Luna
Beards Brewery

 

Taste: crisp with an orange zest, wheat bread, fresh carbonated finish. Citrus and wheat cracker nose. Dark amber hue, semi clear, soapy head, some lace. Medium body. The person who brought this beer to share did say it had been around for over a year.

 

 

 

12 ounce can into tulip glass, canned on 10/2/2019. Pours fairly hazy deep golden/orange/amber color with a 1-2 finger fairly dense and fluffy off white head with good retention, that reduces to a small cap that lingers. Nice spotty soapy lacing clings on the glass, with a fair amount of streaming carbonation. Aromas of big lemon, orange, citrus peel/zest, peach, pear, melon, apricot, red apple, peppercorn, clove, banana, bubblegum, wheat, cracker, biscuit dough, toast, honey, wood, herbal, floral, grass, and yeast/toasted earthiness. Damn nice aromas with great balance and complexity of fruity/spicy yeast, pale/wheat malts, and citrus/earthy hop notes; with big strength. Taste of big lemon, orange, citrus peel/zest, peach, pear, melon, apricot, red apple, peppercorn, clove, banana, bubblegum, wheat, cracker, biscuit dough, toast, honey, wood, herbal, floral, grass, and yeast/toasted earthiness. Light-moderate herbal, floral, woody, grassy, citrus peel/zesty bitterness; pepper/clove yeast spiciness; and light wheat tang/tartness on the finish. Lingering notes of lemon, orange, citrus peel/zest, peach, pear, melon, apricot, red apple, peppercorn, clove, banana, bubblegum, wheat, cracker, biscuit dough, toast, honey, wood, herbal, floral, grass, and yeast/toasted earthiness on the finish for a good bit. Great complexity, robustness, and balance of fruity/spicy yeast, pale/wheat malts, and citrus/earthy hop flavors; with a great malt/bitter/spiciness balance, and no astringent flavors after the finish. Fairly crisp/clean finishing. Light-moderate increasing dryness from lingering bitter/spiciness and carbonation. Medium-plus carbonation and medium body; with a very smooth and moderately creamy/bready/grainy/sticky balanced mouthfeel that is great. Zero warming alcohol for 6%. Overall this is an excellent saison styled wheat ale. All around great complexity, robustness, and balance of fruity/spicy yeast, pale/wheat malts, and citrus/earthy hop flavors; very smooth, crisp, clean, and refreshing to drink with the modestly bitter/spicy/drying finish. Awesomely well rounded saison yeast complexity; with a great clean pale/wheat malt backbone, and balancing citrus/earthy hops. Minimal residual sweetness with crisp dryness. A very enjoyable offering, and impressive spot on style example. No complaints.

"Stick to your knitting." That is advice given to me and I pass it on.
Nor is it a good idea as brewer to claim to make a "saison" as the claim is made here and use something that does not even resemble the yeast that makes saisons a good table beer. Since Beards also owns the restaurant, I can understand them wanting to have beers that make food better (as the saison is probably the best at), but you gotta have the yeast.

I'm sorry for being so harsh on this beer. But while saisons are a flexible style allowing for varieties of grain, calling this a saison is an abuse of the style's flexibility. I'm glad the BA style was not designated a saison.

Having said all that, I give Beards a review as I am unlikely to have another beer from them. They do have something of a thoughtful menu and they are helping revive downtown Petoskey and giving people a reason to come down there. So for this, I give them their highest OA rating. But if you want to get to the next level of brewing, stick to your knitting.

Nice wheat ale. Poured from can to glass. Golden in color with a thin layer of foam that's here and gone. Didn't realize it was a Belgian style wheat until to aroma hit me: nice bubblegum and spice, a little bit of funk. Flavor us full of spice, clove, bubblegum, with white bread and pear, and some mandarin orange. Pleasant surprise.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

I picked up a can of Beards Brewery's Luna at Boyne Country Provisions. I'm still working my way through these new cans from Beards and I thought I would give this Saison a try, so lets see how it goes. 2016 Vintage. Poured from a 12oz can into a teku.

A- The can looks nice, it's got a nice design that goes well with the name and it's a little eye catching. It poured a orange and golden color that took on more of a golden color when held to the light with a fingers worth of off white head that died down to a thin ring that eventually faded away and it left a little bit of spotty lacing behind. This is a pretty nice looking beer, I have no complaints.

S- The aroma starts off with a higher amount of medium sweetness with the saison yeast being the first to show up and it imparts some typical saison yeast aromas with some spices showing up with some bubblegum like aromas seeming to show up the most. Up next comes the wheat which imparts a nice wheat, grainy and bready aromas with a little bit of doughy aroma with a nice citrus rind aroma showing up right at the end. This beer has a pretty nice aroma, it's like a classic saison with more of a citrus aroma.

T- The taste seems to be similar to the aroma and it starts off with a slightly higher amount of medium sweetness with the yeast still impart the first to show up and it imparts the same classic saison aspects and all the other aspects that they imparted in the aroma. Up next comes the malts which impart a wheat, bready, doughy and grainy like aromas. Towards the end comes the citrus which is a little lighter than it was in the aroma, but it imparts the same aspects that it did in the aroma. On the finish there's a little bit of bitterness along with a little sweetness and it had a saison yeast like aftertaste. This is a pretty nice tasting beer, it's got some nice balance.

M- Fairly smooth, a little crisp, medium bodied with a slightly higher amount of medium carbonation. The mouthfeel is pretty nice and it works well with this beer.

Overall I thought this was a pretty nice beer and a nice example of a saison, it tasted pretty close to a standard example of the style, but the added citrus kind of sets it apart a little. This beer had nice drinkability, I could drink a couple, but that would be my limit. What I like the most about this beer, is the balance and the added citrus aspects, they work well with this beer. What I like the least about this beer is the nothing, there isn't anything that stood out as not being as good as the other aspects. I would buy this beer again when I want a citrus Saison and I would recommend to anyone looking for the same. All in all I liked this beer, it was pretty solid all around with no real weak points and I thought all the different aspects worked well together. It's one of the better Beards beers that I've had and it's above average for the style. Nice job guys, this is a tasty Saison, keep it up.