La Choulette de Noël

Brewed by La Choulette
Style: Bière de Garde
Hordain, France

Serve in Stem glass, Tulip

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750 ml bottle [corked and caged]: Deep garnet with a fluffy white head. Wonderful green apples and ripe pears sing out of the glass. Airy malt and tasty yeast. Buttery rum flavours along with luscious fruit, light herbal spices and more yeast. Not as “winey” as some other Bière de Gardes I have had, which I really like. This is a full flavoured: cocoa, figs, raisins, honey, simply elegant.

Pours a deep orange/ruby/amber. Light tannish head. Sweet, malty, spice nose. Sweet, plummy, spice, vanilla, dusty, light caramel, ripe fruit, chocolate, cinnamon, yeast, bretty, funky, bitter, herbal finish. Medium bodied, very well rounded, not overly spiced, very drinkable. I wish this was available all year.

This offering pours a dark maroon leaving a thin tan head that leaves very quickly. The aroma is bready, tart unripened fruit, strawberries, cherries, sour dough bread, and a musty dank aroma. The taste is tart upfront, sour cherries, strawberries, lemon, leaving a syrupy mouthfeel that coats the palate. The hops are brisk but not astringent, malty fruitness really finishes this beer off but is balanced by a tart fruitness that really makes this beer great. Overall this is a nice beer, I haven’t had it in a few years but glad I went back to it for this Christmas.

Rich aroma of dried fruits, rum, and soy sauce. Creamy on the tongue with a lasting flaovr of fruit syrup reduction, roasted malt, and marmite. Yeasty bite with just a touch of resiny hops. Pretty tasty, but the taste buds get quickly overwhelmed to the point that the beer becomes a little one dimensional.

Got this 750 ml bottle for $6.50. Dated best before 20-3-09, tasted yesterday. Pours a deep slightly hazy amber, with creamy off-white head. Very rough and earthy.. lemon zest, hay, pear, leather, caramel malt, dirt, nuts, and light sweetness. I love the rough flavors and complexity, one of the better farmhouse style beers I have had.

Pours a translucent tan-copper with many small bubbles. Biscuit and bread in the nose. Honey, butterscotch, caramel and cinnamon in the flavor. The butterscotch is what makes this so good. Sparkling and crisp palate. Easy drinking and a fabulous taste.

Not a bad Biere de Garde. Spicy, Toffee, and lots of malty flavors. Creamy, clean, and crisp finish.

Yeasty and cakey in the flavor. Chewy, and altogether quite well-balanced and enjoyable. Not too sweet at all, which is refreshing. A nice mild dryness to it. Strong yeasty aroma with the essence of Xmas candy.

750mL bottle BB 3/22/07. It’s supposed to be in the 30s this week... I can drink a Christmas beer :) Poured a translucent lighter ruby with almost nothing going on for head. The nose resonated with lighter, fruity candi sugars.. sweet, but natural.. a bit dried with light spicage and a bit of bread. Sweet syrupy flavors, but not the texture in the mouth.. free-flowing sweetened dried apricots and other fruits, a pinch of cayenne pepper, nutmeg, and mild floral bitterness come together quite nicely with increasing complexity and intrigue culminating in a sweet and spicy long-lived finish. Body became thicker as the drink progressed, and lower carbonation provided an ideal pace across the palate. This was very enjoyable, and almost impossible to beat at $3.99 :)

Toffee-amber colour. Cinnamon and toffee aroma, with more of the same in the mouth, mild malty sweetness with complex cinnamon, nutmeg spice after taste.