By Greg B.  With a last name like Bissonette, sometimes I have to pay tribute to my French heritage.  Sure, my French ancestors left Europe as soon as they heard there was a new continent.  Tired of the monarchy and occasional riots, starving situations and random wars between fiefdoms, the first Bissonette to come to America was here with the intent on a simple life.  Living in the woods, hunting and trapping.  Today, we Bissonettes occupy many wide varieties and stations in American life, but I bet, on occasion, all of us are enticed back to do something that reminds of that we have French heritage… even if it was 400 years ago!  And really, based on that fact, I picked up a bottle of this beer (though to be honest, I also got it because Damon had ordered it while at the Standard Tap, and it sounded interesting enough to review!).  The Fleur De Lehigh, from Philadelphia brewing company.

The beer is an unfiltered gold ale, which I think will give it some of that nice cloudiness and texture that go so nicely with unfiltered beers (also with homebrews, unless someone out there has a fancy filtering setup!).  It pours a deep honey color with a big foamy white head that rapidly recedes to a faint white rim of bubbles along the side of the glass, leaving no lacing on the glass.  I chose to use a large mouthed glass with a stem at the bottom, to let the beer really slow me how cloudy it was, accommodate the initial large head, as well as use the wide mouth to help express the aromas of the beer.  There are aromas of clover honey, ginger and a little citrus with a nice thick sweet aroma to boot.  The body of the beer is good, it has a stronger ginger flavor after you drink it with a mild bitter at the finish.  It finished very clean and slightly dry which makes this potentially a really good food beer.  I can imagine marinading some salmon in this before grilling or baking it, or even just making a lime/ginger marinade for some fish and using this beer to drink with the meal.  The bitterness and crisp finish will help cut through any fats that are in the meal as well.  Despite that great idea however, I opened this up just as a quick bottle to sample and kinda didn’t think about pairing it with dinner, so in a few minutes when my ricotta and spinach tortellini with tomato basil sauce was done, I had it with the meal.  There are worse pairings, but I don’t recommend this one!  That being said, this is an interesting beer, one you should check out if you’re in the mood for something new and interesting, but not too crazy.  2.9/5  abv….?  No mention on the bottle or on the website.