San Diego Wine-Tuesday Beer and Cheese Flights

The Secretive Charm of the Bière de Garde

"Originally brewed to quench the thirst of farmers and fieldworkers, bières de garde marry the Northern European love of beer with the unique French finesse and style. Bière Castelain proudly maintains this tradition, enabling you to enjoy one of France's best kept secrets."

So professes the rear label of the Castelain Blond Bière de Garde, and where French beers are concerned, truer words have perhaps never been expressed. In fact, the individual who wrote the bold claim that the ales of France are among the nation's "best kept secrets" might actually have sold her subject matter short. Because the invigorating and frequently intense brews of northern France are not only among that country's well-kept treasures, they are also one of the beer world's true undiscovered gems.

As underappreciated as they may be, however, the quality of the beers which emanate from the northern region of France known as Nord-Pas de Calais comes as no great surprise. For this district is, after all, but a border's width away from one of the world's great brewing nations, Belgium. And if you think that brewing ability and tradition stop at national boundaries, then you had better think again. . .

This common ground has produced what is certainly France's best and perhaps the world's least appreciated beer style, the bière de garde. Literally translated, it means "beer for storage," and as the rear label of the Castelain bottle indicates, the bière de garde was very likely produced first as an ale to last through the summer when hot weather conditions and an overabundance of microflora in the air would inhibit the production of good beer. As such, it shares its pedigree with many other now-famous beer styles, including German märzen and Belgian saison." Stephen Beaumont "World of Beer"