Gavroche

Brewed by St. Sylvestre
Style: Bière de Garde
St. Sylvestre-Cappel, France

(330 ml bottle from <A HREF=http://www.ratebeer.com/Place/maine/boothbay/ target=blank>1828 Vintage House, cellared for 7 mos. after purchase) Pours cloudy brownish amber with two fingers of biege head. Aroma is sort of sour with some caramel and maybe wood. Mouthfeel is lightly spritzy, sort of dryish. Some light webby sheets of lacing. Taste is rather tart without being sour. A bit bland. Has kind of a dryish, wooden-like feel. Maybe some light caramel under the tartness. A nice quality beer for sure but taste didn’t really go anywhere IMO.

The pour is a deep red with a two to three finger tan head. The nose is bready malty, citrus, caramel and molasses. The taste is malty and sweet syurpy and thick with hints of yeast. The beer would be better 5 or 6 years down the road.

Bottle (330ml). Another exploder. Poured a dark/deep amber red with a large tanned off-white head which was average lasting. Aroma was of toffee, malts orange peel, golden syrup, alcohol and some prunes. Alcohol content was present on this one (which was to my liking) with some toffee and malts to back it up as swell as dried apricots and other mixed dried fruits, warming finish. Full bodied with lively carbonation, slight watery texture yet a syrupy mouthfeel and a good finish.

Despite, or perhaps correlated with, this bottle being a gusher, this beer looked great. Big ass lively even creamy head with a crystal clear reddish orange hued body. Became a bit cloudy when I pushed the pouring thing. Toasty biscuity malt nose. Subtle. A bit creamy. A hint of fruit. Not awe inspiring, but not bad. A full lively mouth. Small even bubbles. The flavors are pretty much in step with the nose. Big toasty biscuit malt. Bread. A good bit of fruit. Some alcohol sneaks out. A bit of tannic stuff going on. The style seems to support less alcohol usually, so it’s a it odd here. Significant hops, floral. A bit of acidity. Not a huge fan, but not a terrible beer either. Interesting at least.

bottle at O’Donnell’s in Ft Wayne - Pours red with a big light tan head. It smells of yeast and malt with light caramel notes. The flavor is a well balanced blend of those same malts and some hoppy goodness along with light fruit esters. It looks good and has a lively palate.

cobber of color with a beige head. An aroma of malt, hops and boring toffee. A flavor of toffee and hops.

11.2 oz Bottle from Johns market; nose of caramel, vanilla, and rye; clear rusty brown with a big bige head that immediately foamed out of the bottle when uncapped; flavor of toffee, some sweetness, and some figs. Very good!

Bottle, 8.5%. Weak sugary aroma. Hazy brown colour, small head. The flavour is OK malty, slightly sweet with a hint of cream. Some marcipan to flavour along with a little rough bitterness. Rough and mild in a good combination. High carbonation and good alcohol level.