It’s not a style that you might expect to be familiar to a casual beer lover, particularly one as young as Braedon Rinck. But for someone who’s spent many of his formative years in a public house with its own brewery, a taste of the finer things might just be part of growing up.
Biere de Garde hails from the Calais region of France. It’s a rather strong, farmhouse-style ale that has lots in common with Belgian beers despite its French lineage.
“It’s kind of a fringe version of a saison, a seasonal beer that was cellared to be enjoyed during the harvest,” explains our Head Brewer, Stephen Mathys. “They’re fairly strong typically, with a wild yeast character. I naturally carbonated it in the tank, so it has a much lighter carbonation than folks might expect. It acts more like a cask beer that way.”
Braedon, the eldest son of our owner, Emily, has been a fixture here often since we opened the place over a decade ago. He’s worked in the Feed Store and sold brewing supplies. He’s enjoying his work framing houses these days, and next month, he’ll take another big life step – wedding his sweetheart, Alexa Veencker.
And when the time comes to celebrate their nuptials, Braedon and his family and friends will mark the occasion with a keg of Biere de Bubby, a name that reflects its French style in addition to the nickname that’s (somewhat to his chagrin, we imagine) stuck with Braedon since his early days.
Stephen recalls that Braedon must have been introduced to Jenlain at some point, one of the only Biere de Garde examples that’s regularly commercially available. It’s occasionally available in bottles but by no means easy to track down.
But as he loves trying a new recipe so much, Stephen put his all into Biere de Bubby, which can currently be enjoyed on tap here. Braedon gets married June 22, so maybe you want to raise a pint in his honor!
