Castelain St. Amand French Country Ale

Brewed by Brasserie Castelain
Style: Bière de Garde
Benifontaine, France

Rusted orangey brown appearance, good head formation. Clovey, minty, caramel aroma, soil. Sweet caramel palate, mild spiciness, a little toasty, mild bitterness in the finish.

Bottle. Poured out a clear copper to deep amber color. Nice light tan head springs forth and fades slowly down to a film. Good lacing left behind. Aroma is a touch funky with sourish fruit and grass clippings and a dose of sweet caramel coming to mind. Body is tragically light, so disappointing. Flavor initially is a touch sweet and slowly balances out with a touch of hop bitterness. No real excitement in this one sadly.

(750ml bottle) Labeled as St. Amand French Country Ale. Pours a deep amber body with a huge rocky beige head. Aroma of caramel, mustiness, dustiness, and a bit of fruit. Dry palate, spicy yeast and caramel flavor.

Bottled, labeled as St. Amand Traditional Biere de Garde French Country Ale. Clear, dark copper with a massive off-white head. Thick lacing. Aroma: green apples are what first came to mind, with cork and oak rounding it out. I love the oaky/corky aroma in a beer, so I really though this smelled good; you may beg to differ. Light to moderate sourness in the flavor, with a subtle cookie sweetness in the middle. Finishes lightly sour and moderately sweet. My bottle was way too carbonated - I had to let each glass sit several minutes, and even after swirling, the carbonation was too high for my tastes.

Bottle labeled St. Amand French country ale, sampled 3/6/05 Montreal tasting.
Oh boy, here come the "shitty" jokes. . .Ahem, after discussing the attenuation of traditional biere de gardes for a while, this was opened and sampled. Guess this is pretty traditional, because boy is it attenuated. To be honest, though, I thought enough good flavor showed through to keep me interested. Cherries, nuts, light caramel and a touch of yeast. Some brassy/metallic lagerish notes provide a sharpness that is not terribly pleasant, however. For a blonde ale, it had a highly colorful, auburn hue, with small amount of slightly off-white head, quickly receding to clumps of foam. Aroma is light and nutty, with some crisp yeast, a bit of candied yams and some herbal-orange cough drops. So far, not a bad beer by any means, but then there is the body to deal with, and it really brings this beer down, in my book. It’s hard to believe that a "beer for keeping" would start out so attenuated as to be not even worth keeping at all. Perhaps this is a sub-style of biere de garde that is meant to be a very low gravity, quenchable session ale. I think I’ll have to try this beer again, when I’m in the mood for a session ale, and not amidst a long tasting session.

Alcohol, toffee and vegetables in the aroma. Clear burnished copper coloured body with thin, white cover of head that recedes with marginal lacing. Mild sweetness in the musty, damp flavour. Moderate carbonation and watery texture. Very little character and what there is seems unpleasantly bland. Bottle (Winooski Beverage Warehouse Nov. 2004 - Bottled 15/06/04) sampled with ClarkVV, MartinT, muzzlehatch and Rastacouere.

The Lure:
Faint fruit and toffee sweetness in a nondescript perfume, near blandness.

The Festivities:
The wood of peach and apricot trees, chalk-smeared and doused in mineral water. Thin and bubbly mouthfeel, devoid of any interesting component.

Transcendence:
Not poorly brewed but I need more flavor to keep me more interested.
Earlier Rating: 11/2/2003 Total Score: 3.4
(Bottled as St.Amand)...Heavily sweet chocolate cherries entertaining muddy dates...Late hay and hop bitterness smothered in the malty sweetness...Too sweet for summer, too light for winter, a good beer within worlds that'll satisfy a moment's curiosity...

My bottle was French Country Ale, St. Amand...this site lists it as the same as Ch Ti Blonde, but it wasn’t blonde and it was marked as 5.9%ABV, so I’m rating it under the AMbree heading which makes a lot more sense to me. 75cl bottle, Amber, nice tan head...smells of cork, must, malt, and maybe apple too. Nice malty beer! Cookies and nuts come to mind. Finishes with an earthy/herbal mellow bitterness. THis one surprised me. I expected it to be quite sweet, but it wasn’t. Good. Flavorful enough to not be boring, but still a session type of beer that drinks a litte bigger than most. More than alright.