Leelanau Good Harbor Golden

Leelanau Brewing Company
Brewed at Jolly Pumpkin Artisan Ales
Style: Bière de Garde
Lake Leelanau, Michigan USA

750mL bottle, courtesy of yjb. Thanks, Yaniv! Pours a hazy, whitish-honey color; fluffy, bright-white head with great retention and lacing coating the glass; an ideal pour. Very pleasant aroma: mild brett presence, lemony dish soap, honey, and wheat; a fair amount of tartness perfectly integrated into a dry, dense background. Medium-to-full mouthfeel: nice jolt of brettiness and zesty citrus at the forefront; good levels of acidity, tartness, and fullness of flavor; perhaps a bit over-carbonated, which serves to cover up a bit of the citrus and honey and sugar within; lots of wheat coming through mid-palate; a drinkable, refreshing, tart beer, but the carbonation begins to detract a bit after the first few sips; sharp on the tongue. Medium finish showing lemons and additional citrus and some honey; a bit of doughiness comes through at the very end.

Cloudy golden beer with an effervescent body and frothy, thick lacing - semi-tart, kind of wheaty aroma, with some wildflower kicking around back there, along with some lemony smells and a bit of spice - fairly dry and tart, with strong oak flavor - some grainy, wheaty character arrives late, and mildly sour citrus/lemon rind - mild funkiness, wild qualities - a brief hint of sweetness and floral hints - not so much a biere de garde as a tart belgian ale, but pretty decent either way.

An interesting beer, for sure. Brightly colored golden-hue. Frothy white head with a very active rising of bubbles. Quite musty and heavily cellared. Not too sweet at all. Tart and has a Belgian/pilsner qualities to it that make it quite unique.

Before opening the bottled I noticed chunks of goopy crap in the head space of the bottle. Looks the wild yeast is doing something in there! Smells like a big ol’ hunk of blue cheese, and tastes even funkier. The taste is bretty and acidic, but well balanced with sweet malts, and a surprising amount of hoppiness. Fruity and tart. Over carbonated and a bit too full in the mouth for the style. Don’t know if I’d quite call it a Biere De Garde, but call it what you wanna call it, it’s tasty.

750 ml bottle

I brought this to the tasting to kick things off with an easy palateable beer before the heavy stuff came out. As soon as we had a quorom this was popped open. Immediately a huge gush of foam surged over the top before we could get it to the sink. It continued to do so until about half the bottle was poured out. This was a great sessionable beer that one could easily drink alone. I’m not sure I would do so at $9.99 a bottle though.

Aroma / Appearance - The cloudy golden body left a bubbly two finger head, most of which was from the gushing head. Honey, wheat and a slight hoppiness gave it a great but simple aroma.

Flavor / Palate - The taste flows quickly over the tongue so it takes a while to pick up the light lemon and honey flavors. It does not intrude at all, quickly getting out of the way. I found it to be relatively solid but it did not set my world on fire. This is worth a try if you want a change of pace from big beers but otherwise there might be better ways to spend a ten dollar bill.

10th Columbus Tasting (Christmas 2007) I caught the warm tail end of hte bottle with extra sediment: Thus very yeasty with strong lemon rind nose and taste. Would make an excellent pairing with seafood--just a thought.

sitting under an oak tree, drinking some sweet tea. its so dry. i pick up a twig and start chewing on it.

From a 750mL Bottle. Obtained in a trade with Ogglethorp, 10/2007. Pours a mostly transparent, ripened banana gold color with a finger of white frothy head. Funky brett aroma of leather, sour lemons, barnyard, and hints of tropical fruit, mainly pineapple. There seems to be a subtle residual sugar sweetness as well, as the nose already doesn’t seem as dry as most JP beers. Medium light bodied, creamy wheat malt body with a spritzy, prickly carbonation and a mild acidity. Fairly dry, but has a noticeable pale malt sweetness up front on the palate. Lightly tart, with funky sour lemon flavors and a mild phenolic spice. More pineapple. Pretty tasty overall, but the musty brett funk and dry oak characters seem to clash a bit with the malt body; I think a bit more dryness would help round it out some more. Thanks, Brian!