Propolis
Brasserie Dunham

 

Bright straw color with moderate activity. Gets more hazy and cloudy as more yeast poured. Foamy white 2 finger head, lasting around 5 minutes, with good legs and swirl reaction. Flavors of wheat, sweet barley, lemon, light grapefruits, brett yeast, honey, peppercorn, and floral hops. Slick and fluffy medium body with a good sharp crisp. Light to medium strength finish, mostly a flowery and straw feel, with a balanced soft barnyard effect. Slightly sour and dry with a bit of cheese. Well attenuated and highly fresh. General sensation is a well done table Saison of low intensity and subtly spiced, similar to a Sofie. Great balance and nice complexity. Overall high quality craft.

 

750ml bottle - a Saison made with oats, rye, honey, and spices. You know, just for kicks.

This beer pours a slightly hazy, pale golden yellow colour, with three fat-ass fingers of puffy, finely foamy, and yet fizzy off-white head, which leaves some streaky land bridge lace around the glass as it quickly dissipates.

It smells of gritty and grainy pale malt, a bit of peppery rye, weak clover honey notes, further indistinct spices, a touch of phenolic yeastiness, and some very tame earthy, weedy, and dead floral noble hops. The taste is grainy and bready pale malt, wet wheat crackers, a bit of muddled tropical fruitiness, ephemeral yeast, equally hard to pin down generic honey, faint mixed table-top spices, and a bit of meek leafy, earthy, and musty 'verdant' hoppiness.

The carbonation is fairly active in its palate-tugging frothiness, the body a decent medium weight, and mostly smooth, with but a subtle yeasty incursion making a minor dent in the new paint job here, as such. It finishes trending dry, the mixed graininess petering out, and the lingering spice and yeasty essences picking up the slack.

Overall, this is a rather well-rendered version of the style, with none of the guests really overstepping their bounds. Easy to drink, duly balanced, and a pleasant offering to while away the rest of this fragrant near-summer evening. Yeah, June is my favourite month, 'apropos' of nothing #sorrynotsorry.

 

 

 

Pours a golden hue with white head. I think this bottle gushed a little bit. Some aroma of Belgian yeast and some sweetness. This is a really smooth, biere de miele. It is smooth and pretty dry with a light amount of sweetness from the honey and yeast character. Solid but nothing special. I'd drink this again.

 

On tap at the Farmhouse. Very cleqr. Brief head. Smell is pilsner malt, light phenolic yeast. Taste is also bland. A bit of bubble gum. Some maltiness and a bit of fruitiness. Medium low carbonation. It’s really blah.

Poured into a Stone Brewery flute. Pours a hazy, light yellow-golden amber with a two finger white head with good retention and lots of lacing. Aroma of saison yeast, brett, light lemon citrus, apple and pear, light biscuit malt, hint of honey. Flavor is nice grain forward light biscuit, lemon citrus, light rye flavor and mild tartness, light peppery spice, coriander, light honey. Light to medium bodied with nice peppery carbonation. A very nicely made rustic ale with a deft touch of honey and brett. Surprisingly flavorful for the light ABV, tasted like a much bigger ale. This is what I hope for in a farmhouse ale, flavorful with spicing and brett handled lightly. Quite enjoyable. Hope to see more from this Quebec brewery.