Biere de Garde: criminally underappreciated. Clean but rustic, Bock and saison had a baby and they called it French farmhouse ale. This is my 5 gallon stab at the pale end of the style with honeyed malt and flashes of biscuit, hop spice, and flowers that takes on musty undertones when cellared in corked bottles.
Biere d’Avril
Blonde biere de garde
5 gallons, all-grain
OG: 1.078 FG: 1.012
Grist:
- 10 lbs Belgian Pils
- 2.5 lbs German Munich 20 EBC
- 0.5 lbs Belgian Aromatic malt
Mash:
- 148°F for 90″
- 170°F for 5″
Boil:
- 1 oz Palisade (plug, ~8%aa) @ 60″
- 1 oz Styrian Goldings (pellet, ~4%aa) @ 30″
- 12 oz table sugar @ 5″
Fermentation:
- Clean-profiled ale yeast
- 14 days @ 64°F
- 90 days @ 35°F
the beer engine 
How large of a starter did you create for this masterpiece?
Great yeast choice! I love the spiciness of this yeast!
Yes, I definitely dig the 072 – was just thinking last night that I need to brew another batch with it someday. The starter I made for this guy was 1.5 L on a stir plate.
I really like this style too, and to ensure I always have some kicking around I brew it once a year to celebrate my daughter’s birth. A nice consequence of this is I can do some mini vertical tastings from time to time. I’ve found it ages quite well.
The yeast I go to is Wyeast 1338 European Ale, but it’s now not on the regular line up which is a bummer. The Euro ale tends to be slow to finish up, and throws a big krausen layer that persists throughout fermentation, but the end results are worth the extra patience required.
Are there any substitutions you would suggest? due the limited availabilty of WLP-072..
In either companys catalog… No bias right? hahaha
really want to get my biere de garde on…
Heh.
Love me some BdG. I think any strain, ale or lager, that is clean and malty would be in the game, and there are a lot of year-rounders that fit that bill. My personal inclination at the moment breaks toward a warm-fermenting lager yeast. Hope this helps!
Hi.
I’ve been tinkering with idea of making Saison, but bottling with bretta and leaving it to carbonate & condition for a year in my cellar. And perhaps take controll portition and use no bretta there.
Original idea left from Flanders red and Lambic, but I’m more interested in cleaner body (no candy sugar or syrups) and all taste from yeast and hops.
Any tips/ideas/whatnot?