Schlafly Biere De Garde

Before I fire up a Cigar, let's Biere De Garde it up.

Beer Log: Right now

State: Chilling out, doing some Linkedin networking on the computer

Schlafly BDG

Nose has a nice light fruity sour thing going on. Auburn color with a white head. First I notice the high carbonation, then a quick citrus-sweet thing going on. The second sip and I get a nice light ginger snap cookie flavor, but it leaves off your tongue faster than it shows up. It's like the Texans' season. It's over just after it starts. Nice flavor and very refreshing, but this thing just vaporizes off my tongue. Glad I picked up this puppy in early April when I was out in St. Louis. Certainly makes up for the fricken snow we had out there in the Lou at the time. High 3 Stars.

Purging the Sin from my system: Flying Dog

Good to be home from my back-to-back trips to New Orleans and Las Vegas. I still get the occasional sick feeling after the massive amounts of tequila shots and filth. It's good to be home, already had some homebrew, and now I'm having my first homecooked meal in a while from the Misses. I'll send the reviews for that later. Let's just say I had a few beers, lots of tequila, and woke up slightly hungover and THANK GOD alone every night.

Flying Dog Biere de Garde
Haven't had a BDG since we were in Paris. I didn't care for it then, so lets see what happens now. Smells like it's sour and estery, kinda fruity. Pretty clear and straw colored , low head in the wine goblet. A nice estery almost belgian taste without the nice sourness. It has a nice maltiness in there as well. Goes well with my IPA marinated pork chops. I detect a touch of hops and toast as well. Very nice. A good beer to introduce your light beer drinkers to. High 3 Star. The Dogs totally blew away whatever I had in Paris.

Flying Dog always make me think of this song...

Paris Trip: Le Gueuze, in the Latin Quarter

If you are fan of places like The Heights in Houston, Little Five Points in Atlanta, or Sixth Street in Austin, you need to take your arse to the Latin Quarter in Paris.

The bar scene is great, and the shopping isn’t bad either if you’re into that type of thing. It balances great architecture with grime. My Marathon partner Sam was too beat to sh!t to keep walking the streets, so he tapped out and went back to the apartment with his wife while the rest of us kept sightseeing. We stumbled into La Gueuze, which was a beer bar on my beertinerary. The bar had a great atmosphere, and is probably the best of the beer bars in Paris with one heck of a menu. They even had a beer from the Motherland, hellz yeah.

Ch’Ti
State: Eating Popcorn with no butter (tastes very…um, healthy)
Finally, a Biere de Garde. This is what the handbook says you have to try in France. This is their beer. The head is white and slightly fleeting. Orange/straw color. It has a sour smell to it (no surprise). On tasting, I first notice the medium body and little hops. It’s kinda sour with high fine carbonation. As it warms up, it actually gets more sour. I wrote down the words “Good, Nice” in my notebook.

Mongozo
From the Motherland, Cradle of Civilization. Though it’s brewed in the Netherlands, its origins are in Angola. If you are not sure where Angola is, just know that is south of the area where Dubya Bush found the Yellow Cake Sadam Hussein purchased. The beer has a banana smell. Its straw colored yet very clear. It tastes of banana, and not dry, medium carbonation, medium body, and no noticeable hops to speak of. It has a very quick finish to boot. Very nice change of pace. I’ll have to consider getting a bit of this for the house. It’s a great beer to introduce other people to craft beer. I like to hit folks with something totally different than a "Great American Lager", like a beer that tastes like chocolate or fruit. But whatever you do, don’t drop that shit!


And later on back at the apartment…

La Goudale

Another Biere de Garde in a 750ml bottle that we picked up at this neat little corner store. We are eating this awesome stuff called “kefta” with fries. It’s like a three patty hamburger in hoagie bread, but spiced like Lebanese food. We drank la Goudale in our ghetto wine...er... beer goblets that came with the apartment. Straw colored beer, white head, with a banana/fruity smell. First thoughts turn to the aftertaste, which was lightly bitter. It reminded me of a Leffe (kinda Belgian mouthfeel and fruitiness). It taste light banana and malt. It’s a good balance with the salty kefta and fries.