The story of de Garde begins with a question that sounds almost mystical until you realize it is also deeply scientific: What if the yeast chose the brewery?
When Trevor and Linsey Rogers founded de Garde Brewing in 2013, they weren’t simply looking for a building. They were looking for microbes. Inspired by the spontaneous beers of Belgium’s Pajottenland region, they believed the native yeast and bacteria floating through a particular place could create beers inseparable from that landscape. The challenge was finding that place in Oregon. After exploring possibilities, they landed in Tillamook, where cool marine air, coastal weather patterns, agricultural surroundings, and the Pacific Ocean itself offered a unique microbial environment. In a sense, Tillamook chose them right back. The wild organisms drifting through open windows and coolships would become the brewery’s most important employees.
What followed was one of the most remarkable experiments in American brewing. Rather than importing Belgian cultures or attempting to recreate lambic exactly, de Garde embraced Oregon’s own microbial fingerprint. Wort was cooled overnight in open vessels, exposed to the native air, and then transferred into oak barrels where spontaneous fermentation unfolded over months and years. The results were not Belgian beer. They were distinctly Oregon Coast beer. Bright acidity, elegant funk, layered oak character, and a sense of place that seemed to capture fog, sea air, fruit orchards, and weather itself.
The brewery’s name comes from the French phrase “prendre garde” — to pay attention, to take care. That philosophy permeates everything de Garde does. Their beers are measured in years rather than weeks. Fruit is selected not for sweetness but for expression. Cherries, raspberries, peaches, apricots, grapes, and countless other ingredients are allowed to interact with wild fermentation and oak rather than dominate it. The result is a portfolio that often feels less like beer and more like liquid geography.
As de Garde’s reputation grew, so did the pilgrimage. What began as a coastal curiosity evolved into one of the most respected wild breweries in the world. Beer travelers started making annual journeys to Tillamook for bottle releases and special events. Collectors traded bottles internationally. Brewers from around the globe quietly studied what was happening inside those barrels on the Oregon Coast.
Among the brewery’s most beloved traditions is its annual Invitational, a gathering that feels less like a beer festival and more like a family reunion for the world’s most obsessive fermentation nerds. Held in Tillamook, the event brings together a carefully curated collection of breweries, wineries, cideries, meaderies, and fermentation artisans from across North America and beyond. The focus isn’t hype. It isn’t trends. It is craftsmanship, patience, and the endless possibilities of fermentation. For many attendees, the Invitational has become one of the most anticipated events in craft beer, a celebration of producers who share de Garde’s belief that great fermentation is as much art as science.
These days, de Garde continues to push deeper into the territory it helped define. Anniversary blends combine barrels spanning multiple years. Fruit projects explore increasingly nuanced expressions of Oregon agriculture. Long-aged spontaneous beers continue to emerge from oak after years of quiet development. While much of craft beer races toward the next trend, de Garde remains committed to patience, place, and process.
Today’s de Garde Flight offers a glimpse into that philosophy. From the layered cherry intensity of The Kriek to the orchard elegance of Peach Première, from the barrel-blended complexity of The Anniversary to the wild coastal personality of The Broken Truck, these beers are reminders that some of the most compelling flavors in beer arrive not through force or novelty, but through time. They are beers that could only come from one place. The yeast saw to that.
Peaks & Pints de Garde Flight
de Garde The Broken Truck
5.5% ABV | Spontaneous Wild Ale Aged in Oak Barrels | Tillamook, Oregon
Not every great beer begins with a flawless plan. Some begin with mechanical failure, roadside uncertainty, and the stubborn refusal to let a broken truck have the final word. Bright lemony acidity and delicate oak emerge first before layers of coastal funk, earthy wild character, and soft mineral notes begin unfolding underneath like fog drifting across Highway 101 while the Pacific quietly conducts its endless conversation with the shore, the blend of multiple years in oak creating remarkable depth without sacrificing the beer’s lean, refreshing spirit, finishing crisp, expressive, and wonderfully alive.
de Garde The Anniversary
5.5% ABV | Spontaneous Wild Ale Aged in Oak Sherry Barrels
Some beers celebrate an anniversary with a commemorative label. The Anniversary celebrates by gathering years of patience, oak, wild yeast, and coastal weather into a single glass and quietly letting them speak for themselves. Bright citrus and gentle stone-fruit notes emerge first before layers of sherry-kissed oak, earthy funk, and graceful acidity begin unfolding underneath like sunlight filtering through sea mist onto weathered driftwood scattered across an Oregon shoreline, the blend of younger and older barrels creating remarkable depth while the spontaneous fermentation keeps everything alive with subtle unpredictability.
de Garde The Purple
6.2% ABV | Spontaneous Wild Ale with Black & Red Raspberries
Somewhere between a berry patch, a wine cellar, and a fogbank rolling ashore from the Pacific, The Purple found its personality and never looked back. Black and red raspberries burst across the palate first with vivid jammy intensity before layers of tart acidity, oak character, and subtle wild funk begin unfolding underneath like twilight settling over the Oregon Coast while distant waves quietly negotiate with the shoreline, the spontaneous fermentation lending depth and intrigue while years in oak pull the fruit away from candy and toward something far more elegant and expressive.
de Garde The Kriek
6.5% ABV | Spontaneous Wild Ale with Cherries
The Kriek does not behave like cherry beer so much as cherry weather — tart, crimson, coastal, and clearly aged inside barrels that have seen things. Montmorency and Morello cherries rush across the palate first with sharp skin, deep ruby flesh, and faint almond-pit mystery before oak dryness, vinous acidity, and soft coastal funk begin unfolding underneath like fog slipping through an old Oregon barn at low tide, the fruit staying vivid without turning sweet while years of patient fermentation pull everything toward something lean, elegant, and beautifully feral.
de Garde Peach Première
7.9% ABV | Spontaneous Farmhouse Ale with Peaches
Late-summer peaches rarely get the chance to become immortal, but Peach Première gives them a respectable shot. Ripe peach flesh and delicate apricot notes drift across the palate first before layers of bright acidity, oak character, and gentle wild complexity begin unfolding underneath like golden orchard light stretching across the horizon just before sunset while a cool coastal breeze arrives to remind everyone that every season eventually slips away, the two years spent resting in oak lending structure and elegance while the spontaneous fermentation transforms simple fruit into something far more expressive, finishing dry, luminous, and beautifully evocative of the fleeting magic that peaches spend their entire lives trying to perfect.
LINK: Peaks & Pints beer and cider cooler inventory
