Girardin Faro

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

(Bottle. 03/2006) Clear, amber. Fast-disipating, fizzy white head. Nose of diacetyl (strong butterscotch), autolysis (rotting meat), and oxidation (cardboard). No real acetic notes which makes the aroma quite unappealing for a lambic product. Butterscotch mixed with sweet caramel on the mouth. Overly sweet and way, way too buttery ... oily palate.

Pours with a slightly hazy golden body topped by a medium thick, white head with some lacing. It’s sweet with a touch of sourness and a little bitterness and some underlying horseblanket. Light to medium bodied, smooth and a touch dry.

(375ml bottle) Lightly hazed copper body with medium beige head. Aroma is mild sweet, vinegar, some horseblanket. Taste is mild sweet, vinegar, some fruity. Caramel in the finish, with light brown sugar. Light-medium body with no acidity. My first Faro, not nearly as sweet as I had feared.

Murky amber with a frothy off-white head. Decent lace. Aroma is musty sweet. Cardboardy oxiadation also present. Caramel throughoiyut but prounounced in the finsih. Soft body. Ok, I guess, for what it is. Leagues better than the othe Faro I have had, Chapeau.

Foxy-amber, totally clear beer with slim off-white head. Rotting nose, caramel, rotting meat, wood (also...), cardboard. Slight sourish edge around wood, cardboard, and quite some caramel(syrup) sweetness. Not really cloying, but still... Slick, but not oversyrupy MF. Very ho-hum faro, can do much better; the nose is revolting.

Bottled. Wow - wierd even by Faro standards. A reddy brown malt vinegar coloured beer with no head. The aroma is a real mixture: deep fruits, caramel, wood soaked in vinegar and sweaty feet. The taste is more sour than expected; similar in some ways to a Flemish Red with that woody oaky feel, and old red fruit, but there is the sugariness dwelling deep down. A schizophrenic drink in that some mouthfuls are sublime but others are almost unpleasant. As acquired a taste as any beer I’ve had and one I would willingly redrink just to see how much I really did like it.

Light hazy amber color. Small white head. Smell is like apple cider. Green musty apple accents with nice honeyed tones. Taste is soft and refreshing. It has a nice crisp, a good soury sharpness and a great balance. A great summer drink.

Bottled. Amber body, beige mostly lasting head. Good lacing. In the aroma: white grape, fermented grape, mint. The background scent is sweet and woody, sugars come through. Dry body. Hoppy bitterness in the flavor: does not taste like a classic faro. Tee leaf in the aftertaste. If Lindemans Faro raises you from the dead in a hot, sultry afternoon – this one is for a hot evening on a terrace, on a lake, in the mountains, wherever close to the nature…