Thiriez LAmbrée dEsquelbecq (Amber)

Brewed by Brasserie Thiriez
Style: Bière de Garde
Esquelbecq, France

] Pours a clear deep amber, topped by an impossible head of light tan foam. Too much head retention - foam oozes out of the top of the bottle, even after I’ve poured off 4-5 ounces. Light malt caramel aroma, with a soft fruitiness. Delicious beer - light caramel, some dark honey, sweet bread, and a touch of dried apricot. These sweet flavors are nicely balanced by the fresh earthy hops. Exceptionally smooth beer - medium body and lots of gentle carbonation.

Not a Biere de Garde. Great character of munich malts. Bitter. Less well balanced than the blond

750ml bottle. Cloudy gray-amber color. Highly effervescent, light, and relatively dry for an amber. Hints of sour cherry, vanilla, and some sort of spice, perhaps just the yeast or malt. This is a seriously complex beer for being only 5.8%. Very well balanced with a crisp Earthy hop character and a nice subtle amber malt backbone that doesn’t overwhelm the palate. Great beer.

Mild gusher, as I am force to quickly grab the bottle and start sucking the foam as I reach for my largest available glass (Duvel - damn it) more foam and the bubble still acting like a micro Mount Vesuvius. OK, me thinks things have settled down. Orange amber color with a fluffy dark cream colored head. The color darkens slightly with each additional pour. Fall wildflower breeze flowing through the attic haymow,with old wood and dry grain included. Gentle pours required with this one. Light and airy on the palate, with enough heft to keep it on the tongue. I interject that I have been quite pleased with the brews from this brewery. Fairly light in flavor, but balanced and pleasant. Pale malt, honey, peaches, mild apples and herbal/wild flower hops balance. Finish is quite dry and rather uneventful. Some mild caramel and apple. Linger returns to herbal roots and a hint of light toffee. A perfect end of the day potation.

1 pint 9.4 oz bottle $9.99. The aroma is sweet candy sugar, sweet malts, mild raisin notes, some citrus and spice a soft floral aroma that is very inviting. The body is a bright copper/amber color and supports a massive three fingers thick head that is ivory white, fluffy and lasting. Fore is dry and grainy with toasted breads, mild baked raisin and caramel flavors, honey and sweet malt. Very tasty. The carbonation is biting and gives some crispness to the rounder, lightly sweet base flavor.

750ml Bottle: I saw this was new at Royal (and I believe to MO) so of course I had to get it. I believe three total Brasserie Thiriez are availbile. It pours with an explosive head that took multliple pours to get it all in my stien (only glassware I have to hold whole bottle, I’m sorry I know its not proper glassware). A this hazy orangey amber color beer with some floating to sinking sediments. A small ring of head remains atop the beer. The aroma is nice, nothing too distinct. the flavor is great. Rather mild, yet complex. Has figs in the background but for lack of better ability to describe it, it just hides in the background, seemingly wanting to explode onto the palate but remains in the background. Sugary up front, but spices do come through with an interesting finish. Nice toffee, malts, sugary, syrupy, doughy, wheatish, and definitly some apples.

Bottle from Kent Beer Festival. Unfiltered. Fresh tasting. Hints of chocolate and fruit. Perfumey hops. Very refreshing, softly carbonated, easy drinking, nicely balanced beer. Nothing too sweet, too dry, too bitter or too aggressive. An assortment of flavours that work together in harmony. Slightly different so catches the interest without being heavy or oppressive. There’s possibly some wheat in here. And some chocolate malt. It’s an interesting mix. Quite serious without being clever or stunning. Very enjoyable. Nice one.

Certainly pours a nice amber color, a mix of red and copper notes. The beer is incredibly well carbonated, it in fact starts to foam out of the bottle as soon as I pop the cap, and lots of floating yeast bits are kicked up and make it into my glass. Luckily it makes it’s way into my glass with out spilling a drop. The myriad, of quickly cascading streams of carbonation keep aloft a fluffy, three-finger thick, amber tinged tan colored head that forms a rocky surface as times wears on. Malty aromatic notes of caramel and toasted grain are joined by a light fruitiness reminiscent of tart plums and raisins and a spicy yeast character that evokes notes of clove, pepper, and perhaps a hint of ginger. Overtime a nice sour sweet apple note becomes quite prominent and pleasant.

The taste is dry and spritzy up front, but leads to a fruity sweet note that is magnified by the caramel malt notes. The sweet malt notes and fruity yeast character remind me of sweet plums and fragrant apples; these notes actually linger for quite some time in the finish. The finish also has a lingering, lightly astringent bitterness to it, which adds a nice balance to the sweetness. This beer is so well carbonated that the spicy, zesty, almost peppery character of this beer is magnified in the front of the mouth as you first take a sip of this beer.

This beer is light and refreshing, yet still manages to have a nice heft to it that makes it a bit satiating as well. Refreshing, yet satiating I really how the beer strikes a balance between these two, disparate descriptors. As the beer loses a bit of its spritzy carbonation it begins to become a touch more satiating, but it is still not heavy or chewy. The malt character is quite nice here as well; I really like how the best Farmhouse Saisons can have such a pronounced malt character despite all of the other exotic yeast characters and flavors.

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