F.A.I.L
de Garde Brewing

 

 

was told this is a lager at the bottle share at Beer nouveau
poured from bottle to reveal a very light brown body with good white g=head
Bevis Maun is drinking a F.A.I.L. by de Garde Brewing at Beer Nouveau

Best lager I ever had from America

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2Ronnie Campbell avatar Stuart Harding avatar

 

 

 

I gotta say this might be the most unique beer I've had from de garde, and that is saying a lot given that their spontaneous fermentation stuff has as unique a Tillamook profile as anything similar from Belgium. Spontaneous lager, sure man I can dig it, but have I ever had one before? Can't think of one. I think this review is from Summer 2018. (FAIL = Formerly An Interesting Lager)

Pours a yellow color leaning darker from the influence of spending a year in an oak barrel. Produces a nice looking 1/2" white head. Cool aroma, toasted oak, toasted pale barley, some Tillamook farm pasture notes, love that shit (lol literally I guess).

Taste has even more nuance, there is a bit of coriander here, but it is shockingly a good contribution (95% of the time I'm not a coriander guy), little funk notes, lemon, caramel, brett, tastes like fall, love the amount of woodiness to this. Appropriate carbonation. Super affordable. One of those rare instances where something experimental/unique turns out to be hella good.

Lemony, malty-sweet, hint of oak barrel, and hint of tart and funky lager nose on this one! For a lager, this has a great nose! Taste follows with a lemon-tart and crispy-sweet, malty finish...the barrel is subtle here and well-balanced. This feels zip-zappy on the palate and is fun to drink! It balances the different characteristics between a lager and a farmhouse ale really well. This has aged beautifully and is well done. This is great!!!

 

Really enjoyed this, and love the experimentation which gets extra points. Super clean on the front with complex sour notes on the back that are well balanced and restrained in line with the base lager. Really an interesting and enjoyable beer.

one of the most interesting beers i have had from these guys to date, huge thanks to my homie for sharing it, it was a standout in a session of standouts! hard to believe this is a lager, its so bretty and funky that it goes well beyond what any of us have come to expect in a standard lager, but this is anything but standard. very lightly hazy, super pale straw colored brew with a ton of head and bubbles to it, aroma of dry hoppy juicy citrus and mature bretty funk, a lambicus type tang to it, but relatively low acidity. its cool how woody this is, the label says one year in oak and i get all of that, a white wine character to it but also that earthy vanilla newness. its hard to really appreciate a lager yeast in here, as the bretty element is way more flamboyant in here, but the crispness and dryness have it feeling like a pils type lager, refreshing and summery and crushable, i have to keep reminding myself that this is de garde and as such fancy and rare and to slow the heck down and enjoy it, there isnt ten more of these in the fridge (oh how i wish there were!). its clean for being funky, delicate almost, nicely hopped, mature and interesting on the yeast side, and enormously delicious. cool that its a lager, i havent seen many like this, really smart and clever beer, we all loved it!

 

 

 

 

This one pours a slightly hazy light yellow, with a small head and not much lacing.

This smells kind of like funky apple cider, tart champagne without the champagne yeast, and grassy funk.

The taste is pretty similar. It feels like a cross between beer/champagne/apple cider, in a good way. It feels like a pilsner at it's base, with slight grassiness and pilsner malt, with a white wine fruitiness, a champagne feel without the typical champagne yeast flavor, and green apple cider. This is really confusing for my mouth, as I expect de Garde beers to be much, much more sour than this- and this is delicate and dainty. It's a nice change-up.

This is light bodied, with a lower level of carbonation- it delicately rolls across the tongue. It's very drinkable.

This is possible one of the most unique de Garde beers I've ever had, and that sort of thing is always welcome for me.

Hazy yellow with a soft, persistent white blanket leaving spotty lace.

Smell is spicy, soft oak, lemon, pear, hay and grass.

With a light body and a slightly crisp tartness, FAIL exhibits drinkable lemon lime flavors paired with light funk.