Belgian and farmhouse

Biere de Garde

BJCP 24C

The French farmhouse beer: strong, malty and smooth, lagered cold for months, with a toasty malt character and a distinctly cellar-like note some describe as musty in the best sense.

Vital statistics

Each bar is drawn against the full range of all 98 styles

Original gravity

1.060 - 1.080

Final gravity

1.008 - 1.016

Bitterness

18 IBU - 28 IBU

Colour

6 SRM - 19 SRM

Alcohol

6% - 8.5%

Colour also 12-37 EBC

What goes wrong

Treating it as a saison. It is malt-led and smooth where a saison is dry and peppery, and it needs the long cold conditioning to get there.

Commercial examples

Ch'Ti BlondeJenlain AmbréeLa Choulette BruneSaint Sylvestre 3 MontsTwo Brothers Domaine DuPage

Reference examples of the style, as listed in the BJCP 2021 Style Guidelines. Availability varies by market and year.

Vital statistics as published in the BJCP 2021 Style Guidelines. Not yet checked against the published guidelines: treat these ranges as a planning aid and read the source at bjcp.org before entering a competition.

The rest of the belgian and farmhouse family

24B

Belgian Pale Ale

4.8-5.5% · 20-30 IBU

25A

Belgian Blond Ale

6-7.5% · 15-30 IBU

25B

Saison

5-7% · 20-35 IBU

25C

Belgian Golden Strong Ale