Mike Loves Beer

Name – Oro De Calabaza
Country – United States
Type – Bière de Garde

Appearance – Poured a very cloudy orange color with a big fluffy white head.

Smell – Acidic sour apple, yeasty and a slight bit of vinegar.

Taste – Very crisp lemony and sour apple tartness to it.  There is a small bit of a vinegar taste but not overbearing at all.

I was careful with this bottle after many Jolly Pumpkin beers turn into gushers so I opened and poured the beer over the sink.  Luckily no gushing here, just a nice pour.  Another really good beer from America’s sour masters.  I still wish Shelton Brothers would bring more of their stuff down in the southern part of the state like they do central.

Overall Grade – A

Name – Garde Dog
Country – United States
Type – Bière de Garde

Appearance – Poured a cloudy almost orange color.  Things did settle and the beer became clearer.  The over finger wide white head was gone very quickly.

Smell – Very hard to pick anything up from this.  You get some grassy notes and a little yeast but not much going on.

Taste – Very light in body and had a yeasty wheat taste to it.  There was a bit of a sweetness to it and an ever so small bit of funk but really kind of fell flat.

I’ve only had one Bière de Garde previously and that made me think I was going to be getting a funky sour brew here.  But that wasn’t what I got.  This was very close in taste to just a basic wheat styled beer.  It was refreshing I will give it that.  I had one while doing my brew last weekend.  But it just didn’t live up to what I thought it would be.

Overall Grade – C

Name – Bière De Mars
Country – United States
Type – Bière De Garde

Appearance – Pours a very cloudy orange color with a big, bubbly head that disappears very quickly right in front of your eyes.

Smell – You pick up the brett immediately along with some sour apple notes.

Taste – Brett, yeast, sour apple, cherries and little bit of hops.

I had never heard of the style Bière De Garde before but when I saw that it uses brett in it that it must be a sour beer.  I noticed that the bottle said it was bottled in October 2008 so it is already a year old for me.  I’m thinking that may be why the sour notes were not as powerful as say Bam Bière.  I enjoyed it as I do with everything Ommegang does but I think unless the sour notes died down because of the aging that I’ll stick with Jolly Pumpkin if I want a straight up sour ale.

Overall Grade – B-