Gage Roads Saison
Gage Roads Brewing Company

Pours a burnished amber hue with large loosely-webbed off-white head, good retention. Fed by the furious bead from below, has a mild cloudiness to the body. Head sinks unevenly, leaving some marvelous trails of lace around. It's overcarbonated for a saison but otherwise looks wonderful.

Nose is sour, earthy. Large amount of funk coming from the head, sweaty leather with rusty metallic notes. Hint of tobacco spice and maybe some ginger, some sweetness lingering behind but mostly corporeal and very pungent. Can't say I love this, it just doesn't scream "drink me!"; it more screams "wash me, I'm sweaty!"

Taste is curious. A lot of malt on that underlying the whole palate. Slightly tart at the front, hints of cherry and citrus together with a slight fizzy texture. Funk emerges midway giving me leather esters and wet wool, pronounced but not off-puttingly strong. It peters out nicely, leaving a burnt caramel finish with some earthy hop spice and a slight yeasty residue providing some sourness. Definitely a tart bite on the middle of the profile, creates a slight puckering sensation that actually seems to neutralise by the end with good body, still a little dry.

Interesting and drinkable enough, lacks a bit of flavour though, it's more a "sensation" beer - you feel the sourness and the malt without them massaging your tastebuds much.

Pours a very dark orange, almost amber colour, extremely deep for a saison, but with boisterous and lively carbonation forming a frothy and fluffy head of white foam that leaves some good lacing. The head and carbonation screams of an alive beer, but the colour is very surprising.

Pepper and candied lemon rind on the nose, certainly a hint of acidity anyway, with some dusty yeast characters and something green and organic. I like it a lot, in fact - it has quite a light aroma profile all up, but all the characters are on target, so it's stylistically good, and damn it smells refreshing.

Taste is a bit disappointing, quite light on the fron, with a slight phenolic note, with a metallic twang. Mid palate is thin with perhaps just a slight acidity, and back has a slightly roasted character that implies to me a darker than required grain bill, as suggested by the colour. Throughout it all is a light acetone note which twinges off everything else.

It's not bad, but the nose is pretty representative of the style, so I expected a better profile on the palate as well. Pretty drinkable though, the sparkling mouthfeel lifts it, and although it has some off notes in the flavour, I found it a pretty good drop.

Appearance - Amber, 2 fingers of head in a goblet, with very good retention.

Smell - Sweet, summer fruits were present.

Taste - Sweet and a little bit fruity, not much in the way of spiciness. Made to be easy drinking, but doesn't suffer greatly as a result.

Mouthfeel - Smooth, surprisingly light, good carbonation.

Drinkability - Very drinkable for the style.

Overall - Well done Gage Roads, you have made one of the few very good Belgian style ales made in Western Australia.

Appearance - 4.5
Poured two fingers of creamy head that had brilliant retention over a bright, slightly hazy amber-gold body that looks to be highly carbonated.

Smell - 3.5
Not much in the way of smell, I really had to suck it in to detect the pale malt sweetness, spice and fruity yeast.

Taste - 3.5
Moderate level of sweetness, lots of yeast character, citrus flavours. Low to moderate level of hop bitterness, warmly alcoholic and spicy in the finish. Becomes somewhat sour with warming.

Mouthfeel - 4.5
Carbonation is vigorous but fine, giving the beer an almost creamy mouthfeel and light weight.

Drinkability - 4.0
You wouldn't call it sessionable, but I had no problem sharing the 800mL bottle, and could have drank more.

OVERALL - 3.85
While this does not quite measure up to the great Saison Dupont, it is still a decent tasting, easy drinking beer. Better than I was expecting - hats off to the boys at Gage Roads, they have produced a world class Belgian style beer.