ohiobrewtus

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biere de garde.bsm (13.8 KB, 70 views)

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gifty74

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How did this turn out?

ohiobrewtus

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I really enjoyed this beer. It ended up finishing very low (1.003) which kicked up the abv a bit too much, but it was still very good.

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Oldsock

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Despite the name of the yeast it is apparently the Fantome strain. Not sure why they called it Biere de Garde, but we had the same experience super attenuative, and more yeast ester/phenol production than a Biere de Garde usually has.

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Check out The Mad Fermentationist for my adventures in fermentation (cheese, bread, ginger beer plant, and of course plenty of funky beer).

GordonT

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I've never made a French Biere de Garde but I'm interested in giving it a shot. One thing I've wondered about is how they get that really funky, woody/leathery flavour into their farmhouse beers.
Is it due to the yeast? Cask conditioning? Seems more likely to me that it is a yeast characteristic.

Anyone have information or views on this?

emjay

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Sounds like maybe a Brett infection which isn't typical for a modern bierr de garde. I have a feeling you're talking about cork taint though, which is definitely considered part of the style's character (but interestingly, always considered VERY bad in wine.)

I'd say that using corked bottles is absolutely essential to reproduce the style authentically - in my experience, much moreso than even the process of garding which is constantly stressed.

emjay

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This is very true, although Fantome hardly makes typical saisons... wildly creative for a Belgian saison producer. Intetestingly, Wyeast's "French Saison" strain, is conversely probably much closer to an actual BdG strain - it comes from Brasserie Thiriez in France, which is technically a BdG producer, though granted, even the author of Farmhouse Ales (Phil Markowski) admits it shares many characteristics of a saison.

I don't use Wyeast products much except for their nutrient though. You should be able to produce a fairly close BdG with a pretty neutral yeast strain, ale OR lager (lager yeasts being very commonly used), although ale yeasts are typically fermented cool, and lager yeasts quite warm. Of Wyeast's ale selection, you may want to give 1338, 2565, or 1007 (European Ale, Kolsch, and German Ale, respectively) a try, and preferably in that order, according to Markowski. Jamil Z ALSO recommends 1338, despite a hugely different grain bill, so I doubt you can go wrong with it.

My personal favorite though is White Labs WLP072 (French Ale), a platinum series strain only TYPICALLY available two months of the year, though homebrew stores can get limited (or even retired strains, I believe), if they can place a large enough order of it. Unfortunately, nobody seems to be able to confirm which brewery is the source of this strain, but there are pretty consistent rumors that it comes from Duyck, makers of Jenlain, pretty much the BdG against which all others are compared - though given this fact, the rumors are probably just born of speculation and/or wishful thinking since it IS the obvious guess. If it were any other brewery rumored, I'd be a bit more inclined to believe it. Regardless though, it produces a fantastic BdG that is authentic enough for me to definitely believe it comes from SOME sort of French BdG producer.

Not that it matters a ton though, as the customs and practices of BdG brewers often involve just borrowing yeast from much bigger breweries that are not even close to being artisanal farmhouse or craft breweries, which is why pretty much any fairly neutral yeast strain can do a pretty great job. Which makes me wonder what the hell Wyeast is even thinking, selling a saison yeast as "Biere de Garde", because saison yeasts, pretty much by necessity, produce FAR too much character to result in a beer approximating an actual BdG.