Girardin Faro

Brewed by Brouwerij Girardin
Style: Lambic - Faro
Sint Ulriks-Kapelle, Belgium

375ml bottle from The Rake. Toffee apple aroma. Gorgeous toffee colour. Not as sweet as you would expect. Rather yummy in fact with a sourish finish. Extremely moreish.

I hate lambics of all sorts. That’s why this was my second to last style to drink. This one wasn’t that bad because it had all that sugar to mask the awful sour flavor.

375ml bottle at the <a href=http://www.ratebeer.com/Place/sweden/s target=blank>Akkurat in Stockholm, Sweden. Very deep murky golden-amber in colour. Medium sized off-white coloured head, lots of lacing. The aroma is quite sweet, lots of brown sugar and gingerbread, some herbal hops, earthy. The flavour is sweet at first, lemon citrus juice, gingerbread, brown sugar, some caramel. Slightly sticky mouthfeel, light body, light carbonation. Finishes sweet, with some very light herbal bitterness. This is a bizarre style but so far I am liking what I have tried.

On tap into gueuze glass, Delirium Tremens, Brussels. Translucent brown sugar in its own tumbler; tan head keeps a thin cover on the beer for a long time. Sudsy lace is uniform and frothy, racing deep and slow in bubbly rivulets beneath the surface. Apricot and sawdust on the nose with an accent of charred maize (like Indian corn that sat on a grill for too long). Nice round acid character provides a tart sourness like apples in the middle, all surrounded by soft cobweb yeast. Finishes kind of like a German lager at the start when the hops peek through, then settles into more sourness and a bit of prickly bitterness. Sweetness all the way through keeps this from ever being dry, and a solidly medium body with subdued carbonation keeps it from quintessential summer beer status (not that I would need one sitting at a table outside in Brussels today, since I’m sure it’s below 50 degrees right now); that being said, very refreshing. As the beer warms, the grilled corn emerges sometimes from underneath the blanket of sour apple flavor. Enjoyable as my first Belgian beer in Belgium.

Amber and slightly hazy with a large tan head. Aroma had diacetyl and a cidery sweetness. Taste was tart at first but passed pleasantly through sweet apple to a sharp grapefruit finish. Excellent.

Bottle. Clear amber colour with a thick pretty fast disappearing tan head. Sweet and slightly acid aroma. Sweet flavor with some nice sourness. Finsih is sweet and a bit sour. A nice faro.

375cc bottle gained in trade many moons ago from Jeppe. Pours out a clear, toasted brown color with a really weird head which reminds me of a clingy, retentive soda pop head. Spotty lacing is left behind. Modest lactic acid nose with a healthy dose of sugar thrown in, fairly appealing. First taste gives you just a touch of sour/tart and then some moderate sweetness moves in to balance things out fairly well. Medium bodied, decently carbonated. Best of the few Faro styled beers that I have tried.

Bottle - corked and caged. Clear amber with a small tan head. Nose is fruity and sweet with a slight sourness to it. Taste coems through mainly sweet with some sugary notes but has a slightly sour fruitiness to it along with green apple notes and light barnyard. Body is light and mildly carbonated. Light acidity as well. Finishes sweet and lightly soured with mild fruit coming through as well as some sugary notes.