La Porte Du Hainaut Ambrée
Brasserie La Choulette

August 2006: Bottle, at Delirium Café, Göteborg. Amber to copper colour. Vinous aroma. Notes of blackcurrants, redcurrants, oak and bakery in aroma and flavour.

Beer bottle (33 cl.), tasted in 2009.

Appearance : beautiful autumn colors, with white foamy head (not persistent).
Smell : sweet aromas with notes of malt and caramel.
Taste and mouthfeel : sweet with notes of alcohol, and dry bitter finish.
Drinkability : a good beer in the style Bère de Garde.

A greatly enjoyable biere de garde done quite well for its style. Alcohol well hidden and taste is a diverse mouthful of choice malts, nicely blended. Some roast, some sweet, an overall delicious blend. Strong, intoxicating aroma. Quite an enjoyable drink for after dinner or to share with friends in the summer. This was a bit of a treat.

Purchased at the OnlyFineBeer shop in Chelmsford. Coming in a 33cl brown bottle, bottle-conditioned. The BB date printed on the bottle is Dec. 2005!!!, gosh, more than 6 months ago... Served lightly-chilled in a broad-rimmed goblet.

A: pours a murky, dark reddish brown, black-tea like colour; the off-white beer head is thick and frothy, gradually settling to a thin cap with pretty tight lacing; lively carbonation completes the picture.
S: sour-sweet funky and damp nose of Biere de Garde's typical rough yeastiness... combined with an extraordinary nose mixed of brown-sugar, pineapples, sour/semi-fermented red pears, red-grapes, an intriguing edge of musk, and a pungent note of raw-ish malt grist, almost chew-able on the aroma~~ a smoother fruit-perfume stays deep down in the background, nice for a change. Distinctive, slightly rougher than I'd prefer, but the overall aroma softens bit by bit as it warms and breathes...
T: very pungent, tart, citric fruity, almost a bit vinegary at first... plus a sour-cherry-ish flavour, an unidentifiable mixed-spicy edge on top of a milder brown-sugary maltiness, and a slightly savoury-sweet and consistently rough, woody yeasty finish. The flavour profile is simplistic, with all flavour elements rolled in one, but not necessarily negative.
M&D: spritzy on the mouthfeel, not overly carbonated or sharp; yet the tart flavour ensures that the palate is semi-tangy and slightly thin. Overall this medium-minus bodied beer is quite different from the other brews by La Choulette, and IMO quite an unconventional one. Still I'm not sure it's my cup of tea for Bier de Garde, for it's way too sour for me not to suspect if the expiry issue has a negative bearing on the taste and quality of this bottle? I'll never know.