Zwanze 2016

I recall @deGardebrewing saying the on-site list would be the best ever - what ended up being on it for those who attended? I was there on Thursday and got a glimpse of that beard but it looked like Trevor was filling a coolship and moving some tanks around like an asshole, instead of entertaining me.

 

A few I remember

Both Broken Truck batches
The Anniversary
The Truffle
3rd anniversary
The purple kriek
The Kriek

 

I regret not taking a picture of the on premise bottle list. Broken truck b1 was gone by the time i got back in line around 3. They had to have only had a handful of bottles available

 

The line was nuts. I splurged for a bottle of batch 1 broken truck.

 

Those, along with...

Vin Lee
The Archer
Imperial Vin Bu

Drawing a black after that.

 

The Broken Truck (both years)
The Purple (both years)
The Lily
The Archer
The Truffle
The Persimmon
The Kriek
The Purple Kriek
The Anniversary
3rd Anniversary
Belle Ensemble
Vin Lee
Imperial Vin Bu
Other stuff...
We could only fit a case of each in our coolers unfortunately.
Edit: we were originally planning on having bottles of Cantillon available for onsite purchase/consumption, but with only three cases (24 bottles total), we decided to just walk around and pour them for free. Couldn't figure out a better way to disappoint the least number of people.

Sorry we were busy while you were here!
:-(

 

Those prices are so damn reasonable. Stupid, sexy de garde.

 

I've actually been enjoying my trips to de Garde more since the quarterly parties stopped (and couldn't get tickets to the anniversary). Just stroll on in, pick out a "The" or two from the on site bottle list to share with friends, sample a tap and walk out with bottles. They definitely treat their regulars well.

 

So, there seems to be a lot of comments about de Garde's beers that were poured or available at the event, but not a peep about the raison d'etre for the event. How was the Cantillon Zwanze beer this year? The blend of raspberry and blueberry lambics with vanilla sounded delicious. Would have loved to try it, but was traveling that day.

 

I thought it was fantastic. Amazing nose. Cantillons are always heady and complex and this was no exception. The fruit and funk worked better as it warmed. Clearly I'm going to have to make a pilgrimage to the source and re-evaluate sometime in the future.