St. Sylvestre 3 Monts

Brewed by St. Sylvestre
Style: Bière de Garde
St. Sylvestre-Cappel, France

Rerate: 3-27-09.
Appearance: same, this is notably beautiful to look at. Aroma/flavors seem more muted than I remember. Alcohol a little bit noticeable. A split second flash of fruit(?), strawberry(??) cutting through the general grain flavors. I first had this in Paris, so it may have tasted better then for that reason. But now I can’t seem to recall why I liked this so much.
6 5 7 4 14 3.6

Orig. rating: 7-12-07.
My first biere de garde. Clear, effervescent amber/gold body, topped by a thick foaming white head. Very crisp lagery/bready aroma. Complex flavor that’s tough to describe. Tastes like a very well made lager. Clear graininess. A fruity something in the finish. Very fluffy, yeasty feel that expands in your mouth. Very good.
8 4 9 5 18 4.4

I believe this is my first Flemish beer. I tried this at the Mondial. Cloudy, white head, complex flavors. A heavier beer, more like a wine or some beers brewed with spices. Had a great hop/yeast/malt flavor balance. It may be hard for me to be objective, since I do love a good Biere de Garde!

750ml bottle in small wide glass. Pours clear golden with fizzy white hide that surprisingly lasts. Faint sweet malt aroma with slight yeastiness and spice. Mild sweet honeyish flavor with slightly sharp bitter clean dry finish almost like a pilsner. Medium-light body. Seems like all the elements for a good beer, but it’s pretty non-descript. Some problem might lie with the sketchy retailer, who doesn’t know what he’s doing and has bottles thrown everywhere. Not bad, but not excellent either.

750ml bottle. very lager/pils looking, bright golden color, but a huge head with really nice lacing on the glass. Aroma is quite hoppy, with a good maltiness to it. Flavour is very much like a pils, good malt, good hops, nice balance, but kinda boring. But the fact that this is 8.5% and there isnt a hint of it anywhere, is impressive.

While I know Biere de Garde is a mile wide style-wise, I found this to be a very unusual Bier de Garde compared to othes I’ve had...in appearance, aroma, and flavor it was light and lemon-y, which really struck me as characteristics that would be more suited to say a witbier than to this style. It was a very light yellow and highly effervescent. Aroma was very faint and smelled like lemon zest with a bit of maltiness. Flavor was a bit sour (that lemon zest again) with a lot of maltiness for such a light smelling and tasting beer. I would recommend this beer as I found it very interesting. However, I didn’t find drinking it to be particulary pleasant. This is a curiousity, not a great beer.

Sampled at Mondial de la Biere. Light, estery. All my notes say other than that is "not too good."

750ml. Bottle. Found this right at the back of a cupboard under the stairs. The best before date was 1/5/2006. Poured a superb golden colour with a nice frothy white head. Plenty of aromas of citrus, honey,crisp, dry and a creamy mouthfeel. One of the France’s better effort.

Bottle from Uto. On opening the amusing 75cl bottle, I was a little put off. The aroma is very lager-ish. The colour very lager-ish. But the taste is something much more. It’s a lot like champagne - quite dry and fizzy. Loads of vanilla in the taste. Some apricot and peach hints. Very well rounded and smoooooooooth. Full bodied. Like honey in the mouth. Delicious.