Southampton Biere de Garde (French Country Christmas Ale)

Brewed by Southampton Publick House
Style: Bière de Garde
Southampton, New York USA

Pours tangerine orange, hazy and frothy with cappuccino cream piling up. Cottony aroma of caramel, frybread and brown sugar biscuits; herbal beneath, with lots of sprightly soaps, musty wood and spices. Pear skins and gorgeously soft tartness. Flavor is lightly funky and full of lemony tart sweetness; pure and refreshing like a fresh lemon pound cake. Slight hints of solvent and band aid with that crackery, seedy, kleenex rub of yeasts in the mid palate. Floral and bitter, but as it might accent a rich heather honey or something naturally bittersweet like that. Fuller malt profile gives a healthy push of doughiness. Palate is soft and sparkly; medium in body and a bit buttery and white wine-like at the finish. Careful and pleasant. Thanks Chris!

Pours hazy deep coppery with off-white head. Nose is yeasty funk, some spicy hops, malt. Complex and well balanced flavor profile, with the yeasty funk, spicy hops, malt, and a slight citric lemongrassy note. This one is very well made.

bottle most likely from maxxdaddy but i could be wrong.... poured a cloudy caramel orange brown with a decent sized off-white head.... aroma is heavily spiced but i also get a little bit off-flavored cardboard and crackers (ha! just read the review below me and they also noticed the same thing). some dark fruit as well..... tastes like old dark fruit and spice. a little too carbonated for my liking. sigh.

Thanks to xmarcnolanx or drmatt whichever supplied this fine beer. Pours hazy copper orange with very lively carbonation and a huge beige head. The aroma has salty crackers, a bit of spice, cobwebs and old wet cardboard. Medium body with some mouthfilling carbonation. The flavor starts with old caramel, grapes, crackers, very musty and old basement ~ but somehow this is all in a good way. The finish is very crisp and lightly spicy. Very nice beer.

Bottle. Light amber colour with a fluffy head. Aroma of caramel and toffee. Flavour of caramel, toffee - ends up very dry. Nothing special!

THOUGHTS: THis was my first Biére de Garde, so I didn’t know what to expect. Not as much to it as I would have expected, but it does seem like it would be refreshing in the summer. Very pleasant, but very subtle. It was nice but not really my cup of beer. I’ll have to try this style in the summer next time, after it’s been aged. Easy to drink though. (Jan 1. was a little soon to try this beer.) I hope to try an aged version of this one day and re-rate, because there seemed to be so much more in the beer than what was being revealed to me. TECHNICAL: Bottle. Poured a clear, medium, orangey amber with thin tendrils of carbonation that rose from the bottom and a huge, sudsy, off-white head that lasted a while then settled to a thin sheet. The aroma was light malt and moderate yeast. Very weak overall. The initial flavor was moderately sweet and lightly acidic; while the finish was moderately to heavily sweet, lightly acidic and moderately bitter. The flavor was sweet malt and yeast with a touch of spice. The light to medium body was sort of creamy then dry with fizzy carbonation and a lightly astringent finish.

bottle. pours a quite clear reddish honey-amber with a thick cream head that fades faster than i expected for its size and density. little chunks of lacing are left on the glass as it dissipates to a bubbly film. on the first sniff, one gets notes of apple (not of the acetaldehyde variety) and pear, light caramel malts, and lots of spice. the scent is almost cologne-like, in the sense that it’s quite pleasant, but gets a bit chemical when taken in too large of doses. not only that, but it smells like cologne. there are also some notes of raisins, and a pinch of spicy hops. very light subtle taste, this time with white grape esters dominating the less-pronounced apple and pear notes, some spice, and again an ever-so-light caramel malt. and there it is again, that light chemical note. the alcohol is surprisingly noticeable for the 7.2% the label touts, but it doesn’t necessarily detract. very dry, very astringent finish, with a light sweetness and a tiny bit of tartness. very effervescent mouthfeel--there’s a ton of carbonation and it really adds to the dryness, but there’s still that sharp chemical pull that feels like bitterness, but on the front of my tongue. i think this beer would be pretty damned good if i could get around that strange chemical tongue-burn. as it is, that note was off-putting, but it certainly didn’t ruin the beer. decent stuff that could only improve by being more drinkable. maybe i’ll grab another bottle and cellar it for a year or two.

22 oz. bottle on 3/18/08. Clear coppery amber our, good retention from the medium, off white, frothy head. Fruity, with notes of caramel in the aroma. Medium body and very lively effervescence that adds to the clean, dry palate. Caramel flavors up front, spicy bitterness comes on quickly, finishing nicley dry. Very enjoyable in all regards.