La Choulette Ambrée

Brewed by Brasserie La Choulette
Style: Bière de Garde
Hordain, France

So I’m getting the feeling that when talking about biere de gardes, "ambree" means the darker, nuttier kind, as opposed to 3 Monts, which is completely different from this (and Jenlain Ambree). So yes, darker brown with a red tinge, semi-sweet aroma, raisin-like. Nutty flavor that definitely did not agree with my stomach. Can’t point to exactly what doesn’t work for me, and at $9/350ml I was forcing myself to finish it; wish I could like this more...

Bottle. Frothy white excellent mostly lasting head. Amber colour. Heavy malty and light hoppy aroma. Cramellic notes. Moderate sweet and light bitter flavor. Average slightly perfumed finish. Oily palate. A little boring beer but ok.

750ml bottle-Thanks to Joe/jwc215 pours a bubbly light tan head and ruby/mahogany color. Aroma is musty, barnyard, medium/dark fruit, medium malt-sweet. Taste is dark fruit, medium malt-toffee, secondary spicy hops then husky grain towards finish.

Poured to a flat reddish-orange with very little head and virutally no lacing or effervescence. Appearance was more of a cherry-apple cider than a beer, and the aroma was a pleasant mix of spices and fruit (mostly apples and grapes). This beer was interesting in that the mouthfeel, flavor and finish were all what I would imagine the result to be if you mixed a Lambic and a Flemish Sour together. At various sips and times, I detected fruity, sweet, sour, spicy and a hint of the 8% alcohol. Different, but not bad at all.

750ml - Aroma is nutty caramel malts with a little dark fruit and mellow earthy hops. Pours muddy brown with a big head and great lacing. Flavor matches aroma with some spice tossed in. Palate is smooth and creamy with just a touch of tartness. A very nice BdG.

Bottled. Surprisingly enough amber colour with small off-white head. Aroma is earth, slight caramel and some fruits in aroma. Flavour is sweet fruits, metal, yeast and some caramel malts. Some slight bittering hops in finish.

I really enjoyed this beer. It is decisively sour, with a kriek-like quality I found very endearing. While I would not call this a sessionable beer, I would highly recommend it. It poured a hazy amber with 5mm of head. It exhibited a cherry fruity-sourness in its bouquet. It didn’t have a dry-sourness (like a Berliner Weisse would), rather it had this sweet-sour dichotomy going on that certain fruits provide that makes you pucker. Tart would be the best word I suppose. Not very drinkable/sessionable, but I still enjoyed it.

Golden amber, sweet sprity raisins nose , sweet early spicy raisins, with caramaly hops. lots of omph in fouth feel and flavour.