The Blackberry
de Garde Brewing

 

Bottled, April 2023, it pours lively, throwing a dense, long lasting, pink head. It is a gorgeous, clear ruby. To the immediate palate it tastes farmyard funky, rounding into dry berry and quickly transitioning to a noncompromising, long lasting, dry, woody note, which eventually, my saliva glands overcome, yielding a sherbety finish in the corners of my mouth. This is a very sophisticated beer. It’s been almost 4 years since it was brewed and it’s evolving into an increasingly complex beer.

 

 

Bottle from the source.

An excellent, rich blackberry nose, vibrant, jammy, some seed vanillin, layered fruit but with minimal acidity. The base beer is a little less funky than other de Garde beers, allowing the fruit to shine. Acidity on the palate is shockingly low, making this one drinkable beer.

Bottled August 2022, enjoyed on February 11, 2024 - poured at 48F from a capped-and-corked 750mL bottle into my Drie de Fonteinen tumbler.

Clear red-violet body with a creamy Mimi pink cap. Fine, sandy lacing; good retention.

Bright berry, light citrus-kissed acidity, gentle yet complex funk, and a hint of barrel.

Horse blanket, leather, and blackberry in equal measure on the palate entry - starts dry and gets a little sweeter in the finish with hints of blackberry coulis. More lactic with yogurt notes as the ale warms. Quite tart but not excessively so. Wild but well integrated while remaining a powerful expression of blackberry.

Medium-light bodied, creamy, and well carbonated.

One of the better domestic takes on the style - de Garde continues to set and meet a very high standard.

another memorable brew from these guys, a stunning expression of ripe blackberries in a familiarly funky and tart base wild ale of wonderful maturity and woodiness, these guys have remained at the top for a long time, nothing but love for their impressive body of work. this is jewel toned violet colored beer with a high bottle conditioned head stained light pink, some sediment thickening it up slightly towards the bottom, but the sparkles and stays delicate looking most of the way. the aroma is super mature, funky, tangy, and fruit driven, with lots of tannins, vinous character, hints of cedar and vanilla, red florals, syrah, and port wine. i love the dynamic fruit in the flavor from ripe and just picked freshness up front to jammy and sweet and concentrated in the middle to winey and puckery later, its amazing, and the fruit is carried by all the oak the whole way. the grain side of this feels especially light, the ferment has nice complexity to it, never too sour even with the tartness of the fruit contributing significantly, and the essence of the berries is on full display. really lovely brew, lighter bodied but packed with flavor, gritty and drying on the swallow, upbeat carbonation, and suggestions of tart cranberry, green apple, and currant. as good a showcase of real blackberries as you will find in a beer, de garde does it again! these beers are special every single time, and this one felt festive for the holiday season...

 

 

Big bottle at share, courtesy of Rick. Typical for a de Garde sour. This one nails the berry fruit flavors. Big berry Aroma and taste coupled with light tartness. Another classic from De Garde.

 

 

This one pours a dark reddish color, with a small head and lots of lacing.

This smells like red wine, very tart blackberry, lemon rind, and yogurt.

This is aggressively sour, but it does work for me. There’s that pleasant yogurty acidity and funk, with some big red wine barrel type flavor, and just a pile of blackberries - seedy, very sour, and very funky.

This one has a bracing acidity, which lingers on the palate for a while. It’s a slow sipper due to that fact.

It’s definitely nice to have a heavily fruited sour that’s also still actually very sour.

 

 

Dark purple body, pink head. Rich blackberry tartness, medium acetic acidity, not overpowering. Light lemon, damp oak. Slight red wine tannins. Medium bodied, good carbonation, mildly dry. Tastes like the blackberries that grow by my house!

 

 

 

Not the prettiest de Garde beer, this presents a darker prune juice purple-brown that's a little muddy, but it builds an impressive spongy off-white to mauve foam settling to a thick fuzzy collar that retains well. As you come closer to the bottom of the glass it becomes a little more vibrant with ruby edges, but don't pour the whole bottle into your glass--the sediment is thick and and almost black of skins or tannins.

Flavor is like a well made blackberry wine exhibiting a wild, seedy herbality pairing with juicy jammy bush fruit. The oakiness increases with a second sip, as does the sourness, but the ultra fluffy body mitigates acidity. There's a little funk in the oak, but very mildly so, leaving room to develop a little peppery tannin that adds a nice complexity.

The body is medium and softly sour, and just as frothily airy as the head suggests it'd be, coming to a semi-dry finish.