Bière de Réserve

Bière de Garde is a strange style: it's considered a farmhouse ale like saison but is actually very different and is actually lagered. Aside from the lagering aspect, and a balance towards malt, there doesn't seem to be any set definition or ingredients that make something a bière de garde. It can be gold, amber, or brown; moderately alcoholic to very strong; use European or English hops; use lager yeast, fairly neutral ale yeast, or characterful Belgian yeast, and in some cases can even have brettanomyces. I've only had 2 beers labeled as Bière de Gardes: Flying Dog's Garde Dog, knocked as not being within the style parameters by most reviews, and Right Proper's Baron Corvo, a mixed fermentation bière de garde.

In coming up with my recipe I focused on the 2 things that definitely define the style (malt forward and lagered) and looked at homebrew recipes from Michael Tonsmeire and Gus Addkinson to get a ballpark idea of ingredients and decided to use an array of toasted and crystal malts to compliment the German pilsner base.

Part of my desire to brew a beer in this style is my love for "farmhouse" ales and "wild" ales. With this in mind I planned to add BKYeast C2 (and possibly other yeast or bacteria) to part of this batch to give it some more farmhouse "rustic" character, instead of just being a toasty/malty kolsch. I chose this Brett strain after tasting a 100% C2 beer recently and thought that the mild earthy/fruity/dusty/"wild strawberry" characteristics would go well with this style.

I made one big mistake when designing this beer and wrote the recipe for 5 gallons for the ingredients but 6 gallons for the water profile, leaving the beer with a much lower gravity (1.052) than I aimed for (1.062). I ended up adding 4 oz. of sugar and 8 oz. of malt extract to bump up the gravity a touch.

Brett version pictured on the left with the plain version on the right.

12/27/17 Side by Side Tasting:
Appearance:
Plain: Heavily carbonated with a massive white head that lasts as a thin layer with thick foamy lacing left behind. Coppery amber in color with decent clarity, just a little haze.
Brett: Much less heavily carbonated with a quickly fading head that leaves no lacing. Similar coppery color with a touch less haze due to the lower carbonation not shaking up as much sediment.

Smell:
Plain: Mild fruitiness with a strange sour, vegetal and earthy squash like character. Light caramel malt aromas and a touch of phenolic smoke.
Brett: Overripe fruit up front with some peppercorn, clove, and green pepper. Slightly vinous and caramelly.

Taste/Mouthfeel:
Plain: Light berry fruitness mingles with moderate peppery phenolics that lead into sweet lightly caramel malt followed by more spiciness and a low bitterness with lingering spice and vegetal character. High carbonation makes the phenolic character even more prickly but it calms down with some time and warmth. Some astringency from an unknown source. Fuller bodied than the brett version but doesn't feel thick despite 1.016 FG.
Brett: Medium earth and fruit mingle with a lingering spicy bitterness. Seems less phenolic and the low carbonation and thin body adds to the vinous character.

Overall:
I'm really not crazy about this one and almost ditched the tasting and the whole post. That said, the brett version does seem a little better despite only mild changes and I could see this strain working great in a slightly better base bière de garde. In terms of how to get to a better base bière de garde I'm not sure what I would change to avoid the phenolic character other than a change in yeast and maybe cutting some of the toasted malts. I also wonder if the hop choices contributed at all to the earthy/vegetal character that is a little too strong for my tastes. Overall, not the beer I wanted it to be but not undrinkable.

Fermentables

Amount	Fermentable	Maltster	%	Use	PPG	Color
9.0 lb	Pilsner (DE)	Avangard	79 %	Mash	36	1 °L
1.0 lb	White Wheat (US)	Briess	9 %	Mash	40	2 °L
12 oz	Victory	Briess	7 %	Mash	34	28 °L
4.35 oz	Honey Malt	Gambrinus	2 %	Mash	37	25 °L
3.25 oz	Caraamber	Weyermann	2 %	Mash	34	23 °L
2.0 oz	Crystal 150L	Great Western	1 %	Mash	33	150 °L

Hops

Amount	Hop	Time	Use	Form	AA
1.0 oz	Fuggle (UK)	60 min	Boil	Pellet	4.1%
0.5 oz	WGV (UK)	60 min	Boil	Pellet	6.0%
0.25 oz	WGV (UK)	15 min	Boil	Pellet	6.0%

Yeasts

Name	Lab/Product	Attenuation
Kolsch	Wyeast	75%

Brewed 6/17/17
Cooled to room temperature and placed in 6 gallon fermenter with Wyeast 2565 Kolsch.

6-30-17
Split batch between two 3 gallon plastic carboys, adding a starter of C2 Brett to one. These were placed in a chest freezer set to 35F.

7-29-17
Both batches were pulled out of the chest freezer and allowed to rise to room temperature (~66F) for at least one week in order to ensure full attenuation before bottling.

8-5-17
Bottled the clean half with 1.5 oz. sucrose aiming for ~2 volumes of carbonation. Final gravity is higher than expected at 1.016 and quite a bit higher than expected and shows a much lower attenuation than the style calls for. This may be closer to a Marzen but tastes like a nice, if a tad too sweet/caramelly, lager. The "Avec Brett" half will be given more time as the gravity is only down to 1.012 and may be able to fall further.

9-15-17
Brett version bottled as it was still sitting at 1.012. Tasting good with just light fruit/earth/funk from the C2 strain on top of the clean and malty character of the base beer.

9-20-17
The clean half has become surprisingly "Belgian-y" with a spicy phenolic character that gives the impression of Belgian yeast. While some phenols aren't entirely out of style in a bière de garde, the beer seems to have transitioned from a clean, Marzen like beer into something closer to a Belgian blonde. I'm not sure where this yeast character could have come from but have to assume that a Belgian/Saison/Brett/wild yeast strain capable of producing phenols (POF+) was picked up in bottling. A full side by side tasting will be done once the Brett half is carbonated.

Batch #21 100% Brett Beer - Side by Side

I've recently been diving into the catacombs of the past (aka my parent's basement) to grab some beers that I brewed years ago to see how they're tasting now. In many of these cases the beers are oxidized - in some cases they may have been that way when fresh. In other cases, primarily with boozier or sour/brett'd beers they have aged gracefully, in some cases even gaining character. Today I decided to pop bottles of batch 21 and 21b side by side. This beer started as an ordinary bitter recipe which was brewed with 100% BKYeast C2 Brettanomyces yeast. The b version was put on 2 pounds of Blackberries (.8 lbs/gallon) to increase the sourness and play up the berry characteristics. I'm interested to see whether the beers have held up after about 4 1/2 years. Tasting notes below:

21 (100% Brett Beer)
Appearance - amber-brown, a bit hazy (high carbonation pulled up some yeast immediately after popping the top). Voluptuous head that lasts throughout.

Smell - Earth, malt (toast), grass, berry. It definitely has the "wild strawberry" green/earth/wood/berry character that has been seen in this yeast isolate. Some musty/funky aromas and slight cardboard give an impression of age.

Taste - Very similar to the nose with some woody and berry flavors throughout, a touch of bitterness on the backend with a lingering strawberry and earth impression. No real oxidation character, showing once again the power of Brett to help a beer age gracefully.

Mouthfeel - Dry and highly carbonated but not thin or aggressive, very enjoyable.

Overall - This beer has aged better than I expected and is drinking a bit like some of the Brett biere de garde's I have tried. I could definitely see this strain working well, probably not as the only yeast, in a mixed ferment biere de garde.

21b (100% Brett Beer w/ Blackberries)
Appearance - Similar in color but less hazy (very clear) compared to the straight version. Almost no head and absolutely no retention (possibly due to the berries, but also appears to be much less carbonated). I remember this beer having a more reddish/pinkish/purplish hue when fresh but that color appears to have faded.

Smell - Very different smell with berries/fruity pebbles dominating. Earth and toast are found further in the background but it smells fruitier/sweeter.

Taste - The smell is deceiving in this one as the taste is actually much less sweet than the other version due to a moderate acidic kick. Not acetic but very noticeable (possibly malic) acid blends with some moderate blackberry flavors.

Mouthfeel - Thinner than the other version and with very little carbonation this one falls a little flat. the mouthfeel may be the weakest part of this beer.

Overall - I highly enjoy the smell of this beer and could see why I preferred this version fresh but time (and lack of carbonation) have not been as kind to this version with the berry flavors and color seeming to fade. This one does come off somewhat vinous and is by no means unenjoyable.

Impressions/Takeaways - Once again my old beers with Brett have held up and retained some very enjoyable characteristics. I've been thinking a lot about Biere de Garde recently and drinking these makes me very much want to try the C2 yeast in one.

#19b - Sour Red Tasting

I brewed this sour brown beer (probably actually closer to a Flanders red style-wise) in the summer of 2012 and, well, wow time flies when you're brewing beers. This version received additional Brett compared to the straight version of 19 and was also bulk aged a bit longer.

Appearance- medium brown/garnet in color with no trace of a head and a few carbonation bubbles coming up. Extremely clear after all this time.

Smell- chocolate, raspberry and vinegar predominate. The chocolate malty character comes through surprisingly strong but the acetic acids slight sting dominates.

Taste/Mouthfeel- on the tongue this one feels tingly, and tastes fairly fruity (blackberry, raspberry) with a surprisingly high malt characteristic that encompasses toast and shortbread. Finish is fairly dry with a sharp back of the mouth burn followed by lingering vinegar and, again, toasted bread.

Overall- this beer is very interesting. At times I find it to be way too sour, but tonight I felt the fruit and malt characters shined and kept it enjoyable. Definitely a beer only sour lovers could get into, and even then the high acetic levels might put some of them off. Not nearly as bright, funky or complex as my favorite sours but interesting nonetheless.

The BKYeast C2 added to this half might be partially responsible for the more balanced beer compared to my other tastings of #19 as the Brett's fruit flavors help to balance the extreme tartness. It would be interesting to do a side by side taste test but with only a handful of bottles of each left, and the extremely sour character they each display, that might not be a great idea.