Trinity / 7th Sun Saison Breams
Trinity Brewing Company

Rugged, yet refined, the collaborative efforts of Trinity and 7th Sun breweries lands them in a tangle of wild yeast, fruit, spice, chardonnay and in a long slumber in wine barrels. The funk and fauna that emerges is a rustic throwback to the early years of farmhouse brewing.

Saison Breams pours with an effervescent sparkling wine character, golden and with a sudsy swath of sea foam. Peppery aromas invite the pungency and perfume of the farmlands with a dusty, weathered woodsiness and a dried fruit bouquet. Dry and cracker-like the beer's malty front is of sourdough, sugar cookie and light honey.

As its sweetness quickly dissolves, the beer's fruit and spice medley resonates broadly across the tongue. Tangy lemon, apple, tart orange, passion fruit and gooseberry lead into those vinously tart notes of chardonnay, oak and sour white grape. White pepper, black pepper and those earthen worn woods trail into a bitter and earthy balance of dry straw, grapefruit peel and a brazen acidic spiciness to close.

Medium light on the palate, the oak aging and the natural spices assist in a drying finish that, of course, breams with streaming effervescence for a peppery, oaken highlight of taste. Crisp, refreshing but off clean, the rustic roots of the beer shines in a medium short aftertaste of the funkiness and pungency of all things wild and on the verge of decay.