La Rive Du Sud Bière De Garde
Boxing Rock Brewing Co.

650ml bottle - made with the addition of Belgian candi yeast, but no other real info on the label here.

This beer pours a slightly hazy, medium copper amber colour, with four fingers of puffy, finely foamy, and moderately creamy tan head, which leaves some random splotchy and sudsy lace around the glass as it lazily dissipates.

It smells of bready and doughy caramel malt, brown sugar syrup, some mixed bruised black stone fruitiness, faint estery yeast, and a plain earthy, musty, and dead floral hoppiness. The taste is gritty and grainy cereal malt, banana pudding, some clove and black peppercorn spiciness, white chalky candy, and more understated leafy, herbal, and musky floral noble hop bitters.

The carbonation is adequate in its palate-coddling frothiness, the body a solid middleweight, and sort of smooth, with a wee alcohol prickliness maybe getting in the way of a sublime time at this particular juncture. It finishes trending dry, the hops and booze performing their lingering sideshow.

Overall - this comes across as a fairly compatible version of the style, with more than a soupcon of that old-world sensibility. Crisp, and easy enough to put back, even with the sassy at times 15-proof wowee sauciness. Worth seeking out, even if you live (like yours truly) on 'une rive du Nord'.