Church-Key Biere de Garde

Brewed by Church-Key Brewing
Style: Bière de Garde
Pethericks Corners, Canada

Serve in Snifter, Tulip

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Cloudy gold w/ pale tan finger of foam. Yeasty, bready aroma w/ notes of ginger, coriander & toffee. Light, syrupy feel. Somewhat bland, malty flavour of bread & cereal w/ mild notes of caramel & toffee.

had in bottle and on tap. great job of hiding alcohol percent, higher then it tastes. barnyard grass flavour, bready and slight malt, good hop finish, mellows nicely in the bottle after a while

Draught. Cloudy orange with a full medium white creamy head and sparse lacing. Malt-accented aroma - bread and sweet malt make up the most of it. The flavour is bready and malty again - prickly carbonation with some light hop bitterness. This falls into the BdG-type that I don’t really care too much for...it’s just mostly strange and bland. Clean yeastiness that doesn’t really contribute much to the palate. Some orange hop bitterness peaks it’s way through as well.

Clear dulled golden pour wearing a light white head. Very grassy, sweet nose with a vegetal backbone to it. Oily and bordering chick peas or popcorn at times. Honeyed maltiness makes for most of the character in mouth, focusing too much on the malts and not enough on the slightly metallic yeast character that fails to bring more emotion in the melting pot. Very minimalist hops. Flimsy finish, grassy and in line with the rest. It had started weakly with the beer being so heavily filtered, but the light and rather dead body brought the cleavage with more credible bière de garde even further.

Strong buttery diacetyl overwhelms the sweet, lavender and fresh grass in the aroma. Clear caramel copper coloured body is topped by a low off white head that recedes to a partial cover and ring. Honey, cereal, popcorn and butter with some lavender and grass and mild finishing bitterness. Slick mouthfeel to the medium body with moderate carbonation. Sampled with beerbuzzmontreal, Lubiere, MartinT and Rastacouere.

UPDATED: FEB 12, 2007 I guess I don’t mind a bit of diacetyl, because I loved this strange brew. A lightly cloudy amber colour and a heavy, somewhat musty aroma of pumpernickel. Combination of butter and honey flavours with nippy, floral hops and a fruity flourish in the end. Full mouthfeel, perhaps a bit burning in the throat, with some chalkiness towards the end. Still, a brilliant tour de force.

Golden ale with a thin white head. Strong diacetyl and buttery aroma., sweetish and overbearing. In mouth, a crisp malt with sweet honey notes, a bit cloying, buttery mouthfeel, and some light nuts. Medium bodied. Bottle was a gift from Karl. Merci! Sampled with Mtl crew, April 16 2006.

Draught at beerbistro. Nice golden colour with a decent white head - I usually expect some haziness in this style, but it looks great despite being clear. Aroma has a combination of flavour and sweet/candy notes which is quite inviting despite being somehwat odd. Flavour is mildly spicey and herbal, with a bit of toastiness in the finish. Not a typical Bière de Garde - but then again, that’s such an amorphous style, who’s to say what a typical one is? It’s tasty and refreshing, so that’s the important thing.

Draft at Beer Bistro. Deep golden amber body with a good sized creamy white head. Light floral and spice aroma is pleasant but slightly muted. Flavour follows the lead of the aroma, with a light peppery spice, mild sweet toasty malt underpinnings. Light fruity notes as it warms. Average palate. Average palate. I like that it uses local ingredients - very cool.

Tasted at beer bistro. Tasted in a sampler. Golden honey appearance. Thin white head. Clear. Aroma is sweet and Honey like. Flavour is sweet but not very complex