Castelain ChTi Brune

Brewed by Brasserie Castelain
Style: Bière de Garde
Benifontaine, France

This looks like weak coffee with a fizzy light brown head that soon reduces to a mere film. It has a mild malt nose that has a tartness to it. The body is quite light, near watery. The taste is somewhat sour, malty with plums. Not much to the finish, just a mild "dirty" maltiness.

Too thin and lacking flavor and aroma. I really have nothing else to say about it. Fortunately I did not pay the $11 for this beer. Funny, because I drank the Ambree in France for about 2.50e/75cL.

Bottle at Delirium Café, Brussels, Belgium
Frothy, fully diminishing head. Excellent lace. Murky black body. Nose of malts (cookie, strax) and light hops. Lightly sweet, lightly bitter flavour. Very short finish. Light to medium bodied.

Bottled. DArk brown with a large and airy head. Sourish aroma with cedar-tree. Rather thin body. Sourish flavour with some grassiness and oak-charatcter.

Brown liquid with a taller dry bone colored head. Rather odd color head actually. Aroma say a lot. Raw grains mixed with pears, raisin, plastic, cider vinegar and lemon zest. Dirt and nut flavors abound. Some dry rot mixed in as well. Fairly thin and biting on the palate. These certainly do not live up to their billing. This should clean out the drain quite well.

Head is initially average sized, frothy, light brown, mostly diminishing. Body is dark brown. Aroma is moderately malty (caramel, grain), with notes of apple, bubble gum, and plastic. Flavor is moderately sweet, lightly acidic. Finish is lightly sweet, lightly acidic, lightly bitter, unclean. Medium body, watery texture, lively carbonation. I’m just glad this little Ch’Ti sampling experiment ends with this one. The darker malt (or caramel coloring?) does little to mask the poor qualities, unfortunately. Whew.

750 ml bottle. Corked and caged, embossed bottle. A Biere de Garde, according to the label. dark brown in color, showing ruby tints held to the light, adorned with a fizzy tan, lace-leaving head. Aroma is smooth and mellow, speaking of nuts, cocoa, a whiff of dark fruit, but not much beyond. taste: mostly, it’s like cola, even root beer. Nuts and cocoa, again, bright, flavorful...Malt is king here, feels nearly sweet, ultimately drying, but mostly, this is a tasty, lean brown ale, the English kind, but done in Belgian style. Easy drinking, nothing to shout about. Not sure I’d recommend it, based on the $11 pricetag, when finer Belgian ales can be found cheaper, but it is a nice drink, so I can’t dissuade anyone from the pleasure of tasting it. Just a bit too rudimentary to justify the pricetag, or presentation.

High light brown frothy head on a dark brown body. The taste is fruity, without the bitternes on could expect from such a brew. The impression is of a easily drinkable beer, light on the palate. Weaker than on might expect, though. Acceptable beer in almost any circumstances, but not extraordinary