Freestyle #29: Rice Bière de Garde
Oxbow Brewing Company in Newcastle, Maine, United States 🇺🇸
Farmhouse - Bière de Garde Series Out of Production|
Score
6.79
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Appearance - 6 | Aroma - 6 | Flavor - 7 | Texture - 6 | Overall - 7
Draft at Pizzeria Paradiso. Poured a light ruby color with a small off-white head. Aroma was very malt-forward, toffee, caramel notes. Funky, fruity, caramel notes. Okay.
Appearance - 6 | Aroma - 8 | Flavor - 7 | Texture - 6 | Overall - 6
Draft. Clear amber color. Aroma of light caramel. Taste is herbal caramel. A bit strange.
Appearance - 8 | Aroma - 7 | Flavor - 7 | Texture - 8 | Overall - 7.5
Draught at the Portland location, 5/17/15
Slightly darker than their saisons, with a brassy hue and a pinch of light amber. Small white head shows moderate retention. Clarity is medium-high to high.
Spicy and yet also earthy hops in the nose definitely give the effect of the good French BdGs, but the usual sumptuous maltiness dosent quite follow. Instead, more dry, cracker and biscuit-like maltiness emerges, with yeast acidity and a good amount of minerality. No alcohol noted, nor flaws.
The flavor is quite balanced between malt and hops, and while there are, of course, no rice flavors, the rice works to keep the beer lighter than your average malty, medium-sweet BdG. Definite acidity on the end, as it should have, with rustic, dried hay and even lilac-like hoppiness. Medium bodied with a touch of thinning overall, again probably due to the rice. It’s subtle and assuming they were looking to make a more saison-textured/bodied BdG, they were quite successful. Whether or not one wants a lighter, less malty/chewy BdG is another matter, but I’m all for it, preferring dry and heavily attenuated beers (and getting a little bit fatigued even by something like La Bavaisienne).