Gin Barrel-Aged Brother Soigné
Grassroots Brewing

 

 

 

 

375ml capped bottle into a Tree House teku.

Pours a glowing goldenrod. 0.5 finger coarse white head. Stringy lace. Nose is prominent and very herbal and floral. I get citrus, lime zest, and honeysuckle. Really unique. Beer opens lime, blood orange, citrus fruit zest. Floral in the middle. Honey. Herbaceous. Mellow citrus fruit and a prickly peppercorn on the finish. Gin is noticeable. Body is light with moderate to ample carbonation. Lively on the palate. Goes down soft. Slightly zesty. Clean aftertaste.

A really unique beer. I wasn't sure how I'd feel about the gin barrels but this works very well.

 

 

 

poured from a 750mL bottle bottled 11/20/19 (batch 3, i believe) into a SP stemmed wine glass. pours a chill hazed straw gold with a huge, fluffy white foam head. nice lacing throughout the session. as i work my way through the bottle, the color gets more of a foggy orange. light gin, gin botanicals and oak on the nose. one gets the feeling the lime and blood orange in this beer are the perfect compliments to gin and its imparting flavors and aromas. it’s so incredibly balanced though. on the taste it does have a bit of an oaky dry, lime dry finish. nothing offputting or bad, but it certainly makes you hold back and reflect and it makes this beer not so “crushable.” full mouthfeel, it has that HF bordering on flatter but still carbonated thing going on. given it’s time in bottle it’s no surprise but it works as it’s still plenty lively given the huge, billowing head it produced on each pour. it finished quite dry from the gin, oak and lime. dry but plenty citrusy. really good beer. i’ll admit, i’m a sucker for these gin barrel-aged saisons. SP has been doing them as of late, SARA and de Garde both do them well, and of course it’s no surprise HF pulls this one off too.

 

 

 

375 mL bottle. Slightly murky orange. Smells of orange and gin. Some earthy yeast notes. Tastes of gin, orange, lime, heavy herbal notes, light basement funk. Medium light. Excellent.

 

 

 

 

Bottle courtesy of chesco.
L:Golden deep orange/copper. Thick fluffy head with lacing.
S: Brett, oak, lemon, lime. vanilla.
T: Tart, lemon/lime with a little brett Barn funk. Soft and pleasant though, not sour. Berries, vanilla. As expected, more flavors keep showing up as it warms. (Particulary gin, oak and lime).
F: fairly full bodied yet dry.
Overall: Very nice. Still surprised that gin barrels can do such great things for saisons.

Beers are brewed at / by another brewery. Grassroots Brewing is a subsidiary of Hill Farmstead Brewery, VT.