La Goudale

Aroma: 6 | Appearance: 7 | Mouthfeel: 6 | Flavor: 6 | Overall: 6

Pours dark golden yellow white a white head. No lacing really. Aroma is bready and sour. Flavor is sweet, malty, grassy, spicy, with a bit of hops. All in all just fine.

Aroma: 7 | Appearance: 6 | Mouthfeel: 6 | Flavor: 7 | Overall: 6

A hazy gold pour with a huge white frothy head. The aroma was earthy grainy malt, spome spiciness, and yeast. The flavour was grainy with citrusy noted, and a bitter spicy finish.

Aroma: 7 | Appearance: 7 | Mouthfeel: 7 | Flavor: 6 | Overall: 7

My first biere de garde, La Goudale poured a mid yellow, lager like body, with a slightly off white cap, flecked with the occasional spice, it leaves decent lace. Aroma is slightly fruity like apples, with some musty yeasts. Flavors of apple, grass, spices,and a little malt. Overall a decent beer, i wouldnt mind trying another of this style sometime in the future.

Aroma: 8 | Appearance: 7 | Mouthfeel: 8 | Flavor: 8 | Overall: 7

Aroma is sweet-like with some mustiness as well as some lemon citrus and crisp straw with some cidery component like apple overtones with some peppery hop content. Appearance is a deep, golden in color with some haze but is attractive with a full-sized, well-carbonated head on top that is off-white in color and diminishes to a creamy lacing that sticks to the glass. Mouthfeel is tame but medium in body and very crisp and light with some adequate enough complexity and balance with a pallette that is wet-like and lively and carbonated. Flavor is of sweetness as well as some fruity ester and slight funk with an aftertaste that offers crisp apple overtones as well as some musty hops and has a finish that is clean and sharp and refreshing with some very faint white pepper nuiance. Overall, contrary to what some have said, I can appreciate this brew albiet a tad lacking in complexity. A very easy sipping Biere de Garde here and highly recommended if you want to get your feet wet in the area of French-inspired fare...

Aroma: 8 | Appearance: 7 | Mouthfeel: 6 | Flavor: 7 | Overall: 6

Best By Date May 2009; Sampled August 2008
Pours into my 25cl tulip with an almost four-finger thick, pale, off-white colored head. The beer is brilliantly clear and a rich gold color that turns to a bright gold color when held up to the light. The aroma is an interesting mix of spicy-fruit and malt notes. The nose reminds me of a perfectly ripe, sweet, aromatic apple that has a touch of spiciness to it. Grassy grain notes and a touch of dusty malt becomes lightly noticeable towards the finish. The aroma definitely smells more like apple cider than anything else.

Sweet tasting with an apple flavor to it up front that moves to a piquant spiciness towards the finish. The finish is a mix of esters, phenols and higher alcohols that produce flavors similar to white pepper, ginger, a touch of warmth and a definite clove note; the phenolics even take on a cola like character towards the finish. Fairly well carbonated which provides a bit of fizz to the texture that helps to lighten things up just a bit. The taste is not one dimensional apple like the aroma, but the phenolics are a bit too much even if they provide an interesting counterpoint to the apple notes.

Not bad, just seems to be lacking in complexity, especially malt character.

Purchased: Plaza Liquors, Tucson AZ

Aroma: 8 | Appearance: 7 | Mouthfeel: 6 | Flavor: 7 | Overall: 7

Golden colour, mediumsized white fluffy head. Aroma is malts, spices, citrus and slight hints of alcohol. Flavour is smooth malts along with herbs and spices. Slight grapefruity notes also along with a nice alcoholic touch to it. Gets even nicer when warming up a bit.

Aroma: 5 | Appearance: 3 | Mouthfeel: 6 | Flavor: 7 | Overall: 5

Very plae yellow colored. Fastly dissapearing foam. A little bit sour and strange aroma, not very nice :( Taste is a little bit sweetish, a little bit too much alcohol is in the taste. Aftertaste is sweet and not very strong.

Aroma: 7 | Appearance: 7 | Mouthfeel: 7 | Flavor: 7 | Overall: 7

A decent french beer with alot of character. Bought this in Dieppe on a field study. A weird hoppy flavour on the attack but surprisingly smooth for a dark, heavy beer. Very Nice

Aroma: 8 | Appearance: 7 | Mouthfeel: 8 | Flavor: 8 | Overall: 8

I have tried only one can of this nice brew in France and I'm pretty sure I would drink it any time I could. Light amber colour, rich fluffy white foam with fine lacing. Rich and full aroma with solid malty background and nice sweetish-fruity-hoppy hints. Well expressed. Solid, average to full body, rather sweetish, bitter hoppy palate.Well balanced and nicely expressed flavour. Malt domination, nice fruity coverage, later bitter expression, some slight alcoholic patches mixed with caramel traces, hoppy ending with intensely bitter aftertaste. Pleasant and solid beer. That’s a piece of real French brewing masterpiece. Who said that they can do only good wine? Very good beer. Strongly recommended. Nice Biere de Garde, only my second of this style, but I'm catching myself to fall in love with it.

Aroma: 7 | Appearance: 7 | Mouthfeel: 6 | Flavor: 6 | Overall: 6

Clear light golden, big cotton-like head. Grass, herbs and vanilla in aroma, notes of bread and lime. Flavour of herbs, honey, grass bready pale malts. Light and slippery mouthfeel. Short herbal finish.