Amber Saison
Iron Horse Brewery

a limited release brew done in collaboration with grain shed in spokane, one of my favorites around, something outside of the ordinary for these guys, not sure ive seen a fermentation forward brew like this from iron horse before. its a cool beer, i can tell the malt is the special part, its cool to be able to appreciate that in a style that is usually yeast driven, i suspect that is what the grain shed contributed to this, but i dont know for sure, i wish the can gave a little more information. this definitely seems like a unique grain, maybe a red wheat or a deeply toasted barley, its impressively dark, earthy and baked and bready in the nose, rich without being sweet, somewhat complex even without the yeast factor, nutty, hints of raisin and toffee, impressively nuanced. the yeast is strange in nose and taste, samey and clean, not as rustic as i was hoping for, but also sort of stressed tasting to me, lightly phenolic up front, more peppery and familiar on the back end, a belgian note, a french thing with a white wine hint, but also a little too high tone and its not an ideal fit with this lovely malt profile, somewhat distracting even. its not flawed or messed up, its just not exciting or even all that well used to me, even though this is on the dry side, the malt is what makes this, its unique to me here, especially in this style. i like the body it brings, this seems full of protein and almost healthy to me, but id love to have it with a more funky ferment, some brett maybe, even just a mix of yeasts to make it more dynamic, but with that said, this is clever and fun, i love the grain shed being part of it, and i cant be too critical, there is a lot to like about this. i like an amber saison in general too, wish more of these were made, sort of biere de garde-esque to me here. definitely one of the more intriguing iron horse beers in recent memory...