Farmhouse Classic
Bellwoods Brewery

Poured from fridge temp. Pours a transparent yellow with lots of white head. Nose is barnyard fund, lemon, wheat, spice, and lactose. Taste follows the nose. Citrus peel, lemon, wheat, leather, spice, sap, and bread. Overall, a really nice saison. Mouthfeel is dry.

 

 

This was my first time trying brett (and Bellwoods), and it was honestly weird, but not in a bad way.
This beer had a nice saison base; peppery and crisp, but not at all bitter. That being said, the brett was definitely at the forefront. It provided a heavy smell/flavor that was mostly leather with a hint of dry erase marker (my sister said perfume).

Hard to put into words, but interesting enough to warrant trying, but not enough to warrant buying more at $6.50/bottle.

 

Excited to get to try a bellwoods beer, unfortunately one that i am not a huge fan of.

This is all about the yeast, and the Brett strain is just not one I love.

Peppery, leathery and a bit clinical on the finish.

 

500ml bottle, the 2017 vintage (@6.2% ABV) - always nice to see more Bellwoods come out West, even if they brought Brett along for the ride.

This beer pours a slightly hazy, pale golden yellow colour, with three fingers of puffy, loosely foamy, and fizzy off-white head, which leaves a bit of low-lying sudsy island profile lace around the glass as it quickly blows off.

It smells of musty barnyard funk, grainy and gritty pale malt, a lesser wheat cracker thing, a sense of muddled tropical fruitiness, rainbow peppercorn dust, and a mild leafy, grassy, and herbal green hoppiness. The taste is bready and crackery pale malt, damp wheat cereal, a more restrained dry funkiness than that in the nose, still mixed-up exotic fruity notes, ethereal earthy spice, and more understated herbal, floral, and wet grassy hop bitterness.

The carbonation is quite active in its palate-coating frothiness, the body a decent medium weight, and yeah, not all that smooth, not with HIM lurking about. It finishes trending dry, the funk and compliant graininess calling the shots.

Overall - well, they really dove deep into the funk pool here, it would seem. Not overly offensive, but it is indeed there every step of the way. I wish I could say that I am coming around to beers made in this manner, especially from a brewery like this, but, nah.

2017 version at 6.2%.

Pours a nice head, which just keeps going. Nice carbonation.

There's some Brett character, but I'm not loving this funk, it's a bit sweaty and goaty. There is some tropical fruit and leather too.

It's alright, but I was hoping for more.

From a 500ml bottle served at 10 degrees Celsius into an oversized wine glass. The bottle was picked up fresh from the brewery.

Look: The beer pours a clear straw with 1cm of white, bubbly head that fades away quickly (less than a minute). Meh. I don't know what it is, but Bellwoods beers just don't look good.

Smell: Somewhat faint and leaning towards sharp. Yeast-forward fruitiness (stone fruit). Citrus and peppery spice with plenty of barnyard funk.

Taste: Moderate strength and quite well-balanced. Tart. Fruity esters (stone fruit) dominate followed by barnyard funk. The hops and malts are lost on me – it's all about the yeast in this brew. The finish is pretty short, faint, and well-balanced with a considerable minerally quality.

Feel: Medium-light body with lively carbonation. Crisp and drying with low warming character from the alcohol. A mild, strange mouth-coating sensation. I was expecting a dryer finish with high carbonation.

Overall: A relatively uninteresting brett beer. It fails to catch my attention as I find myself losing focus and getting distracted by doing other things. Unfortunately I'm not buying this again. I say unfortunately because Bellwoods is my favourite Ontario brewery and I have high expectations for them. Contrary to the public, Farmhouse Classic is not even close to my favourites among the brewery's lineup of beers.

 

Brett Saison. So much funk! Tons of Brett funk up front, honey, horse blanket, white peach and wheat. Medium bodied. Nice level of carb, although it's on the lower end. Lower sweetness. Funky and complex.

 

 

 

On tap at Town Ottawa

 

On tap at C'est What in Toronto, ON.

This one pours a lightly hazy yellow, with a solid fluffy head, and a good amount of lacing.

This smells like a sharp, bitter, and herbal strain of Brett was used, as this smells dry, dry, dry- there's blades of grass, there's lemon rind, there's clove, and spicy herbal aromas.

This is pretty cool. I dig how dry it is- it's basically bone dry, with bitter lemongrass or crabgrass type flavors, pear, lemon, and lots of very floral type flavors. It's simple, pleasant, and reminds me of some vague countryside I haven't been to yet.

This is light bodied, and quite crisp, with a good level of carbonation, billowy and pillowy.

Bellwoods is bae.

 

500ml bottle purchased at the brewery yesterday.

Hazy straw yellow. Half inch of billowy, really Belgian-looking head. Lots of lacing.

Aroma is dominated by bready malt, spicy yeast esters, and some grassy hops.

Vinous malt. A wide range of spicy, fruit, and barnyard yeast esters. Bellwoods has really mastered the art of producing dry but intensely flavourful beer.

Light, with lots of carbonation. The booze is well-hidden.

This is a complex, interesting saison. I could drink this all summer long. My only wish is that they'd experiment with the style a bit more and maybe knock the price down a buck or two.