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De Garde commonly adds fruit to their spontaneous beers, using ratios inspired from Belgian lambic producers. Their default fruit-to-beer ratio is 2.0 lb/gal with aggressive fruits (cranberry and currant) at 1.0 lb/gal and delicate fruits (peach) as high as 4.0 lb/gal. Brewers use a variety of fruit formats but prefer fresh or frozen. Purees are occasionally used for beers due to seasonal limitations <ref name="thesourhour2"></ref>. Rogers prefers frozen fruit for its enhanced color and flavor <ref name="talkbeer"></ref> (post 737875). He is particularly fond of wine grapes (due to his love of wine), especially grapes that express a strong sense of terroir <ref name="talkbeer"></ref> (post 158205). Beer is conditioned on fruit until the desired character is obtained, ranging from one week to three months <ref name="talkbeer"></ref> (post 194702).
Rogers' greatest goal is to produce drinkable beer with character <ref name="thesourhour1"></ref>. He craves depth of flavor, funk, and nuance - not just aggressive acidity or fruit <ref name="thesourhour2"></ref>. Blending is a collaborative process at de Garde. Rogers tries to utilize everyone in the brewery for input and admits to being occasionally "outvoted" on blend compositions. He has a deep respect for the nuanced palate of his wife, Linsey <ref name="thesourhour2"></ref>. Beers are blended just before packaging and are neither filtered nor pasteurized. For beers spending less than one year in oak, wine yeast is added to the blending tank just before bottling. This helps supplement the ambient yeast to out compete the high ambient bacteria population <ref name="thesourhour1"></ref><ref name="talkbeer"></ref> (post 733541).
De Garde originally packaged beers in 750 ml Belgian-style amber bottles with a crown but have since moved to amber champagne bottles with a cork and crown. The brewery would eventually like to package beers in cans to allow for greater portability and lower cost, further emphasizing Rogers' goal to produce the least expensive beer he can <ref name="thesourhour2"></ref>. Ideally, Rogers would like to target a $10 4-pack of 16 oz cans <ref name="talkbeer"></ref> (post 361517).