The Quatre: a l'Orange
de Garde Brewing

 

 

Taking the sour ale to the cocktail world, de Garde Brewing blends the flavors found in gin barrels and fresh oranges for a spontaneously soured ale with an Orange Blossom twist. It's enough to make Julia Childs proud.

Pale gold and suspended in a finely silted yeasty haze, The Quatre: a l'Orange bubbles with a spirited and effervescent pour. With the radiance of bright orange aromas swooning the nose, the peppy and pungent perfume also includes dried citrus, hay, cellar-like musk, saddle leather and yeast spices in an aroma of both funk and fauna. A brisk and wafer-like sweetness skirts the tongue with the opening sip and provides the slimmest of malt balance to start.

But the grain influence soon gives way to the brisk and bright orange character that seem strongly of mandarin varieties along with a more weathered fruit character of grapefruit, lime, lemon and pineapple. Dried, dehydrated and pitted fruits provide an undertow of fruit must in wine-rot way. Suggestions of cider, white wine and peppery oak share the stage as the taste falls pleasantly bitter with bark, hay and peppery hops.

Light, crisp and highly refreshing, the orange accented sour ale shares a lot of the traditional lambic flavors but with this surprisingly fresh overcast of orange, juniper and oak for a perfect stride of barrel aging perfection.