Red Hill Saison
Red Hill Brewery

Tried on tap at Harts Pub's Sydney Craft Beer Week event, which was one of the first places to have it on. I've been a fan of Red Hill since stumbling upon them when they were relatively new when we were on the Mornington Peninsula, and I trust them to do a good stylistic beer.

Indeed, the early signs are good with this one as well: a pale golden hue, almost the colour of cloudy apple juice, with solid haze and a decent heft behind it. Head is white tinged with a touch of yellow, and forms a firm, slightly silky ring. Lace forms in specks. Not bad at all.

Nose is very solid for the style as well, with a rounded, muted, peppery spice leading to a slight green vegetation character. Some banana esters and an overall mild fruitiness. A bit of that more rustic armpit-style funk to it as well, which adds some earthiness, and even a hint of smoke.

The flavour starts on similar lines, with some mild spicy characters and a fragrant vegetative character that melds nicely with some of the rounded Belgian yeast tones mid-palate. It veers a little towards the end, with a quite pronounced bitterness which feels a little bit out of place, and finishes with a touch of acidity which tastes a little like carbonation rather than something from the yeast. It has an aspirin character at the end rather than a clear Saison acidity.

Feel is very smooth, with that carbonation lending some flavour but not much texture to the brew.

Overall, this is very solid stuff, and probably only inferior to La Sirène in terms of Australian saisons. It's extremely drinkable, light and quite quaffable for its 6%, but still has a bunch of classic Saison characters.