Schlafly Bière de Garde

Brewed by Saint Louis Brewery
Style: Bière de Garde
Maplewood, Missouri USA

Hazy golden brown with beige head. Aroma is sweetness with some bitter acidity. Flavor was wheat, grass, hops, bread and yeast.

Bottle thanks to MrBunn. Pours a russet orange with a short-live head. I’m stuffy, so I don’t trust my take on the aroma, but it’s a sweet mustiness, a little like pureed orange peels. Nice fruity flavor, almost like a saison without the body and mouthfeel. A second taste brings out a near grapefruit flavor and much more effervescence. I like it. Thanks MrBunn!

0.75 l bottle at Helsinki Beer Festival 2009. Orange color with small head. Toffee, orange, pepper, some clove and some acetic acid in the aroma. Sweetish flavor with orange, apple and some musty acetic cellar like notes. The musty character might be authentic for farmhouse ales but I found it repulsive.

Once more I find myself in the position of having just read about a particular beer style and then writing a review about it. The beer in particular is the Biere de Garde from Schlafly. The beer style in question is the French version of the Belgian Saison, or farmhouse ale.

Cloudy tan with rustic hues of old hay and straw while scattered bunches of bubbles lazily skim the surface. No amount of coaxing is going to make this head linger, and why should it when the nose beckons with straight-forward urgency. A quick slap of tart, sour funk leads immediately into grass, bailed hay, crisp straw, leather, and the earthly essence of barnyard dust. I close my eyes and I am in a field of hay, the breeze rustling their pointy tips while in the distance a homely barn can be seen beckoning. Not ready to open my eyes yet, there must be fresh fruit orchards nearby as tart plums, peaches, and tangerines join the breeze. Amidst her resplendent bouquet is an underpinning of brown sugar and nutmeg for a sprinkling of spice. It would be rather dangerous to partake of my Biere de Garde with eyes closed, and so I leave the immediate comfort of her aura to dive deep into her embrace. Clean, clear, and immediately tart with far more sour funk than I initially expected. I wouldn’t put her on the level of a lambic or gueze, but a distant cousin maybe. Riding the way of dry sourness are crisp peaches, tangerines, and nectarines, all with a healthy dose of crisp skin. A bite lingers in the back of my throat with citric acidity while nutmeg, cinnamon, and brown sugars linger long into my breath. Each quaff is deliciously refreshing with a dazzling array of vivid flavors. She grows a bit more earthen further in as some barnyard dust and leather settles into her palate. My glass drained, I close my eyes once more so I may relive for just a while longer the harder yet simpler times where a long day in the fields was relieved by the simple pleasure of a Biere de Garde, chunk of bread, a slab of fresh cheese, and maybe some pickled onions.

Maybe there is a reason why, even now, it is the simplest of pleasures for which we derive the most self-satisfaction. I will take fresh baked bread and decadent cheese with my beer any day, and could enjoy a meal of just those three. While France still holds the key to authentic Biere de Garde, I would be hard-pressed to note many other American craft brewers who were able to accomplish a little bit of French history in a bottle as well as Schlafly has done.

750ml bottle (HBF2009) - shared with a bunch - thanks!
Tingly nettle taste, and some relatively simple grains which get flattened by the alcoholic sting. About as far from a biere de garde as its possible to get. Aha - now I know why! It’s a "modern re-creation". I.e. a complete inability to do the classic European style.

Bottled 0.75L taste dat HBF 2009. Pale golden yellow colour. Pale head. Mild nose. Soft slightly sour taste. Yeasty and mild hoppiness. Slightly metallic.

(Bottle at HBF2009) Amber and hazy. Small white head. Malts and sourness in aroma. Full bodied and stingy palate with medium carbonation. Malts, sweetness, caramell, spices, saltiness and yeast in taste. Sweet and lightly bitter aftertaste.

Bottled@HBF2009. Hazy orange colour, small offwhite head. Aroma is hops, some earth, mild yeast and some grassyness as well. Flavour is yeast, grass, fruity hops and some hints of toffee.