De Garde Brewing

[ForkAndSpoonOperator]

Paging degardebrewing for proof of concept test.

 

[libbey]

What was the beer that inspired you to explore spontaneous fermentation?

 

[jmgrub]

What is your favorite degardebrewing beer so far? Do you ever hang around the gymnasium?

 

[degardebrewing]

What was the beer that inspired you to explore spontaneous fermentation?

3F gueuze. Still my favorite 'shelf' beer that's truly wild. Just great stuff.

 

[degardebrewing]

What is your favorite degardebrewing beer so far? Do you ever hang around the gymnasium?

1) Lee Noir. It has the delicate balance and complexity I prefer while still having an overall assertive character. Great earthy funx. Never going to fare well in an American wild ale lineup as it seems the trend is towards more assertive/aggressive sours, but it's closer to where my taste lies.
2) I lift grain sacks and barrels a lot... In all honesty, I should, but years of commercial fishing make it a bit more painful than I'd like. Getting my lift on with bottle curls. Many reps.

 

[drgarage1]

Have you ever had a rougher morning than after Magnum-tiharing Fred from the Wood? If so, how did you survive?

 

[dimensionx]

1) 2) I lift grain sacks and barrels a lot... In all honesty, I should, but years of commercial fishing make it a bit more painful than I'd like. Getting my lift on with bottle curls. Many reps.

So much buffs, so many muscle, so ISO.

 

[degardebrewing]

Have you ever had a rougher morning than after Magnum-tiharing Fred from the Wood? If so, how did you survive?

Yes.
Coffee.

 

[degardebrewing]

So much buffs, so many muscle, so ISO.

So FT?

 

[JulianB1]

1) Lee Noir. It has the delicate balance and complexity I prefer while still having an overall assertive character. Great earthy funx. Never going to fare well in an American wild ale lineup as it seems the trend is towards more assertive/aggressive sours, but it's closer to where my taste lies.
2) I lift grain sacks and barrels a lot... In all honesty, I should, but years of commercial fishing make it a bit more painful than I'd like. Getting my lift on with bottle curls. Many reps.

Trevor, I opened one of my bottles of Lee Noir at a big bottle share in Columbia last weekend, and everyone who had it pretty much universally agreed that it was up there with Black Tuesday and Grey Monday for the best beer of the day. It was also the only bottle I popped where multiple people came looking for top-off pours after trying it.

 

[JulianB1]

^^^^ Meant Chocolate Rain, not Black Tuesday, but the point still stands.

 

[degardebrewing]

^^^^ Meant Chocolate Rain, not Black Tuesday, but the point still stands.

It's ok. My brain is a little wonky when when I get back from Columbia too...

 

[stakem1]

Is there any effort being put forth to seriously consider the cow fart system of grading your beers?
Affixing something to your labels would be beneficial.

Grandma's walking cow farts...
Wet pasture cow fart...
The milks gone bad cow fart...

nomsayin?

 

[JulianB1]

It's ok. My brain is a little wonky when when I get back from Columbia too...

When I get back from that Columbia, it's usually my other head that's worse for wear.

 

[Shmeal]

Can I contract more beer from you?

 

[jmgrub]

2) I lift grain sacks and barrels a lot... In all honesty, I should, but years of commercial fishing make it a bit more painful than I'd like. Getting my lift on with bottle curls. Many reps.

 

[degardebrewing]

Is there any effort being put forth to seriously consider the cow fart system of grading your beers?
Affixing something to your labels would be beneficial.

Grandma's walking cow farts...
Wet pasture cow fart...
The milks gone bad cow fart...

nomsayin?

Not a bad idea.
We do struggle with differentiating the different styles of our beer. I mean, they're all fermented with our local yeast and bacteria, but something like our hoppy brews are obviously very different from something like the Lee series. If it says wild on the label though, people expect sour, and a lot of our brew isn't by intention. We may need to write a novel to tell people what to expect and how to treat it.

Honestly, it's been an internal discussion from the beginning, and we just haven't decided how to move forward. So you can continue to look for our janky ass, uninformative, and downright insulting labels for the near future at least.

Or just ask about the cow flatulence for a particular batch.
Imperial Vin Bu has terrific gas. Free range grazing on a kidney bean pasture. Very mature. The extra couple months in barrels beyond the other iterations made it happy. But you've gotta love our funkier Berliners.

Edit: also, with the vagaries of aging wild beer, I'd hate to say that a particular beer is light on the pucky and have someone sit on one for a few years and open a funk bomb.

 

[degardebrewing]

Can I contract more beer from you?

YOU KNOW IM NOT THE BOSS SAM.

 

[degardebrewing]

This just got real awkward. Or awesome.

 

[ASUBeer]

Can you talk about your experience using local vineyards/grapes in your beers. Curious if that is because you love wilds/grapes, really like wine or have access to such great local vineyards. Or all of the above.

 

[jmgrub]

This just got real awkward. Or awesome.

Just meant to clarify the source of my original question about "whether you hang around the gymnasium," but while we're at it...

 

[degardebrewing]

Can you talk about your experience using local vineyards/grapes in your beers. Curious if that is because you love wilds/grapes, really like wine or have access to such great local vineyards. Or all of the above.

All of the above.

I was heavily interested in wine before beer. Worked several different jobs in the industry, and had previously thought that was where my career was going to be. With the introduction to great brew (coinciding with the increasing availability of more interesting options) and the escalation in prime vineyard real estate, grape, and wine prices, I made the leap. We still likely have more wine in the cellar than beer though, and continue to enjoy the hell out of it.

I also think that wine grapes are a fantastic and unique fruit very suitable to sour brewing. We retain some great friends and contacts in the industry, and there's a lot of interest there about what we're doing. This allows us to work with some of our favorite and most distinctive vineyards to secure a broad palate of grapes to utilize in beers that we find complementary.

Just like our beer is a true representation of where we are because of the type of fermentation we do, we like to work with grapes expressing a strong individual character and sense of place, effectively melding the two locations. Or at least as best we can.

 

[beerandraiderfan]

I wanna do some camping up there this summer, check out a Hillsboro Hops game or two, make a blur of a day at Cascade barrel house.

Recommendations for something between Tilamook & Hillsboro camping wise and best time frame to avoid lots of people?

 

[degardebrewing]

There's a number="beerandraiderfan, post: 158404, member: 977"]I wanna do some camping up there this summer, check out a Hillsboro Hops game or two, make a blur of a day at Cascade barrel house.

Recommendations for something between Tilamook & Hillsboro camping wise and best time frame to avoid lots of people?[/quote]

Theres a number of spots off of the road between the two. I'd just say make the drive and pick one. Weekends atvthe coast in the summer are predictably ridiculous.

 

[nanobrew1]

Planning a trip out to Portland area in early June and plan on visiting you guys. Do you have some exciting things that should be out around then? What are some fun things to do in Tillamook (or in-between there and Portland)? Is the cheese factory worth visiting?

 

[degardebrewing]

Planning a trip out to Portland area in early June and plan on visiting you guys. Do you have some exciting things that should be out around then? What are some fun things to do in Tillamook (or in-between there and Portland)? Is the cheese factory worth visiting?

We're always trying to have exciting things on tap, and try to keep a few bottles around as well. I can't give any guarantees as to what will be available, but as we start filling and dumping more barrels in the new space we anticipate having more and a wider variety on offer.
As for other attractions, sure, the cheese factory is interesting. There's some great hikes (including Cape Lookout) just a few miles west on the coast. I'd recommend the drive. Also, Pelican has their production brewery and tasting room two blocks from ours. Certainly worth a look.

 

[Snarf1]

degardebrewing - did you feel like your first bottles were ready to drink when released? A friend opened a few of them for a tasting pretty soon after and they had some weird pedio stuff going on. Not undrinkable, but didn't taste or feel like the beers other people are raving about. Wondering if they carbed up and were good to go and then had a weird phase, or if maybe he didn't get the 'don't drink these right away' memo.

 

[levifunk1]

1) Never going to fare well in an American wild ale lineup as it seems the trend is towards more assertive/aggressive sours, but it's closer to where my taste lies.

I'm just learning of you/your brewery, but I have huge respect after that statement. Cheers.

 

[degardebrewing]

degardebrewing - did you feel like your first bottles were ready to drink when released? A friend opened a few of them for a tasting pretty soon after and they had some weird pedio stuff going on. Not undrinkable, but didn't taste or feel like the beers other people are raving about. Wondering if they carbed up and were good to go and then had a weird phase, or if maybe he didn't get the 'don't drink these right away' memo.

The most important part before getting into explanations/excuses; I'm truly sorry that your friend received less than satisfactory bottles.

We do feel that our bottles are ready when we release them. If we did not, we would not.
Most of our batches go through a 'ropy' period in barrel.
A large number of them see a natural secondary recurring pediococcus fermentation in bottle, often resulting in ropiness again. When this happens, we sample a large cross section, and when we fail to find a bottle still displaying any off character, we release them.

It sounds as if your friend got a couple bottles that either underwent a third pedio spike (which is something I've never seen nor heard of), or for some strange reason those bottles did not mature in the same fashion as the others.
The fact is, truly wild fermentation is not a controlled process. We are bound to have at least some small percentage of failure. Like many brewers. What percentage are we happy with? Zero of course, which is why i would encourage your friend to reach out to us so that we can attempt to make amends if he is upset.
I stand behind my work. It hurts knowing it's not perfect every time for everybody, but I take pride in it nonetheless. As such, I appreciate the criticism, and hope to hear from your friend.

 

[degardebrewing]

I'm just learning of you/your brewery, but I have huge respect after that statement. Cheers.

Thanks.
We have made, and I'm sure will make more, some aggressively sour or flavored brews. Some by intention, and some where the fermentation decides to go.
But yeah, I like subtlety and nuance over face melting.

 

[Snarf1]

We do feel that our bottles are ready when we release them. If we did not, we would not.

It's nice to hear you say that, as well as everything else in your post. I'll that along to him. I feel like a lot of brewers these days really don't care what they put out because people will buy it anyway and don't know the difference aka the Lost Abbey model.

 

[degardebrewing]

It's nice to hear you say that, as well as everything else in your post. I'll that along to him. I feel like a lot of brewers these days really don't care what they put out because people will buy it anyway and don't know the difference aka the Lost Abbey model.

I could not care more. This is my passion, job, and hobby.

 

[Previously]

The most important part before getting into explanations/excuses; I'm truly sorry that your friend received less than satisfactory bottles.

We do feel that our bottles are ready when we release them. If we did not, we would not.
Most of our batches go through a 'ropy' period in barrel.
A large number of them see a natural secondary recurring pediococcus fermentation in bottle, often resulting in ropiness again. When this happens, we sample a large cross section, and when we fail to find a bottle still displaying any off character, we release them.

It sounds as if your friend got a couple bottles that either underwent a third pedio spike (which is something I've never seen nor heard of), or for some strange reason those bottles did not mature in the same fashion as the others.
The fact is, truly wild fermentation is not a controlled process. We are bound to have at least some small percentage of failure. Like many brewers. What percentage are we happy with? Zero of course, which is why i would encourage your friend to reach out to us so that we can attempt to make amends if he is upset.
I stand behind my work. It hurts knowing it's not perfect every time for everybody, but I take pride in it nonetheless. As such, I appreciate the criticism, and hope to hear from your friend.

Love you.

 

[stupac2]

The most important part before getting into explanations/excuses; I'm truly sorry that your friend received less than satisfactory bottles.

We do feel that our bottles are ready when we release them. If we did not, we would not.
Most of our batches go through a 'ropy' period in barrel.
A large number of them see a natural secondary recurring pediococcus fermentation in bottle, often resulting in ropiness again. When this happens, we sample a large cross section, and when we fail to find a bottle still displaying any off character, we release them.

It sounds as if your friend got a couple bottles that either underwent a third pedio spike (which is something I've never seen nor heard of), or for some strange reason those bottles did not mature in the same fashion as the others.
The fact is, truly wild fermentation is not a controlled process. We are bound to have at least some small percentage of failure. Like many brewers. What percentage are we happy with? Zero of course, which is why i would encourage your friend to reach out to us so that we can attempt to make amends if he is upset.
I stand behind my work. It hurts knowing it's not perfect every time for everybody, but I take pride in it nonetheless. As such, I appreciate the criticism, and hope to hear from your friend.

This is, without any doubt, the best thing I've ever heard from a brewery after a quality complaint. I haven't really tried any of your beers, but this statement makes me want to.

 

[Michigan1]

This is, without any doubt, the best thing I've ever heard from a brewery after a quality complaint. I haven't really tried any of your beers, but this statement makes me want to.

**** you.

-3Floyds

 

[Shmeal]

I could not care more. This is my passion, job, and hobby.

It's my hobby to drink them. Doing well so far.

 

[Previously]

This thread has inspired me me to drink some De Garde when I get home from work tonight. Cant wait. Thanks again degardebrewing. Quality of your beer rivals the quality of your character. Cheers!

 

[Previously]

Dat Blackberry berliner be chillin'. Mouth is waterin'. That clock is tickin'. Timecard needs punchin'. I need to be drinkin'.

 

[PeelBacks]

This thread has inspired me me to drink some De Garde when I get home from work tonight. Cant wait. Thanks again degardebrewing. Quality of your beer rivals the quality of your character. Cheers!

home from work at 1:45am!?

 

[Previously]

home from work at 1:45am!?

Off at 2am tonight. Home by 2:30 at the latest. Have to stop at FedEx on the way home and drop off some whales, bro.