The 750 Saison

Thanks. That's what I was guessing.

 

"Table beer," as a named thing, existed historically in England and Scotland. Along with small beer, family ale, table ale, and dinner ale. It could be pale ale or porter. It was a tax class... it's impossible to divorce taxes from the history of beer styles. Belgium and France had biere faible (weak beer), petite biere (small beer), and biere table (table beer). These were all low alcohol beers.

Originally, a "farmhouse ale" was something brewed on a farm for consumption on the farm. Eventually, they evolved into something that traveled. Grisette was originally something else, perhaps more industrial, but I'll try to find out what I can and will follow up when I post about a "Grisette."

Don't think of all of these things as different "beer styles" the way we divide things today. More like a categories (and different ways of grouping) that can overlap. I wish I had more knowledge on the topic but I don't.

 

I've done some hunting and I've added another case to the thread.

You've convinced me. See above.

 

OK, back to the beers (de gardes).



Brasserie Duyck / Jenlain - Printemps, Biere de Mars

Brasserie Duyck is probably the most important brewer (historically speaking) when it comes to modern Biere de Garde. How could I leave them out?

The French brewery dates back to 1922. In 1945, they bottled their "Biere de Garde" (in corked Champagne bottles) - making it more widely available... and in doing so helped to define the style as we consider it today. The popularity of their beer grew over the years, and in the '80s, their beer was key in the revival of French specialty (or "craft" ) brewing.

The lines between biere de garde and saison are blurred. One reason for this is that brewers from the region did not consider these as "styles" the same way certain beer drinkers consider them now. Some brewers would package a beer with both "saison" and "biere de garde" written on the label.

"Biere de garde" translates to beer for keeping. Like saisons, they were beers that were brewed according to the season. Today, they might be brewed with lagering techniques, or bottom fermenting yeast. Even if there is some fuzziness between biere de garde and saison, if you take the two beers that are considered the current archetypes - Dupont and Jenlain, you'll find that they aren't very similar (and I imagine that this comparison bears some responsibility for the style descriptions that we use today). A biere de garde is typically maltier and less likely to have a hoppy bite (but malty and hoppy are not mutually exclusive despite how some people use the terms).

The Jenlain beer in this post is a "Biere de Mars," which translates to March beer (Oktoberfest parallels comin' at ya). A Biere de Mars was often considered the 'best of the best' by the brewers. They were typically brewed in winter and aged after a cool fermentation. Sometimes these beers are called "Biere de Printemps" which means spring beer (hence the name of this beer).

The cork of this beer came off with an exhausted little pfffff. Not a good sign.
The beer was essentially headless but it still had a tiny bit of fizzy carbonation. It was very thin and reminded me of apple juice. It showed much oxidation. The beer got a little more tolerable as it warmed, exhibiting a very slight amount of caramel and some graininess. So much for the so called "beer for keeping."

 

The theme of old and damaged biere de gardes continues.



Thiriez Biere de Noel

This beer is listed here as a "Belgian dark ale" - without "strong" in the name, it's a group that gets little love here.
In actuality, a Biere de Noel is a French Christmas beer. Typically darker and fuller than an average biere de garde, I could nonetheless see a beer like this grouped in with the biere de garde family rather than the literal but perhaps otherwise meaningless "Belgian dark ale" group.

This beer resembled the Pipaix that I opened earlier... but not in a good way. The beer gushed (but not nearly as much as Pipaix) and it had a metallic sour quality. Whereas the Pipaix still had some tasty personality, this beer just felt like an old wreck. Not worth consuming. I wonder how old this bottle was. I really do feel for fans of biere de garde. I could be wrong, but I get the sense that these beers were once as loved as saisons, if not more so. Times have changed. Finding one is hard enough, and this experience has shown just how low one's expectations should be set regarding the freshness and condition of what you find. A pity.

 

I have also found esters to be lower in biere de garde, but it's a tough comparison for me because I've had many, many more saisons than biere de garde (I prefer saisons... and they are of course more plentiful over here). I bring this up because it's easier to find commonality in a smaller group than a larger one.

 

And for proof that it's also hard finding a fresh domestic biere de garde:



Schlafly Biere de Garde

This beer is two years old. It was the freshest I could find. I chose this over the three year old bottles around here.

The beer suffered from some oxidation. It was a little fruity, nicely malty, and had a touch of wood. I thought it was too old to really enjoy. Cheers to Schlafly for actually dating their product. I knew what I was getting into when I bought it. I sorta knew the French beers were gonna be rough too, but you still kind of cross your fingers and delude yourself into thinking there's a chance.

 

I'm banging them all out tonight. Gotta catch up with my posts so I can get to the beer I drank today for NBS. (I try to keep the order intact.) I'm afraid that the biere de garde subgroup will leave much to be desired - and my slim descriptions will reflect this too.

 

With the next beer, I'm transitioning from the biere de garde group to the Saint Somewhere group.



Saint Somewhere Traditionnel

The brewer is calling this a biere de garde. I was looking forward to a fresh biere de garde (this beer was recently released). Unfortunately, the beer in my glass really didn't resemble the archetype of a modern biere de garde. If someone gave me this beer blind, I'd say it was a saison.

It was very delicate. A little funky and with a slight tartness. It was fruity in the apple and peach realm. It had a dry finish. There was something that didn't quite work for me, perhaps something missing that I couldn't quite put my finger on.

Traditionnel is French for "traditional." Saint Somewhere strikes me as the kind of brewery that looks to France and Belgium with reverence. They claim to be going for an "old world take" on a biere de garde here. I guess they were going for pre-Jenlain, but I wonder what they were aiming for exactly and why. At 5%, it's lower than a modern biere de garde, but probably higher than an "old world" one. The common thinking is that such beers were probably sour (and also vinous) to some extent.