de Garde Brewing

Sommelier Audit Deconstruction

de Garde makes beer the slow way, in Tillamook on the Oregon coast, using spontaneous fermentation that depends on the wild yeast and bacteria carried in the coastal air itself. It's a small, patient operation built around a coolship rather than a fermenter with a dial, and that choice puts it in rare company among American breweries willing to let a batch's fate be decided by the weather outside. The Purple Kriek is the beer most people know de Garde for — a fruited, barrel-aged sour built on that same spontaneous base, tart and funky in a way that reads distinctly Pacific Northwest rather than borrowed from Belgium. The rest of the program follows the same logic: long barrel aging, unpredictable microflora, and a house character shaped by Tillamook's specific coastal climate. Haliʻā watches de Garde for sours and spontaneous ales precisely because that terroir-driven funk is the hardest thing to fake and the most worth protecting in transit — a style built for a cold, careful drop rather than a warm shelf. Oʻahu readers: a de Garde bottle in a Haliʻā box carries something genuinely rare — a taste of the Oregon coast's wild air, fermented and bottled nowhere else.

From the Tasting Ledger

Beers we've reviewed from de Garde Brewing

The Purple Kriek

de Garde Brewing // 8.7/10