Bière De Saison Damson
The Kernel Brewery

Bottle conditioned and brought around as part of a box of beers brought round by Jim, the Independent Salford beer festival organiser.
Pours a light purple pink coloured body with splatterings of off white head
Aroma is plum duff
Flavour is plum vinegar

 

I took one sip and couldn't get as enthusiastic about Damson as some my more respected reviewers. So I kept reading their reviews and eating some appetisers and Damson warmed and eventually so did I to this saison. Let it warm.

In the saison's increasingly wide range of tartness, I'm stuck in the changing middle; some funk is OK, but I really prefer the interplay of hops and malt. If too many fruits enter my saison, I become a sceptic. Which is what happened with Damson. Until we both warmed.

Damson Looks fine for a fruit beer, but saisons have suds. (Sorry, my bias.) For Smells, I get the barnyard and plums. Tastes are delicate and balanced. The barnyard bacteria plays nice with the malt throughout and finishes nicely dry and long-lasting. But for body, where's my barley?

I do give Kernel very good Overall Hugs for their leadership in London's current crafters. Kernel specialises in the two areas that North American leading crafters historically focussed on: saisons and hearty stouts. Kernel, too, will grow and innovate; but hopefully not to the extremes.

Copenhagen 1/5 2022. 33 cl bottle from Kihoskh, Søndre Boulevard, Kbh. V. Simple brown paper label with black text spelling out the essentials.

Pours murky ruby amber with a mid-sized white head. Settles as a thin patch of foam unable of covering the surface of the beer. No lacing.

Aroma is intense with a sweet, fruity odor mingling with a tart, yeasty scent. Sweet plums and ripe pear. Lemon and tart berries. Sour lemonade.

Light carbonation. Slightly thick, oily, soft, lightly tingling texture.

Flavor is medium intense with a medium strong sweetness followed and balanced by a medium strong sourness. Aftertaste is tart and lingers for a while. Finish is semi-dy and tart.

More Plums than Saison. But a perfectly nice Plum.

330mL bottle.

Look: Slightly hazy reddish beer, with no head. Small amount of dark brown sediment which quickly settles.

Scent: Plums, stone fruits and cheesy funk.

Taste: Sour fruit notes with a mild sweetness. No malt character to speak of. Like a funky cider.

Feel: Sour with moderate-high carbonation.

Finish: Sour stone fruit.

Overall: Excellent sour beer with accessible flavour.

330ml brown glass bottle.
L: Murky red/purple with a thin cap and a few spots of lacing.
S: Luscious aroma of fresh, ripe damson. Mouth-watering.
T: Tons of fruit. Tart and tangy and lightly acidic. Damson is surely the perfect late summer fruit.
F: Sharp and zippy.
O: Superb level of fresh, tangy fruit sitting above a funky saison. Top, top beer.

Dec. 2020: 330 ml bottle, from Seven Cellars. ABV is 4.9%. Slightly hazy red colour, small off-white to pink head. Aroma of damsons, oak, farmhouse and lactic acid. The flavour is medium sour and distinctly fruity, notes of damsons, lemons and lactic acid.

 

 

arguably my favorite beer we had here at kernel, which is really saying something, as all of them were top notch, probably easily our best brewery experience in terms of beer quality on our trip to london. this is really special stuff, the same or similar base to the other biere de saison series beers they do, but with damson fruit, which is a type of plum i learned here, which colored the beer an almost electric pink, still fizzy and active from the bottle, even though it was opened before we arrived. aroma has a little more tartness and funk than the centennial hopped one, maybe picked up some wild element from the plums, and some light tangy character from the skins, its bright and mouthwatering, with the delicate and interesting farmhouse yeasts still front and center in the nose, even with all the fruit. the flavor is cool, the plums have light cherry notes, and with the yeast create a sort of fruity punch and rose wine vibe, some slightly wild funkiness here too in the yeast. its never sweet at all, and the fruit remains balanced and supported by a pale malt base with some pils type barley evident to me. crackery and dry. the fermentation profile is all time, and the beer is really dry in feel even with the fruit, carbonation almost like champagne, delicate feeling even with a little bit of acidity. clean to finish, funky though too, and just exquisitely well refined. i adored this one, but the whole series has been amazing in my experience! not to be missed!

330mL bottle dated 1/18/18 poured into a pint glass
A: Hazy ruby color, thin head
S: Plum, funk, yeast, ?brett, spice
T: Sour plum, some wheat, yeast and funk
M: Light bodied, sour
O: Nice use of the damson which complements the style well, with a complex Belgian saison underneath the fruit