Brewery: New Braunfels Brewing Company
Beer: Les Fleurs Du Mal
Style: Hefeweizen/Sour/Wild Ale
ABV: 5.7%
Character: Open-fermented, aged 4 months on lemongrass, and bottle-conditioned with TX wildflower honey
Ratings at time of Review: BA: n/a | RB: n/a
Metal Connection: THERION – une fleur dans le coeur

Rating: 4.5/5

For the past couple of years, Kelly and Lindsey Meyer have been pumping out some interesting beers, primarily wheat beers with a few sours thrown in from time to time. Lately though, it seems that sour beers seem to be the focus from the brewery. They are even making some changes, and improvements in the barrel program.

Last year, NBBCo released Les Fleurs Du Mal, or the Flowers of Evil, a beer that started off as a Hefeweizen, then put through open fermentation, and aged 4 months with lemon grass, then bottle-conditioned with TX wildflower honey. When Kelly fir st told me about this beer, I was intrigued by the name, and of course the label which features a pile of skulls with hand drawn flowers by, I believe, the Meyer’s daughter. The beer name is written in a grungy, splattered style font, which adds to the mystique of the label. By far, this is the best label by NBBCo, Sans cesse à mes côtés s’agite le Démon also appears on the label which translates to The Demon is always moving about at my side.

I poured Les Fleurs Du Mal into a tulip style glass, a recommended glass type for this style of beer. The beer’s appearance was a hazy bright yellow straw color. On the pour, there was a large white foamy head that was over an inch thick. It stuck around a while, leaving excellent spotty lacing down the glass.

The Nose was full of characters. Right away there was some sour funkiness, followed by lemon grass, stone fruits like apricot, small hint of banana, hay and wheat. There is a good backing of wheat bread, and earthiness.

The taste is also full of the same characters as the nose. Big sour funk hits the palate first, then the barnyard funk, wet hay, wheat, biscuit bread backbone. Good fruit notes cut through, apricot, a little mango, light ripe banana, and lemon grass. The sourness with a little earthiness, and the fruit flavors shine through in the aftertaste.

The body of this beer is a solid medium thickness, with a mouth puckering acidic tartness, but a smooth mouthfeel. The finish is dry, which works perfectly with the flavors that linger in the aftertaste.

Overall, I was impressed by this beer. To me, this beer delivers on it’s promises. This beer has the qualities of a Hefeweizen, and it is sour. I read a lot of negative things online about this beer, but I do not see the bad hype around this one. For me, it has been one of my favorite beers produced by New Braunfels Brewing Company. I like the new direction they are heading with their experimental sour barrel program. I really hope to see some good stuff from them. I know I will. Cheers Kelly for The Flowers of Evil!

Metal Connection: Looking through the Metal database, I came across an album released in 2012, by the Symphonic/Operatic Metal group, Therion by the name of Les Fleurs Du Mal. This full length album is the band’s 15th album. The album consists of all cover songs by different French singers. They did a cover of a song named “Une Fleur Dans Le Cœur” which is from the French singer, Victoire Scott. Therion of course, does Metal up the song a bit, and make it their own. Therion is a band that has been around since 1988, and started off as a Death Metal band, which progressed into a Symphonic/Operatic Metal band. I remember buying their debut album, Of Darkness…. back in the day, and loving their style of Death Metal. Since then, the band really went left field with their style. You can’t even tell it’s the same band. Do yourself a favor and listen to the amazing cover song chosen for this Metal Connection, and then click this link to hear the song, “Asphyxiate with Fear” from Therion’s debut album to compare. Fuck it, here is the original version of “Une Fleur Dans Le Cœur.”