New Belgium's Biere de Mars?

[nztkdt]

I'm sure many of you have had New Belgium's - Lips of Faith - Biere de Mars. I'm a new homebrewer and haven't yet gone down the road of Saisons or other sour beers and I was wondering if this was a good representation of the style. I know its not really a 'sour' beer, more of a 'quasi-sour?' I found myself intrigued by it. I poured a 22oz bomber of it and couldn't stop myself from sipping. Though its not something I could see myself drinking a lot of at one time, I kept going back to it.

I was just wanting to get anyone else's opinion about the beer and if this could be my gateway drug to sours..... It was kinda.....well...."funky".

To me at least.

 

[Schemy]

Yes and no. I suggest reading Farmhouse Ales, and you'll gain an appreciation that the Bier de Garde/Mars current examples are bastardized versions of the original style. This style has undergone different changes over the years as brewers have tried to somewhat revive the style. I've never had a Belgian/French version of the style. I have had the NB version, and I enjoyed the beer. That said, compared to the texts I've read on the style I don't believe it to be a historically accurate representation.

All that said, I have a Biere de Garde that I have been lagering for 2 months now. I bastardized my own version, fermenting 3711 at a lower temp, then lagering the beer. Is it style accurate, no, but its a damn good beer.

 

[Phunhog]

Yes and no. I suggest reading Farmhouse Ales, and you'll gain an appreciation that the Bier de Garde/Mars current examples are bastardized versions of the original style. This style has undergone different changes over the years as brewers have tried to somewhat revive the style. I've never had a Belgian/French version of the style. I have had the NB version, and I enjoyed the beer. That said, compared to the texts I've read on the style I don't believe it to be a historically accurate representation.

All that said, I have a Biere de Garde that I have been lagering for 2 months now. I bastardized my own version, fermenting 3711 at a lower temp, then lagering the beer. Is it style accurate, no, but its a damn good beer.

Exactly! I was all excited to try it but after reading Farmhouse Ales I realized that NB version wasn't really even close to an authentic Biere de Garde. I made a "authentic" BDG a few months ago using the recipe out of Farmhouse Ales. The beer turned out great.....much more of a malty lager than anything.

 

[HerbieHowells]

Welcome to the beautiful and wacky world of Belgian style beers, where a beer doesn't have to be an example of any style.

Biere de Mars isn't a Biere de Garde, because it isn't a malt forward, cleanly fermented beer. It isn't a sour, because they don't intentionally add bacteria. They do throw some brett in at bottling time, which is what they do with Orval. But if you have ever had Orval, you know it's nothing like Orval. (If you have never had Orval, you have a homework assignment for this weekend. ) It's just it's own thing, and quite tasty at that. It's the kind of beer that explains why the Belgian Specialty Ale category exists- it is outside of any category, and just needs to be judged on its own merits.

If you want to see what souring can do for a beer, I suggest Bam Biere from Jolly Pumpkin. It looks kind of like Biere de Mars, but the bacteria does things that you can't get from Brett. There are also more classic sour styles, which actually fit into their own BJCP categories.

And on Saison, a classic Saison isn't sour. It's dry, you get a lot of interesting flavor from the yeast, but it isn't sour. You could brew a Saison and then add bugs or brett or both, but then you would be right back in Belgian Specialty Ale land.