Tropical Christmas Saison
Cervejaria Wäls

 

 

 

 

 

Day 11 of the BeerAdvent calendar.

Pours clear straw colour with a thin white head that disappeared completely.

Nose had bready malt and sweet fruit.

Taste is thin, watery, and sickly sweet.

Cervejaria Wäls Tropical Christmas Saison by Cervejaria Wäls - Day 11 of the Craft Beer Advent Calendar - This Brazilian beer poured a nice golden colour with a nearly non-existent head. A couple islands appear on top but that is it. The label say flavored strong beer. Not sure what it's flavoured with it does have a passionfruitish nose, with maybe some kiwi and citrus fruits. There is a malty nose but I don't get a lot of hops. The taste is very malt forward with a bit of hops bitterness as well as some bready grassiness, but I don't get anything that I would call flavouring. There is a bit of alcohol taste as well but nothing that would lead me to believe the 7.0% ABV "strong beer" labeling.The mouthfeel is kind of weak with not a lot of carbonation. It's an okay beer but was expecting something different.

 

This is, well, kinda what I expected from a Brazilian Farmhouse Saison. Somehow, my images of Brazil include socccer, meat sweats, gigantic Jesus statues, semiclad women and alcohol that tricks you into believing semiclad women want to watch you push your torso back and forth. I really enjoy the Saison style because it is complex and full of nuance. This brew has a few orangey flavours, but not much else. It's better than any other Brazilian beer I've encountered, but that is damning with faint praise. For this year's BeerAdvent Calendar, this is a bit of a letdown.

My video review https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=90TIBemfHVA&index=2&list=UUeYajVlQlnuheGCBCJ9gFvw

330ml bottle, day 11 of the 2014 Craft Beer Advent calendar - we've had Christmas in Oz, and now in Brazil - stop rubbing it in our snowbound northern faces already!

This beer pours a clear, pale golden yellow colour, with one skinny finger of weakly foamy, bubbly, and generally fizzy dirty white head, which leaves some trailing ocean plane crash detritus lace around the glass as it quickly blows off.

It smells of grainy, bready pale malt, testy coriander, white pepper, an indistinct dark fruitiness, edgy yeast, a faint orange citrus zest, grape must, and a hint of metallic alcohol. The taste is semi-sweet pale and caramel malt, a too-sugary mix of orange peel and coriander spice that would have any self-respecting witbier shaking its head, hovering yeast, ethereal musty black fruit notes, and a still standoffish booze warming.

The bubbles are pretty AWOL for the most part, though maybe a small, tittering frothiness is evident at times, the body a sturdy medium weight for the style, and so-so in terms of smoothness - the yeast and spice not overbearing, but hardly helpful by the same token. It finishes on the sweet side, as that coriander/citrus saccharine essence starts to even trod upon the lingering malt.

Not a bad-tasting brew, to be sure, but overall, a simple, and somewhat overwrought attempt at this venerable Belgian style - if something is inherently good in a recipe, amping it up is not necessarily recommendable. Anyways, I have no idea what this has to do with the Yuletide, save perhaps the Middle Eastern dark fruit adjuncts, which do little to represent. Ah well, this at least inspires warm thoughts, of a few different varieties.