Garde Dog, a Bière De Garde

I am a bit excited to try this one today for one reason. I have never had a commercial example of Biere De Garde. Biere De Garde means to Beer that has been kept, or stored. This is because traditionally, Biere De Garde was a French Ale, brewed in early spring, then kept or lagered in cool cellars until the warmer summer months. Biere De Garde can be either blonde, amber, or brown. Just by pouring this, i am assuming this to be the blonde variety. Also, from those I know who have had traditional examples of the style, each ale usually has a “house” flavor from the cellaring where it is stored. I don’t think this beer will have that character but we will see.

In the aroma I find that toasted malt is the dominant aroma, followed by some mildly floral hop character. Aside from the toast, there is some spicy tones to the beer, which I am not sure if it is from the hops, rye, or yeast but I am suspecting from the use of the rye malt. There is an underlying peachy sweetness. I do not detect any real cellared character or funkiness. Just a good solid malty brew. (9 points)

The color is a pale gold and quite clear. The head was quite thin and dissipated quite quickly. This style should have a good amount of head. (1 point)

The flavor is quite full of toasted malt as well. Some fruity esters, again similar to peaches, and a slight hop bite. The hop flavor is slightly herbal and the rye lends a spicy note to it. I feel the beer finishes out a bit too sweet. For the style, the malt balance is nice when compared to the hops. It definitely takes to the front lines, but lacks a bit of depth I would look for here. I get quite a bit of toasted malt, but not much else. I know that this is the paler version of Biere De Garde, but a bit more depth would make the beer a bit more interesting. The spicy and herbal character are my favorite. They linger long into the finish and taste quite good to me. I do think I get t touch of alcohol here, but at only 5.5% I am thinking it is more the herbal tones than real alcohol here, but I am sure the alcohol is playing a small factor.  (14 points)

The mouthfeel is medium with some high carbonation. No astringency. Overall the feel is very smooth and velvet-like. (4 points)

Overall this is a very good beer, but is lacking some depth in the malt arena. I think the toast character is nice, and the spicy/floral/herbal tones are very nice. But a bit more complexity, even in this paler version, would have been nice. Still, I think it’s an easy drinking beer with some definite high points. One other nice touch would have been to dry out the beer just a bit more. I my perception, I felt if finished out a bit sweet. (7 points)

In the end, I gave this beer a 35 which is a very good beer, or a C+ to B- in my opinion. Per the style the beer fits quite well, but is lacking some depth and minor tweaks that would make this an excellent beer in my opinion.