Kerel Bière De Garde
VBDCK Brewery

Stubby, greenish brown 11.2oz bottle. Label has stamp for batch as '22 05 10:58:141'.
Hazy, brown colored body. Brief lasting off white head results in a surface fed island and very thin ring. No lacing.
Aroma is caramel, brown sugar, red apple, raisin, and pear.
Taste is sweet but a little fruit sour, with flavors of caramel, brown sugar, apple, pear, prune, raisin, and touch of black tea. Caramel and fruit in the aftertaste.
Medium mouthfeel. Metallic note. Seems to lose carbonation quickly, but does provoke burps.
Complex flavors but seems thin in a way, such that it presents as a little immature.

 

11.2 ounce bottle, Batch 22 05, thanks to Brutaltruth for this! Served in a Teku, the beer pours a hazy burnt orange/amber color with not quite an inch off-white head. Head retention and lacing are both good. Aroma is nice, the brew smells like caramel, raisin, toasted malt and earthiness. I think the taste follows the aroma for the most part, but there's also some bready and brown sugar flavors noticeable too. Mouthfeel/body is medium, it's smooth and a bit coating with a good amount of soft carbonation. I liked this one, wouldn't mind trying it again in the future!

my first from these guys, never even heard of them before, and i thought i was up on the belgian scene pretty good. cool little stubby bottle and a style likely to voyage well from europe, affordable too relatively speaking. i was disappointed though, not amazing either as a beer overall or an an example of this style. its oxidized, uninteresting on the ferment despite still being yeast forward, and sort of unexciting as they go, sweet too through most of it. slighlty cloudy medium brown color to this, short white head for a belgian but not bad, fades out fast. the nose is cool, nutty and long boiled, sweet and concentrated, a bit of a grain stew vibe, some wet paper fatigue as well as a slightly farmy note, but its more french almost on the yeast side than belgian, a little white pepper thing, red apple and cider, and brown sugar. the flavor is similar, definite oxidation, candy sugar maybe, dried apricot and date fruitiness but it gives way to a light astringency which clashes with rather than balances the residual sugar, and this sits weird on my teeth and stays on my palate awhile. perhaps i am being too harsh, this style permits most of that, and its not way outside the box or anything, i just didnt find the execution to be particularly compelling on the whole. still cool to try something from a new to be belgian producer, few things get me more excited. was hoping for more from this one though, a little generically malty and without enough yeast intrigue to bring it home, at least for me...

Verbeek-Back-De Cock Brewery "Kerel Bière De Garde"
11.2 fl. oz. brown glass bottle coded "22 05 11:09:191". Sampled on 1 May 2023
$17.99/4-pk @ Total Wine & More, Claymont, DE

Notes via stream of consciousness: A hazy deep copper colored body is capped by a finger's width of creamy, yellowish-khaki foam. This is darker than any of the other examples of the Bière de Garde style that I've tasted but that's OK, I understand that they can even be a chestnut brown in color. It's labeled at 7% alcohol by volume which is also right-on for the style. In the nose I'm finding sweetish and richly caramelish malt with a touch of fruity and lightly spicy, earthy, and leafy yeast character. The flavor follows with even more caramel and a touch of toastiness. It's like golden caramel, medium-dark and reddish caramel, and even a little bit like almost burnt sugar. It's very malty which is a little odd considering that the grain bill contains sugar, oatmeal, and corn but I guess the starting gravity is fairly high. The bitterness is listed at 24 IBUs and I believe that. It's sweet and malty and lightly spicy and fruity. It's fairly full in the mouth, and pillowy smooth across the palate. The head dropped in on itself fairly quickly at the outset but once settled it's maintained a solid surface covering and left really nice lacing across the entirety of the inside of the glass. I've worked through this one a little too quickly and now I'm out but that's a good sign. I'm glad I have three more bottles, and i'm certainly going to look into trying their other beers.
Review #8,601

Beautiful bouquet hits the nose and is followed by an interesting flavor profile .... Scratching my chin on this a bit but hey, it's from Belgium!

330 ml stubby bottle. date code is unclear

pours a fairly clear dark amber color, nice layer of cream colored head. good head retention. nice toasty malt flavor, just a touch of spice and fruitiness in the aroma. medium bodied.

French style Belgian Beer.

Pours a cloudy copper/amber body topped with small caramel head, disipation of which is a bit too rapid. Lacing is moderate.

Aroma is this brews best feature, really malty and plenty of spice, like a seasonal Christmas beer, truly delightful.

Taste is pretty damn fine too, no harsh notes in this one. Bags of maltiness, just like the Northern French Biere Dr Garde style.

Feel is good to start, a light gas helping to bring forward the taste. A tingling aftertaste and a little throat burning sensation. That said, let this beer go flat for 40mins and it is ruined. Open it, pour it, drink it.

Overall this is a very good beer, not enough reviews yet to do it justice.

Try it!

 

I like the style but this one did not hit it home for me. Just average