Smells sour, maybe like wild strawberries, with a slight off-note which reminds me of dishwater.
Taste is tart and dry, floral with that same wild strawberry. Lingers a bit (you'll want a glass of seltzer to go with it), but overall pretty balanced and tasty. Glad I grabbed this when I did, as it seemed to be flying off the shelves at the Whole Foods in the Pearl. Fuckin' hipsters. They can have the sour beer; I'll take the smoky beer.
Which is not to say that I don't appreciate a good sour beer now and then. Nor to espouse undue hatred on the hip—my own facial hair style is goofier than most and all of my clothes are secondhand. But there is a certain type of sour-beer-swiller (you can tell, because they were swilling IPAs two years ago) who would be just as happy sipping some carbonated apple cider vinegar as a decent beer.
A rep once explained the Cantillon mystery to me (it always tasted like vinegar to my palate). He said that Cantillon was a famous brewery that produced great sour beer, but had to ramp up production in the face of widespread demand. This caused a shift in their product towards tasting oppressively of vinegar, but with their brand recognition, whenever a neophyte sipped this vinegar brew, heralded as the best of the best, they formed an impression that vinegar was how sour beers are supposed to taste, and the rest is history. Narsty, narsty history.
Anyway de Garde is producing some pretty darn good beers, and I say that as a non-sour-head. I have noted the dishwater smell in Petit Desay, so it may simply be an ester from their house/local yeast. And this beer is pretty good as well. Not stupidly expensive (less than half the price of a Cascade), and also not terribly high in alcohol (5%). Seems like this could go with sushi or chevre or greens or maybe I'm saying that because it reminds me a little bit of a raspberry vinaigrette salad dressing.
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