Flacon d'Alsace

by Trevor Prosser
(Beer Delegate, AB, Canada)

Le Flacon d'Alsace beer
Boris, France

My latest adventure through the beer store glass door left me pondering selection for several minutes. What should I have? What needs a review?

I looked desperately past the Canadians and Kokanees for something different. Finally, on my third pass, I found it. A little French beer called Le Flacon d'Alsace (The Alsatian Flask) from Boris.

Now, when I say little, I mean it. These tiny 250ml bottles were literally hiding in plain sight. But the packaging suggested a subversive little brew, so home we went.

Now, I'm sure many would insert a joke here about their rebellious packaging coming from France, but I'll skip it. Sure, the labels would appeal to a college-aged Che Guevara shirt-wearing English major with minors in philosophy and art. Sure, you'll probably never see this beer served at anything but a snobby beer bar that prides itself in stocking every known brand, and having the right glasses to serve them all.

But all of that aside, I have to say that this rebellious little bier, at 5.5%, has a refreshing sort of Heineken crispness with a distictive French smack behind it that is a fair swipe better than the oft-metallic bitter twang of some European pale ales. It does have a certain aspect that reminds you of a decently dry white wine, but it's fleeting.

While its size is more suited to a quick sip than a full meal accompaniment, it wouldn't be out of place as an apres-lawn mowing refreshment, enjoyed on a sunny back porch. Of course, Boris would rather you drink this bier in a small, dank apartment in downtown Paris as you and your fellow anarchists plot world domination, but to each their own.

On each bottle is written this: "My values are those of a generation that has taken control of its existence and future. I pledge allegiance to only one flag: my own." To me, this is a bit more than a simple beer can claim to represent. I know they're trying to be different, but they're trying too hard.

They have a good little beer on their hands - it's different, but not alarmingly so. In fact, I think Katherine Hepburn and Spencer Tracy put it better in Adam's Rib (1949):

Hepburn: Well, maybe there is a difference, but it's a little difference.
Tracy: Well, you know as the French say...
Hepburn: What do they say?
Tracy: Vive la difference!
Hepburn: Which means?
Tracy: Which means hurrah for that little difference.