En Garde
Pizza Port Solana Beach

Pale golden is the colour of this 'funk de garde' sampled the barrel aged beer fest at the bistro.

This is similar to the biere de garde in the lost abbeys lineup but the aroma has the added joy of a a nice mix of funky farmhouse critters.

taste is malty sweet with sour funk in the mid and back palate which makes this brew more refreshing and springy/summery, imho. Mouthfeel is smooth and light>medium, drinkability is pretty damn good. Damn, lost abey has it on lock down these days!

On tap at the brewpub. Aroma bubbles from the glass as a rich musky wood, dry and airy, with some wisping tannic malt and currents of wildness. Very reduced by a too-cold serving temperature. Pours a clouded pale amber, in the golden realm. No head. Gas subdued, this beer flows smoothly as a dense, bright lemony sugar concoction, full of piquant brett and oaky aged character. Nips of grapes flow through. Mild, sweet and light. Not having had Avant Garde, it’s hard to compare. I’m not sure barrels and biere de gardes were meant for each other, but this one works at least minimally, maintaining a solid texture, keeping a dried-out watery sense away. Wood gives a little unique twinge.

This beer is reviewed from notes from the Lost Abbey 1st anniversery, where I personally sampled like 28 oz of the stuff.

This beer pours a slightly cloudy golden yellow color, with a slight white head. The head fades slowly, leaving a decent lacing.

This beer has a very nice aroma. It smells slightly sour. I love sour smelling beers. It has a slightly spicy aroma with some coriander, and maybe some orange peel.

As with the aroma, this beer has a very pleasent sour flavor. It tastes slightly sweet with some spicy flavors mixing in. I have a habit of fixating on the sour flavor of beers like this, and overlooking anything else. Sorry about that.

This beer goes down smooth, leaving a sour aftertaste. It is crisp and refreshing. It is carbonated just right.

This beer would probably make a good session beer. I love the flavor, and at 7%, it is only just slightly high in alcohol. Too bad I have never seen it anywhere but at the party.

Overall: OK, this might be one of the best, if not THE best beer I have had from Lost Abbey. After all my samples were gone, I bought a bunch more to keep drinking it. Tomme, please bottle this beer.

A pale but cloudy gold color. The smell was faintly bready with a slight hop presence. The taste was light malt followed by a little pilsner-like hop kick at the end. A wave of sourness came through from mid-end as well. Very light on the palate, refreshing, made for a hot summer day.

Sampled at the Monk's Cafe Lost Abbery Beer Dinner on 2/2/07. This was served side by side with the bottled version of the Avant Garde. The En Garde had a deep golden, amber color with very slight white head. Considerably still compared to the Avant Garde. Tomme Arthur noted that the malts for this brew were run through their pizza ovens but the aroma was not overly toasted, had some citrus notes. The taste is slighty fruity sweet and tart, had notes of wood and some wine qualities to it.