Pelican Bridal Ale

Brewed by Pelican Pub & Brewery
Style: Bière de Garde
Pacific City, Oregon USA

Bottle. Presented nicely in the champagne style bottle. Hazy brown-orange in colour. This showed some light sugary notes, with some subtle nuttyness and caramel, with some citrus zest in the finish. Malts were slightly bready aswell, notes of toffee come through aswell.

2005 edition. Pink in color with lively carbonation and a thin head. Big American caramel malt aroma with some sticky hop, toasted cracker and vegetable notes. Sweet, fruity caramel flavor with a spicy finish. Interesting tutti fruiti flavor with a little pomegranite and maraschino cherry. Prickly carbonation with a big body. Nice, subtle ale.

Bottle (Sydney Summer Gathering 2007): Inside the nicely done and unpretentious packaging this was a a reasonable, easy beer that, despite having a number of good qualities, ultimately dissapointed. A slightly rich amber colour with a thin head, above which sticky, smokey orange malts and slightly port-like brown sugars meandered towards one’s nose. In the mouth, again, the smokey, slightly salty flavours despondantly moved, however I found this quite lacking in the back palate. There was a lingering sweetness, but no real bitterness to put it in context.

like copper and pennies, yeast, apricot, plum, and carmel. Floral and perfume notes as well.

A decent, easy-drinking American biere de garde. No fireworks here, but this seemed a restrained and rather elegant brew. I imagine this would benefit from an open fire on a cold autumn night in Oregon. When the challenging cork was finally tricked out, Bridal Ale poured a cloudy brown with orange highlights and a dab of foam. The aroma echoed Matilda Bay’s Crema, which uses Arabica coffee beans. None here, so it must be roasty, toasted malts. Slight sourness, some leather and dough. Lovely creamy mouthfeel. Strong honey notes on the tongue, plus molten caramel, leather and faint timber. Quite sweet, with minimal bitterness in the finish. Very balanced and sippable. (750m corked bottle courtesy of Linc at the Sydney RateBeer Jan 07 gathering. 2005 vintage)

This Biere de Garde pours a deep orange color from a 750ml cork finished bottle. Medium sized white foamy head. Aroma is fruity and sweet, perhaps a touch of spice. A medium bodied Biere de Garde. Malts are fruity and sweet. There is a touch of mango and pineapple. Hops are earthy and mild. Nice balance. A touch sweet. Good carbonation. Not bad, but nothing really special here, not bland but just not much there. Mouthfeel is full. Finish is clean and smooth. Aftertaste is slightly sweet.

2005 bottle. Cloudy dark amber. Heavy caramel, with rich earth to it. Light caramel and earth character, but the body is big and it’s surprisingly boozy. At times this could pass for a barley wine, yet does not have any forcefulness of character.

(750ml bottle) Courtesy of Oakes. Strange, strange beer... my first question to Josh was "what style is this?" He states, "Biere de Garde". Really, "I thought it was a barleywine?" Thin white foam head with a sediment-filled mahogany body. Nose is highly malted, very figgy. Ripe fig flavour with a lasting dried fruit malt finish. The only thing that would give you the indication of a Biere de Garde is the funky yeast but the over-abundance of malt makes for a bizarre recipe. Thanks Oakes.