Biere de Garde

Tier B · BJCP 24C · Farmhouse ale from northern France, fermented cool and then rested cold for months

ABV

6.0-8.5%

IBU

18-28

SRM

6-19

Serve

45-50F

Glass

Goblet

Identify

Three colours are all correct: golden blonde, reddish bronze, or chestnut brown. Usually bright, though a little haze is allowed. A well formed white to off white head with average retention. The smell is toasted bread and biscuit first, with light fruit behind it and almost no hop at all. Smooth and creamy, and lighter in body than the smell led you to expect. Toast, biscuit, toffee and light caramel lead. Bitterness is medium low and the finish is medium dry to dry. Alcohol warms rather than bites, which matters at 7% or 8%.

Place

Nord-Pas-de-Calais, the country around Lille. Jenlain became the modern reference in the 1940s.

Cause

The grain bill leans on Vienna and Munich malt, with pale malt underneath and a little crystal malt for colour in the darker versions. Those malts are kilned warmer than pale malt, which browns the sugars and produces toast, biscuit and toffee before brewing has even started. That is the opposite of the Belgian approach next door.

Confused with

Saison, which is dry, peppery and much more bitter. Marzen, which is toasty and clean but weaker and brewed cold. Dunkles Bock, which is the same idea in German with more bread and no fruit. Belgian Dubbel, which brings dried fruit and pepper that this beer does not have.

Numbers

The name is the whole idea. Biere de garde means beer for keeping. Everything else about the style follows from a decision to brew in the cold months and store the beer until it was needed. Take a mouthful and pay attention to how it moves rather than how it tastes.

Will you like it, Order and Try

Toasted bread, digestive biscuits, or the crust at the end of a loaf. That is the centre of the beer. Toffee and light caramel, without wanting an actually sweet drink. The finish here goes medium dry. A good Marzen or Oktoberfest beer. This is close to that flavour, made warmer, fruitier and stronger.

Pair, Judge, Myth and Remember

What does not work: anything very hot and spicy, and delicate white fish. Alcohol at 7% or 8% makes chilli heat worse rather than better, and a fish this light disappears under the malt. Bright in the glass, with a white to off white head, in any of the three colours.