Unique Façade
Tired Hands Brewing Company

750ml bottle with cap and cork.

Appearance: Opaque orange bodied saison with big creamy head composed of lots of tiny compact bubbles. Spotty lacing on the glass.

Smell: Smells very citrusy. Light oak and funk. Hints of sweet-tart candies.

Taste: Lightly tart saison. Plenty of citrusy flavors (oranges, lemons, and limes) going on here with complimentary juicy stone fruit notes. Even lighter yet hints of white grape and green apple as well. Wet and soft oak notes. Lightly balanced funk doing the musty basement cobwebs funk profile. Earthy brett notes as well. At fridge temps the tartness & fruit notes are bigger, but as this gets to room temperature the funk profile has a bigger presence and matches the tartness perfectly. Complex and really well balanced saison.

Mouthfeel: Light bodied saison. Moderate carbonation levels. Delicate, creamy, and soft textured saison with a light crisp / prickly carbonation finish. Very drinkable saison. You would never guess this saison is almost 10%abv because it drinks like a 6% abv beer. Really impressive mouthfeel / textured saison.

Overall: This is an excellent wheat saison! Everything about this beer was on purpose. The body/texture of this saison is the most impressive part of the beer. The complexity and balance was definitely on purpose. This beer is great right out of the fridge, but really is a dynamic beer that changes as it opens up / warms up. This beer is a great example of how well Tired Hands brews and barrel ages their saisons. After drinking this saison, I would happily have purchased as much as a could of this beer.

 

A: straw to golden, a bit turbid. strong pour yields a moderate head that lasts for a few minutes. moderate lacing when swirled
S: woody, funk, hint of wheat or hay
T: tart up front (and in the middle...also the end). sour apple. the taste pulls the wheat/straw aroma out even more.
M: very alive. the tartness and a hint of coarseness really pop. towards the end of the glass it becomes almost overpowering at the back of the tongue/throat. After reading the label, I can imagine a bit of the apricot coming through.

O: Unique facade indeed. They've coated a tannic and striking citric core with a straw covered horse blanket. An excellent experience.

 

Feb 2019 750ml bottle at home with Lisa in April 2020. Really nice nose, typical TH without the horsey funk taking over. Flavor is much fruitier and sweet, kinda weird how sweet and a bit of vinegar. Should be way more dry - maybe more age would help? Pretty good anyway.

Carefully poured into a stemless wine glass.
Look - A beautiful cloudy golden straw topped with a one finger soft head that lingered for much of the pour.
Smell - Bright, acidic, yeasty, citrus, stone fruit, funk.
Taste - A light tartness jumps out at me first. Then apricot and peach flavor without being very sweet at all. The funky notes follow, especially as it warmed. The finish was dry and kept me wanting more.
Feel - A slightly sharp feeling from the tartness, but ultimately light and soft.
Overall - Unique Facade is absolutely delicious. It's a great example of what can be done with fruit to complement a beer without completely overtaking it. It was light and refreshing with the funky notes that I chase. Brilliant beer.

Good evening BA, and Happy NBT!

My first beer today comes from @CanConPhilly in the form of Tired Hands Unique Facade.

Look: Upon initial pour a huge, bone white head that fills most of the glass. The foam settles down to some sporadically placed bubbles sitting on top of the beer, with a ring of foam clinging around the glass. A lot of lacing as I drink the beer. Upon close inspection, through the murky, deep gold color, a whirlwind of carbonation streams up from the bottom of the glass. A very enticing beer.

Smell: The aroma is yeast driven, with a lot of fruity esters, complemented or enhanced by the apricots and peaches on which this beer was conditioned. Both fruits really shine. A lot. The fruity aroma is not too heavy and sweet. It is quite light, bright, fresh and sour smelling. This saison seems be light on funk. There is a faint must. Some hay and sour bread dough. Acidity. As it warms up the fruit ripens. As the beer really warms up an hour in there is some soft Summer farm yard funk that shines too. It also gets more floral, botanical and plasticy as it warms.

Taste: On the tip of the tongue some sweeter, overripened apricot and peach. Those flavors do linger, but as the beer washes over the palate it dries out and the moderate tartness takes over. The apricot and peach stone fruit come through a lot, and it goes further with sweet orange citrus, tart lemon citrus and even a little tropical in the direction of tart pineapple. Some grapefruit pith and grittiness and the oak influence shows as the beer warms.

Feel: Medium bodied. Not the thinnest or most effervescent saison. Despite all the fruitiness that I described above, it dries out quite a bit.

Overall: Just a really pretty beer driven by the fruit and some complementary funkiness as it warms up. It is actually quite big at 9.5%, but you would never know that from the smell or the taste. Couldn’t believe the ABV when I looked it up.

Thank you, Matt! 4.3 / 5.

A beautiful beer on a beautiful Spring day.

How many of my reviews have started out with, "Huge thanks to Ryan for this one"?

Huge thanks to Ryan for this one.

750ml bottle - 2018/2019 vintage - poured into a classic tulip at 48°F.

Pours a deep, cloudy honey-golden hue, topped with a finger of eggshell white head, with remarkable retention for a sour ale. Head eventually settles to a foamy cap and thick collar, and after a swirl, considerable lacing is left. Plenty of visible effervescence that disappears quickly. Looks like watery honey in the glass.

Nose: The first thing that jumps out is that Tired Hands Magickal Saison yeast that I'm becoming quite familiar with. Fairly bretty, though not sweaty or dirty, plenty of lacto, and just a whisper of acetic pedio. There is a ton of minerality as well, which gives a subtle hint of that lambic "bandaid" note. I do get a faint fruity apricot note, but it doesn't leap out of the glass, or smell like a ripe peach, but it's definitely there in the background. There is also just a ton of oak in this one. Woody, dusty, wet buttery oak. There is some light funk, but nothing that would turn someone off. A touch of clean wheat underneath everything else. Smells tart, but not puckering.

Palate: This ale greets the palate with an immediate tartness that is above average by Tired Hands' standards, but extremely balanced and restrained by Midwest standards. As usual, this tartness is really the perfect balance of pedio, lacto, and brett. It doesn't taste like solely like lemon juice, it doesn't taste solely like vinegar, and it doesn't taste like sweat. After the initial pop of tartness, a wave of fermented peach flows in, and even carries a touch of sweetness with it, which stays well beneath everything else. There is an immediate tannic oak presence as well. Speaking of tannins, there's a subtle gritty, tannic bitterness that I'm thinking might be related to peach pits, assuming they were left in? It isn't a firm bitterness, and it plays nicely with the ale, but it's there. Some gentle farmhouse notes, with hay, grass, some dusty leather, wet stone, mineral water, plenty of nondescript fruity notes, tart green apple, lemon, light funk, some faint fruity yeast esters, tons of complex little microflora notes, a hint of tangy goat cheese, a hint of pineapple, and maybe even some aged hops. The finish brings a steep reduction in acidity, revealing a quick flash of malted wheat and a hint of dusty grain, before everything subsides, leaving nothing but wet white oak cask behind. Ultra clean finish.

Mouthfeel/Body: for nearly 10% ABV, this beer really knows how to hide it. The moderate acidity works to mask it, as does the effervescence, which itself is fuzzy, ultra lively, and well beyond champagne texture. The bubbles are perhaps even finer than champagne. This is what champagne strives to be. The body is fairly light, but not watery or thin, and scrubs the palate with its tartness, effervescence, and ultra clean finish. For a sour ale, you can't get much better in the mouthfeel department.

Overall: This is truly a fantastic sour fruited saison. The fruit is restrained, elegant, and doesn't take the spotlight, the base beer is truly a work of art, and achieves a level of balance that is no easy task, the house saison yeast is expressive, unique, and delivers just the right amount of funk, and the body and attenuation is nearly flawless, and truly elevates this offering, turning 9.5% ABV into a crisp, refreshing, thirst-quenching experience. A must try for any fan of Tired Hands or fruited wild ales and sour saisons.

 

 

Poured from a corked bomber into a Dogfish Head tulip

L: Nearly clear light golden pour with massive foamy white head. Nice ring of lacing.

S: Tart and fruity. Funk and peach.

T.F: Tart up front. Lemon citrus, white wine, oak, and funk. Definite peach/apricot. Green apple skins and unripened stone fruit. Modest acidity. Light bodied... and with effervescent carbonation.

O: Another outstanding tart oak-aged saison from Tired Hands. World class.

750 ml bottle poured into an Ourison glass

A- A hazy golden orange with a three finger white head.

S- Funky, oak, apricots, some peach, wheat, some bandaids.

T- Apricots, wheat, some peaches, peach skins, tart, funky, some oak.

M- Smooth, light body.

O- Tart, really funky with nice fruits. Easy to drink and the 9.5% ABV is well hidden.