Tides De Mars
Devils Backbone Brewing Company

 

Pours golden to golden orange with a 1 1/2 finger off white head that leaves light lacing. Strong carbonation.

Aroma of sweet malts with a hint of caramel, followed by citrus and a light mustiness.

Taste is tart and lemony with bitter citrus peel upfront. The sweet malts rise in the middle along with
some moderate funk, Tart with light bitterness on the finish. Light taste of alcohol.

Medium in feel but crisp yet creamy. Syrupy and drying.

A really good beer. Well balanced and tasty. The citric qualities make a good summer brew, but it's more of a sipper than a quaffer.

Medium frothy head, long lasting, good lacing. Very effervescent, hazy, pale gold color
Nice belgium yeast aroma; notes of candi sugar; nice floral hops; a bit of good funk as it warms
Very tasty to me; tastes a bit more like a saison to me
Mouthfeel is slightly thin, but zippy.
I like this beer overall. I'm a fan of the style anyway. I'd buy it again.

Poured hard into a pilsner glass. Ample active white foaming head. Lacing continues while drinking. Color is a hazy yellow gold. Smell is funky. Taste is both bitter and sour. Like a saison, not a favorite. Feel is medium light with abundant carbonation.

Pours a hazy gold color. 1/4 inch head of a white color. Decent retention and decent lacing. Smells of sweet malt, Belgian yeast, alcohol, floral hops, hint of spicy hops, and strong fruity esters. Fits the style of a Biere de Garde. Mouth feel is sharp and crisp, with a high carbonation level and dryness. Tastes of sweet malt, Belgian yeast, alcohol, floral hops, wine, hint of spicy hops, and strong fruity esters. Overall, average appearance, feel, blend, and body.

Poured from the bottle into a tulip glass.

Golden coppery bronze body color, with good clarity, and a very nice middle column of rising carbonation. Head is a basic white, somewhat creamy but with a smaller topped head reaching maybe two fingers, and settling to a half, with a good position. Very nice looking brew.

Aroma is slightly off. Not much sensing malt and funk presence, and there's a faint hint of bile on this. A mild sense of orange and lemon just barely squeaks through.

Palate is a considerable improvement. Light bodied with an excellent effervescence. Prickly carbonation, and touches of light herbs but some gaseous qualities overtake. Slight sensing malt sweetness, a bit of Belgian like candied sugar in the mix as well. Soft bodied a touch of light acidity as well which seems to make the brew a little more lively, and accentuates the carbonation like flavors more so.

A pretty decent drinkable Garde, but plays it pretty safe to style.

 

Last beer left over from the collaboration variety pack. Bottling date is March 8th, 2017.

The beer is a nice deep golden/amber color, almost but not quite into the light orange range. A decent layer of white foam formed on top upon pouring; it's shrank away a bit now, but a thick outer ring is still hanging around along with a thin coating on top. Shining a flashlight through reveals the beer is mostly clear with a slight haze, and also has many streams of tiny bubbles rising from the bottom.

Smell seems to be predominantly yeasty funkiness, with a bit of a doughy thing going on in the background. Maybe a slight peppery spice sort of thing in there, too. The funkiness seems to get stronger as it warms.

Flavors are mild, but seem to be mostly yeast-driven like the smell. Some spiciness, some of that "sort of banana-like but not quite" yeast thing that I get from a lot of Belgian-style beers, a bit of that doughy sort of thing I was detecting in the smell. Also some sweetish light malts mixed in there. Has an earthiness to it, especially when that "almost banana" flavor is present. Some yeasty spiciness is the primary lingering flavor with this one, but even that doesn't really start to stick around for long until near the end of the glass.

The feel is MUCH more light and drinkable than you'd expect from a beer over 6% ABV -- my first sip ended up as more of a gulp thanks to that, it's been a while since I had my first bottle so I wasn't expecting that! There's lots of bubbles but it's not prickly or harsh at all. Very dry, too. Absolutely no sign of alcohol warmth.

Overall a pretty nice beer! I'm not really sure what to compare it to as I've never had a Bier de Mars (or Biere de Garde as it's categorized on here), but I'm assuming it's something in the yeasty, dry, bubbly, drinkable saison-esque range since that's the impression I'm getting from this one. Strongest feature is probably the mouthfeel, it just does the "dry, light and bubbly but not watery" thing so well that I had to mention it twice in this review. Once again the Devil's Backbone collaboration pack was definitely worth the price -- not a single dud in the bunch, aside from those two bottles of Vienna Lager that just tasted "off" to me.

 

 

Many of the same characteristics as a saison.

Poured from a 12 oz brown bottle into a clear glass tulip. 04.14.17 on bottle neck.

A: Clear honey gold with short-lived foamy 1/2-finger off-white head with minimal retention and a few dots of lacing at most.

S: Orange tea with apple skins and grassiness, slightly musty

T: The few examples of this style that I've had have been very subtle beers -- this one fits right in. Crackery pils malt up front with more orange and tea and herbal floral notes pervade the mid-palate and finish. There is a bit of lightly stinging phenolic in the finish. A very earthy beer with some unique and interesting flavors.

M: Very dry with high carbonation and a light body - easy to drink.

O: I think this is a good beer but I wouldn't want more than one of them with the high earthiness factor and the zinging phenolic in the finish which really hangs around to build more bitterness with a different character than from hop-based IBUs.

12oz bottle poured into a snifter
Boned on 3/8/17

Pours a clear golden color with a small foamy white head that reduces to leave just a thin ring around the edge. Smells of toasted malt, swarthy basement must, clove and light floral hop. Tastes of earthy must with some fruity esters and phenolic notes, finishes with toasted malt and floral hops. Medium-light body with medium carbonation leads tonanfosmy mouthfeel and a crisp finish. Easy drinking with some good earthy notes

 

 

Poured from bottle into a stem glass. A copper golden color. Funky smell. Little head. Belgian yeast tastes of gum and clove. A malty finish with a stick aftertaste. My first of this style. Reminds me of a cross between a Belgian and an ESB.