Amber colour with foamy head. It's a malty beer with a light hop bitterness. Plain and straightforward but decent.

Draught Towering, ultra-dense & fine yellow head. Floral nose, fruity, curious aroma as from medlars. Bit woody, dried fruit, if this time more like figs if not as sweet as dried figs by miles. Caramel, again without the sweetness, and almonds, turning into bitter almond in the finish. Bit sticky MF and feeling way heavier than 3.8% would warrant. Tasty!

Standard English bitter by Bastide (even if the brewer hesitates to call it a ‘bitter’ for commercial reasons, being located in southwestern France), tasted straight from the keg as an incompletely developed beer, manually bottled by the brewer himself – thank you Mr. Davies! Loose, off-white, unstable and dissipating head, deep orange blonde robe with amber tinge, almost a bit coppery even. Aroma of apple peel, caramel, peach flesh, a touch of butterscotch, wormwood leaf, unripe pear, peanut peel, mugwort, bitterroot. Rounded, fruity onset, apple peel and unripe apricot notes, very soft carb, supple and smooth mouthfeel; peanutty maltiness with a soft, wet-toasty core, dryish and bitterish, the bitterness of course reinforced by a grassy, even rooty hoppiness in the end, blending nicely with the toasted malt bitterness into a dry, quenching finish. Tasted too young, of course, but with that knowledge and from mere experience, I can easily predict that this will definitely turn into a full-blown, balanced, dry and very quaffable English bitter indeed. I will get a chance of re-tasting this at the coming Ghent Bierfestival and may rate it again then, in its final form as intended by the brewer; so this rating is to be seen as preliminary.

New Bastide beer, dedicated to rugby, a sport popular in southwestern France because of its loose (and to a certain extent, historical) connections with Britain – including the fact that the brewer of Bastide is an Englishman himself. Pale greyish white, moussy, medium thick, stable head on a clear, deep caramel brown beer with mahogany glow. Aroma of sugared tea, brown bread, dried fig, scones, cooked apple, clove, hints of anise, old raisins, nutmeg and bayleaf. Sweetish fruity onset but not very estery, rather malt sweet, with accents of pear and fig; soft carb, very caramelly malt profile with even a chestnutty accent and some residual sugariness. Develops a herbal, bit tea-ish hop bitterness in the end, but dark dried fruit and caramel impressions linger about. English brown ale of the sweeter kind – almost reminiscent of a Belgian dubbel, in a non-spiced, cleaner and far less yeasty way.

Bastide, run by an elderly English brewer, has a beautiful English style IPA in its range, but in order to cater for the young crowds, apparently felt the need for an American style IPA as well – this is where this Chasse comes in, with snow white, moussy, tightly structured, medium thick head and clear pure warm yellow-golden robe. Predominantly grassy and floral aroma of dried lemon peel, chamomile, freshly cut grass, mandarin, unripe melon, dry hay, mown lawn, sweetclover. ‘Green-fruity’ onset, aspects of green melon and Conference pear, medium fizz, supple and slick mouthfeel; sweetish cereally pale maltiness, bittered by a very floral, grassy and only lightly zesty hoppiness, adding impressions of field flowers, white pepper and lemonbalm – but the huge ‘wave’ of either grapefruity ‘citrusiness’ or tropical fruitiness remains absent. I think I prefer Bastide’s English style beers over this attempt at American style, but then, if you look at this as a hop-forward English golden ale, there is nothing wrong here – so I will not be too harsh on this beer, it is still very well made, even if the American intentions were not achieved.

English style IPA – a near-extinct style these days – by Bastide, an English-brewing brewpub in France. Thin and open, snow white, small-bubbled head, clear deep and warm orange blonde robe. Aroma of dried apricot, butterscotch (diacetyl – but not disturbing in a young English ale), wet biscuit, dried orange peel, mugwort, dandelion, persimmon, roses, cooked tomato hint. Soft, minimally fruity onset, apple peel, unripe apricot, lively carbonation adding considerable minerality, slick and even somewhat buttery mouthfeel; dry-biscuity, lightly toasty-bitterish malts, very pure, quickly bittered by a firm dose of grassy, rooty, wormwoody hop bitterness, spreading over the tongue broadly and extensively – but the malt passes through as well. Completely noble-hopped in its dry-hopping, over a perfectly English malt and yeast profile: this is a deliciously drinkable English IPA the way you very rarely see them these days. I wish more accomplished brewers would shy away from the ‘haze craze’ and focus on the very roots of the family tree, like Mr. Davies has done with panache here…

Low alcohol dry stout from Bastide, tasted at the brewery’s premises in a pint glass. Pale yellowish beige, densely moussy to even creamy, dissipating head on a blackish beer with hazy burgundy hue. Aroma of burnt walnuts, burnt bread crust, unsugared black chocolate, some wet dog, black peppercorns, beef broth, wet leather, raw bayleaf, black tea. Cleanly dried-fruity onset, dried blackcurrant touch but hardly any sweetness at all, smooth body with finely tingling fizz; feels quite full for its modest ABV. Walnutty, hard-caramelly core but no sweetness, instead the dryness gets increasingly bitter, turning very roasty in the end (roasted chicory, burnt toast) with a rooty, somewhat spicy hop bitterness to support it. Dry stout the old school way, smooth, bitter and far removed from all those ‘chocolate sauce stouts’ the hipsters are craving for today – making it all the more interesting for me. Enjoyed it very much, like most of Bastide’s beers, but the setting and the fact that it was in the midst of vacation may have positively coloured my experience, who knows…

One of the English style ales brewed by an Englishman in this brewery in southwestern France, thanks Craftmember for sharing. Moussy, pale yellow-beige, even-bubbled head, slowly diminishing over a misty deep burgundy-hued ruddy-bronze beer. Aroma of toasted hazelnuts, bitterroot, dry tree leaves, bitter dark tea, brown bread crust, minerals, nutmeg, some sweeter notes of pear, medlar and even very vague chocolate when warming up. Dryish onset, dried apple peel, minerally carb but fine-bubbled, immediately malty in a dry brown bread- and toast-like way, remaining sleek and dry while the bitterness grows, eventually becoming a bit walnutty and even very lightly ‘burnt’ without going into actual roastedness. A firm rooty and leafy hoppiness takes over the strong bitter factor from there, further accentuating the dryness and becoming a bit herbal and ‘granular’ even in the end. Very focused ESB style beer, a stronger, darker, maltier bitter, truly a sip of merry old England in a picturesque French setting.

One of a whole series of British style ales produced by this brewpub in Monpazier, a village in the French Périgord region, by an elderly Englishman who used to work for Bass but after his retirement, decided to start his own brewery. Off-white, membrane-lacing, thin and breaking but edge-retaining head on a hazy amber-hued deep orange blonde beer. Aroma of fresh croissants, wet rusk, toast, dandelion, some diacetyl (buttermilk), dried peach, grass, tomato peel, ferrous spring water. Crisp onset, stingy carbonation adding pleasant minerality; some dried-fruitiness (dried apricot) but quickly jumping to rusk- and old biscuit-like maltiness with a bitterish toasty edge, acquiring a confident floral hoppiness towards the finish with even a slight citric accent to it, providing lingering, leafy bitterness over ongoing dried fruit and toast flavours. Came from a bottle showing a slight touch of oxidation already, more effervescent than what one expects from even a bottle-conditioned real ale, but refreshing and inherently true to style, albeit perhaps a bit on the light(-bodied and -flavoured) side for the ESB category; nevertheless a convincing, quenching, hoppy English bitter in general. Enjoyed it.