Rouge BuVeaux
de Garde Brewing

Thanks to Oregon Sam for bringing/proxying these my way. Pours a full on pink and red color that looks nothing like beer to the general population. Just looks straight up like the cherry skin color and grape juice blend but for the 2/3" lighter pink head. Its beautiful.

Now the smell on this beer, its nice and as advertised, cherries and hibiscus, but plenty of that lemony sour and funky power and dry wood on the nose too. Dem bugs man, don't tell me you can't have them do good things on this side of the pond.

Taste is just delicious with a crushingly easy mouth feel to boot. Cherry skin, lemon sour, hibiscus, light wheat impression I think as well. The fruitiness going on goes well beyond the fruits and floral aspects actually used, a good sign that there is plenty of brettiness to the beer as well, despite lacking the chewiness of mouth feel I get from some of the heavier bretted beers.

Whether you lean left, right or center (a nod to the first review) it appears we can agree this is a delicious treat to pontificate over amongst friends who might disagree from time to time or all the time. Cheers.

 

 

these guys make so many incredible beers, and i have been truly blessed to have been able to drink on as many of them i have, frankly one of the great privileges of my beer life, which is to say my life, in that they are inseparable in any tangible way, but i digress. the point is, that among all the special beers these guys do, this ranks among my very favorite, maybe it just struck a chord with me personally, but this really ranks for me. it was out election night celebratory choice, which obviously we had to wait several days to try, and with some travel and stuff, we only just got to crack this over the weekend. it was worth the wait. a spontaneous wild ale in oak with tart cherries and hibiscus, bottled in may of this year. obviously the theme of no more trump set a pretty nice mood (if you had to guess my political leanings at this point, i dont know what to tell you). the beer is a gorgeous jewel tone florescent flamingo pink, high clarity through most of the bottle, a sexy bottle conditioned frothy inch of creamy heady resting on top, and it sure fleshes out a white wine glass better than any rose that has ever been in them. immaculate in appearance. the nose strikes me right away, its lambic, and very good, very mature lambic to me. i have gotten this in other de garde beers before, but i dont quite think to this extent, brett and acidity together, but more of the former than the latter, musty but dry, impossibly well refined, minerals and iodine, wrapped in oak, its insane how much this resembles some of the best lambics ive had in terms of the ferment. the cherries are next, crystal clear purity to them in the aroma, and then the hibiscus, which obviously does its thing with the color, but adds herbal, bitter, and blossoming floral notes behind the funk and the cherry, a really cool edition that i was a little skeptical of when i picked this up at the brewery over the summer. the flavor is every bit as compelling as the aroma, or just about that good anyway, ferment first, but so cohesive, a well dosed and very unique contribution from the hibiscus taking this away from kriek land and to someplace i have never been before. i love how its woody but delicate, as tart from the cherries as it is from any bacterial influence, and wild but just so perfectly refined. this is as good as wild beer gets for me, not only is it unique and timeless at the same time, but its as technically dialed in as it can be. for those wondering why de garde is held in such high regard and why their beers are so spendy, this is why, its at a quality level very few can equal. unforgettably good, a standout in their already insanely impressive lineup, and a beer i hope to be able to drink again. simply stunning!