Caput
Brasserie Dunham

On tap at Vices & Versa. Mostly clear golden. Smells of strong red wine and earthy yeast notes. Tastes of hefty red wine up front. Slick wine texture and flavors throughout. Earthy notes abound behind it. Like very earthy. Almost like mushroom earthiness. Medium bodied. A slow drinker, not because of heft, but because of its deep flavors. I have no idea what I'm tasting here, but it's good.

 

Serving: Bottle
Bottled: Mar-15-2019 (Consumed Jul-2)


A:
It pours crystal clear brass with a dollop of rocky, virgin white head. Decent retention; very sticky lacing. (4)

S:
Very complex. Tart burnt sugar, earthy rawness, flabby wineyness, sulfur, umami. (3.75)

T:
Bready, winey flavor with little sourness present until it warms up a little. Otherwise the same earthy, umami, nearing-vegetal, barrely character present here. (4)

M:
Dry and bubbly, a little lingering tart tingle, pretty drinkable and interesting. (4)

O:
Very nice and immensely characterful.
This is mainly an interesting beer in my mind. It is, like most of their beers, very good. However this one to me is maybe a little bit more about bringing the weirdness than others. It looks, smells, tastes and feels very nice. It is a solid saison. There is a persistent barrel/wine/tea and seaweed (I guess) character that definitely adds to the beer's complexity, but that (as another reviewer pointed out) is really hard to pin down. It is like an earthy, meaty, umami, not-quite vegetal-or-briny shadow over the whole beer. It makes it stand out, it makes it better maybe than it otherwise would have been, but I don't know that it makes me necessarily like it more or not. If that makes sense. Without it it make have moved up in score a bit on certain parts, but not overall. Regardless, it was nice, I am glad to have tried it and I would happily have it again. Intriguing is probably the best way to describe it. (3.75)