Gavroche

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

Serve in Snifter, Tulip

Pours orange amber with a white head. Earthy and fruity aromas, with some cherry or strawberry and some slightly tart red grape. Flavor is toasty biscuit, earthy, with some caramel, a bit of the red grape flavor, and a bit of red apple. Pleasant and drinkable.

I should have heeded the advise of the person a couple of posts before me. Explosive! Definitely open this one over the sink. So far, it has a beautiful pumpkin orange color, with lively carbonation in the glass. The nose reminds me of yeasty bread and the flavor is offset by the carbonation. The carbonation does lead to a sharp flavor, the body’s reaction to CO2. I will let this one sit for a few and all will be well with the world. Well Done!

Floral/fruity aroma with strong alcohol aroma. Very clear and pumpkin orange with a nice steady stream of bubbles. Tightly packed off-white head. Taste is sweet with carmel, toffee, and apple. Body is a bit thin. I would enjoy a bit more acidic tartness to balance this. Overall a good beer but not terribly complex.

Bottle: Big off white head on top of a clear dark amber orange colored beer. Smell malts, grains, corn, sweets, fruits, abricot. Taste malts, bitter, grass, spices, hints of fruit, wood, caramel and alcohol. Grassy light bitter with a hint of dry aftertaste. Low carbo, medium body, soft dry mouthfeel. Bit too malty.

Average amber ale. Big head from bottle fermentation. Little aroma. Taste was malt with little funk or bitterness. Not worth the $4.65/11.2 oz. bottle.

Bottle, cool but not cold. You can see the yeast still floating about in the bottle, and this has sat upright for quite some time. Half for the glass, half for my outdoor table, this exploded once the cap came off. Finally settled in, a murky and opaque, yeast and protein riddled brown. Orange comes through when held up to the afternoon sun. Messy web of foam atop, tannish, hold well and leaves an even messier lace. Complex nose of dates, prunes in syrup, caramel, buttery, burnt sugars and toffee, alcohol spice and dust, a little earth and wood, very warming and mellowing. Heavily spicy, clove and nutmeg/mace like, bitter bush berries and rough herbs come out fighting in the mouth. Sweet front balances well, toffee and butterscotch, mildly nutty, earthy mid-palate, firm malt base, good warmth of alcohol into the spicy, dusty swallow. Becomes quite vinous, dry. A little too gassy I had to work the carbonation out of it until it was smooth, the body medium with good presence. Overall it’s a nice drop, certainly went straight to my head or was that the dwindling afternoon sun!? (33cL, BB 03/07/11, Cellarbrations Carlisle)

This ends up too sweet-bready, overpowering a nice light sticky body and pleasantly soft carbonation. Aroma of herbs, dough, clove, raisin, appearance hazy, amber, red, body frothy, heavy cloying sweetness, lightly sour, light body, sticky, soft carbonation, astringent.

An amber beer that has the appearance and smell of a vienna lager, it transforms completely upon quaffing. Aromas of amber malt as it reaches the mouth, there is a sudden burst of mild, flowery hops with a hint of spice and hay, tiny bit of acid in the finish nicely accompanied by a barnyard scent. Aftertaste lingers; toffee and smooth caramel, hint of chocolate and herbs. Very nice beer, a surprising mix of ale and lager-like qualities with a hint of wild fermentation.