Bière à la française
Overshadowed by the wines and cuisine of France on one side and the multitude of fine Belgian beers on the other, Bière de garde (“beer for keeping”), is France’s worthy contribution to the world of beer styles. Originating in the Nord-Pas de Calais region of northern France, which was once part of the Kingdom of Flanders, bière de garde is a farmhouse ale long a favorite of the local farmworker. Traditionally it was brewed in the winter months, which was also congenial to brewing, for consumption in the summer when the increase in microflora made beer production more problematic.
These provisional beers had to be hardy enough to survive the weeks or months of storage (“garder”) that lay ahead of them. This staying power was generally attributable to the bière de garde’s higher alcohol content relative to beers made for more immediate drinking. It should be remembered that this was not a “big beer” in today’s sense of the word, as the bière de garde was brewed to refresh the worker during the course of a long day in the fields, providing him with a nutritional supplement to his diet and a safer alternative to the drinking water.
Exactly what those historical bières de garde tasted like is something of a mystery, as they were not commercially available and no written records of exact recipes exist today. Production of bière de garde declined as refrigeration technology developed and there was no compelling reason to brew stronger beers to cellar for months. Additionally, the palate of the younger generation of beer drinkers turned more and more to pilsners and away from spicy, strong ales.
Brasserie Duyck (also known as Jenlain, after the town in which they are located), started bottling their bière de garde around 1945, and is generally credited with reviving the style in France. Jenlain became very popular with students in Lille in the late 1970’s, helping to spur other breweries like Brasserie Theillier, Brasserie Thiriez and Brasserie St. Sylvestre into their own experiments with bière de garde. The brewers do not feel at all constrained by narrow definitions of style and take the description below as merely the starting point for their beers.
Bières de garde are generally light to deep amber in color, with malt accents, often described as spicy, in both aroma and flavor. While full-bodied examples certainly exist, the classic style is more lean or medium-bodied. The hop character is generally subdued and is used mostly to balance out the malt sweetness. The oft-mentioned musty, “cellar” aromas and flavors may derive from complex yeast strains and the widespread use of corked bottles. The bières de garde of today are considerably stronger than their ancestors, usually weighing in at between 6-8% ABV. Today it is the quality and variety of the bières de garde that make them well worth keeping and drinking throughout the year.
Cidrerie Duché de Longueville’s Clos Normand (4% abv) A light bodied, semi-sweet cider from the Normandy region to awaken your bourgeons de goût (taste buds) tonight.
Brasserie La Choulette Framboise (6.2% abv) Produced by a charming Flanders farmhouse brewery that dates back to 1885, this light bodied raspberry beer has enchanting sweet fruit and barnyard aromas, followed by a slightly dry and tart palate with elegant raspberry flavors that are complimented by some more musty, earthy notes. This framboise is an amber or brown ale with real raspberry juice – not artificial raspberry flavors, which are typical in today’s fruit beers – added.
Brasserie Thiriez’s Extra (4.5% abv) Extra is a dry, flavorful, very hoppy (using the English variety Bramling Cross) and very drinkable pale golden ale. In some ways perhaps closer to the old bières de garde with their lower alocohol levels, but quite different from the typical bière de garde of today, this collaboration between Daniel Thiriez and an English craft brewer might well be termed a farmhouse IPA session beer.
Brasserie Duyck’s St. Druon Abbey Ale (6% abv) Brasserie Duyck’s bière de garde, renamed Jenlain in 1968, is widely credited with reinvigorating this style. St. Druon (formerly known as Sebourg beer) is a little different than the other beers from Duyck, is not a bière de garde, and although it is labeled an ‘abbey ale,’ it bears no resemblance to any of the typical abbey beers of Belgium. The recipe includes wheat from the Beauce region of France and a specific yeast to give this ale its distinctive flavor, with hints of spiciness, hay and berries. It is an unusually hoppy brew, with a light body, intended to be more refreshing than a typical bière de garde.
Brasserie Theillier’s La Bavaisienne Blonde (7% abv) Located in a farmhouse in Bavay that dates back to at least 1600, with foundations going back to Roman times, the Theillier brewery has been active since around 1900. One of only two beers produced by Brassierie Theillier, La Bavaisienne Blonde has a solid farmhouse terroir with citric grapefruits, straw/hay and yeast notes. The body has a light to medium thickness with a creamy texture and expansive carbonation. A somewhat hard-to-find beer, hand-delivered by Michel Theillier around Bavay and, surprisingly, also available in select outlets in the U.S.A.
Brasserie Thiriez’s Amber (5.8% abv) Daniel Thierez, a graduate of the brewing school of CERIA Brussels, set up Brasserie Thiriez in the former home of Brasserie Poidevin, in the village of Esquelbecq. Thiriez’s Ameber is a golden-red ale, blending sweet malt goodness with earthy and spicy notes, all balanced with a soft, hop bitterness.
Brasserie St. Sylvestre’s Gavroche (8.5% abv) The Ricour family has run this brewery, located in the commune of St. Sylvestre-Cappel near the Belgian border, since the early 1920’s. Named after the street urchin in Victor Hugo’s Les Misérables, Gavroche is the brainchild of Serge Ricour and is a strong, malty brew with licorice notes in the background and a dry nutty, toasty finish.
Text by David Cohen. For additional information on bières de garde and their cousins, saisons, see: Farmhouse ales : culture and craftsmanship in the Belgian tradition by Phil Markowski (Brewers Publications, 2004) or go to http://www.sheltonbrothers.com/.