Gayant La Goudale

Brewed by Les Brasseurs De Gayant
Style: Bière de Garde
Douai, France

17th July 2008. Complex beer. Dry. Brandyish undertone. Lagerish malt that is also a little creamy. Long bitter finish. Complex isn’t always good.

Serving date: 2009-02-26. Served in snifter. 330 ml bottle with freshness date on the label (best before 2010-01-28). Pours a clear golden copper with a 2 cm off-white head that settles rather quickly and leaves some lacings. A rather sweet smell with plenty of malts and fruits of the forest. Notes of bubblegum. Some mint and earthy aromas as well. The taste has a prominent and rather sweet malt character - a bit caramel-like. Gentle citric notes. Earthy notes, grass and general floral hop flavors. Faint yeast in the background. The alcohol is noticeable and gets more prominent towards the end. The finish has a light bitterness to it, is slightly dry, has a restrained hop character, is slightly metallic and contains a rather big amount of warming alcohol. The mouthfeel is fuller than I had expected, but is still in the medium range. Small lively bubbles, yet it’s still quite smooth actually. This is a good beer, and it drinks easily. Still, it’s not great, and it’s certainly not very interesting. It lacks complex and all in all it’s different flavors are too restrained. I was expecting more from it. However, this was my first bière de garde, so I don’t have many reference points to compare it with. But I was expecting something in the line of a Belgian saison, and even though I can detect some small similarities, this is far from a saison. It’s too clean, too restrained and anonymous. Again, not a bad beer, but I’ll probably forget about it in a while. Serving type: bottle (Copy of old Beer Advocate review)

750ml Bottle: Aroma of grains, yeast, light malts, and a hint of fruit (maybe apple). Poured amber/gold/apple juice in color with a medium-sized, creamy, rocky, off-white head that lasted throughout. Clear. Lightly sparkling. Excellent lacing. Flavor is lightly sweet and lightly bitter. Tastes of yeast, grains, light malts, light hops, and slight fruit. Medium body. Average texture. Average carbonation. Yeast, grain, and light malt finish.

2007-12-13, Bottle 33 cl, Sweden fruit, yeast, carmel One of the first "american lagers that I tasted" - and I it been a few since then! Fruktig, därför bra!

A 0.75 l corked bottle from a random shop in Cannes. 7.2% ABV. Weak aroma, some slight metal. Weak aroma consists of slight alcohol and heavy malts. Flavor is crap, alcoholic, sweet sugary malty, bit of grapefruit, some metal as well. After all this, it’s thin bodied with watery and metallic finish. Expected something from this, but it’s very boring and actually bad beer, I could hardly finish shared bottle. Those are the points I can’t get the RB community, yesterday I entered a rate for another, similarly rated Biere de Garde that was full and delicious while this is more like crappy malt liquor. And it’s not bad bottle or similar. Strange.

08-OCT-2009, can in Paris. Why haven’t I tried this before, when in France? Nice dark golden, almost an orange tinge with fading head. Nice yeasty and hoppy nose. Charamel sweetness, some citrus, and hoppy flowery finish. A little watery, but overall quite creamy and quite high in carbonation. Maybe the high alcohol level adds to the mouthfeel and aftertaste, but it is in no way to high, almost unnoticable. All in all a very nice easy drinking beer. But what is it with Biere de garde? I cannot tell this from a blonde.

Beautiful light brown color, lots of flavour. Full body, slick feel, soft/ average carbonation, long finish. I like this ale, it’s a real sipper.

When I got it in Paris I had little idea abourt what a biere de garde was, but I’m gonna like this style. Reddish colour, small head. Mild, smooth flavour resembling a Belgian, but with strong fruity end. Enjoyable