries of the garden or faeries of whimsy. I'm not judging regular drinkers of this particular brew, but seeing as it pours a color that even a dead man would immediately recognize as "pink", it's unlikely this will be popular with the football enthusiasts down at the local sports bar.
Like most Johnny-come-latelys to the boutique beer phenomenon, I bought this one entirely because of the label. Now I don't know about you, but when I'm offered anything that comes with a picture of a freakish, pixie-like nymph who has flowers cascading out of her hair, I hand over my money and worry about the consequences later. It's a good thing I didn't grow up in a place like New Hope, Pennsylvania, or else I'd probably be homeless by now.
Here's how the label describes this most peculiar ale:
Rosée d’Hibiscus is a soft spoken Belgian-style wheat beer. Its rose colour comes from the hibiscus flowers added during the brewing process. The aromas and flavour of this tropical flower are very prominent in the beer, giving it a slight acidity and very agreeable fragrance.
Fair enough. Here's what the experts say about it. Unfortunately, I didn't like it as much as they did, or even as much as the peppercorn beer I wrote about a while back, so I probably wouldn't buy this again unless I were planning to invite some Hobbits over for a backyard barbecue. To that end, my wife was plenty jealous when she saw this beer's label because the only thing more pronounced than her hatred of beer is her love for Hobbits and princesses and faeries of the woodland realm. I think you'd agree the picture at left has a great deal in common with all of those things. After I drained the bottle, I stopped referring to it as Faerie Beer and (rather obnoxiously) started calling it "Faramir Beer", in honor of the Lord of the Rings character whom I sometimes jokingly call "the Faerie Son of Gondor" just to get a rise out of my wife. (She has a movie crush on him.) In a way, I agree that he is among the most compelling characters in the whole Lord of the Rings universe because even though he's gentle and wee and always loses the battle and probably likes Hibiscus flowers in his beer, he does NOT get killed by Orcs. More importantly, he ends up with the cute girl at the end of the story, so I guess it's time to review my criticisms once again.
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