Biere d'Avril Biere de Garde

An amped-up tweak of Northern Brewer's Biere de Garde kit, brewed, garded (lagered), and split: half for now, half for Thanksgiving. As seen in Brewing TV - Episode 13.

A criminally-underappreciated beer style, in our estimation (Saison and Bock, together at last!), and, according to Garret Oliver, top-notch with roast turkey. Seeing as how T-giving is my favorite holiday, I vowed to not be without it this year. Brewed it extra-hefty in spring to withstand and improve over the long, cold road to November. But as it so happens, Biere de Garde is traditionally, like its Belgian cousin the Saison, a provision beer for the fermentation-unfriendly summer months. And at the time of this writing, it's still summer, citizens. So ... keg for now, bottles for later. Have cake - eat it too.

Biere d'Avril - Blonde biere de garde 5 gallons, all-grain OG: 1.078 FG: 1.012 Grist: - 10 lbs Belgian Pils - 2.5 lbs German Munich 20 EBC - 0.5 lbs Belgian Aromatic malt Mash: - 148°F for 90" - 170°F for 5" Boil: - 1 oz Palisade @ 60" - 1 oz Styrian Goldings @ 30" - 12 oz table sugar @ 5" Fermentation: - White Labs WLP072 French Ale, 1000 ml starter w/ stir plate - 14 days @ 64°F - 90 days @ 35°F No WLP072? Yeah, me neither, now ... that Platinum Strain ship has sailed. My year-round-available choices would be WLP008 or WLP029.