Saison Renaud
Mystic Brewery

 

 

06/14/20 bottle @ Craft Collective

 

 

Had a tulip at Big Fatty's in White River Junction, Vermont. Hazy straw colored with big white head. Smell was of lemony barnyard funk and grassy fields. Taste added a nicely sweet taste to the above with a dry finish. Mouthfeel was briskly refreshing. Even my non beer drinking wife found it pleasant.

 

12.68 oz bottle, undated, caged and corked.

Pops open with obvious energy, lifts a large, lasting and gauzy cap.

Lemony nose, with some peppery and floral flourishes.

Tasty, fresh and worthy saison, with more lemon, ginger, more soft pepper, and some leafy/earthy qualities..later yeasty pour adds a soapy/nutty/yeasty sensation...easy drinking and worth a try...nice summery brew, would pair nicely with some tangy cheese....go get some.

From the corked, caged bottle with no noticeable date. Sampled on March 10, 2019.

The appearance is an unfiltered, slightly hazy yellow or pale amber with a soft, lingering white head.

The aroma gives off a bright lemon and toasted white bread crust character with Belgian yeast and a hayfield.

The body is medium to full but very smooth.

The taste is sweet at first but the lemon zing is also present. The finish is dry and only mildly tart.

Poured from 750ml bottle into glass. Batch Code: 00004131. Corked and caged bottle.
Slightly cloudy, pale gold colored body, with good visual evidence of rising bubbles. One finger of white head, which is foamy, and disperses quite quickly. Each sip leaves behind a thick web of lacing coverage.
Aroma of yeast esters and slightly spicy hops.
Taste is dry and full of yeast esters and slight funk. At the end the spicy hops introduce themselves.
Thicker mouth feel from the yeast. Effervescence in the mouth. Good carbonation. More smooth than crisp.
Thoroughly satisfying yeast driven farmhouse ale. Dry but refreshing. Very good on its own, but would be terrific when paired with lunch fare such as rustic sandwiches with cured meats and flavorful cheeses. The last pour introduces swirling layers of yeast sediment.

 

 

 

 

 

Nice mix of earthy hops and spicy yeast components. Pilsner-style aspects blend nicely with the saison yeast.
Overall a pretty good saison! Solid, happy to drink it when I can find some.

750 ml bottle into a teku, BATCH CODE: 00003449
A: Pours up a slightly hazy gold with a frothy to creamy two finger head and nice lacing.
S: The immediate thing that jumps out, based on reading the description of the beer is there is some toasty, sweetness from the malt coming through here, from there we get subtle undercurrents of lemon and a slightly dulled spiciness
T: Soft, round, and subtly yeasty, with a slight bitterness and not much in terms of hop spiciness, there are some apple cider notes coming through here, and the malt is as advertised though it doesn't shine through in any particular way.
M: Seems a bit full, almost like it's weighing down some of the flavors trying to come out here.
O: I'm going to go out on a limb here and suggest that this is either an old bottle or a bad batch, I'm not an expert on this but here is why: It isn't terrible, but reminds me in some ways of a 9 month old bottled of Avec Les Bons Vœux I once had, so it seems like this is actually a very good beer, but I don't sense that this is a good bottle, I've never had a saison that lacked crispness in such a profound way, and I really don't think that this is what the brewers intended. I'm not going to give this terrible numbers, that wouldn't be fair, but I can't give it a five either, so, going on faith from what I can tell that's here and knowing what I know about how these types of beers can age (not much, but enough to have my suspicions, and I've certainly done written reviews of a lot of saisons, 71 counting this beer) I'm going to give it a 3.5, which I think is more than fair and I will certainly try this again at a later date and update my review if it seems that I was correct in my assumptions.