White Downs
Brasserie Saint James

Agreed, I don't think this is 9%, and the bottle agrees.

Pours the most popular golden yellow color almost as if it was out of a 30 rack of something. 2/3" white head. Frothy. Wine, oak and sage notes are the biggest in the nose. There is a lot going on. Squash seems, interesting, I guess. Doesn't smell like anything I can detect.

Taste just had too much garden herbal and spice rack going for it. Really needed to chill out. I like sage, I do, but perhaps a tad less might work. Again, I dunno what the squash was supposed to do here other than give the beer a unique ingredient that doesn't actually bring anything substantive to the table. Cab seems to bring the dark cherry note.

Mouthfeel brings a high degree of carbonation. Restrained notes of sourness. I'll give it plenty of unique points. Just not sure about the squash. Otherwise, glad to try it, but given the super high price points for St James beer, I doubt I'll be buying a bottle of this.

my bottle says 7.1% abv, not the 9% listed here. a really creative and exciting beer here, cost me 30 bucks, but you get what you pay for with this one, really like nothing else i have ever had. its a cool bottle of beer, a saison brewed with butternut squash and sage, and aged in syrah and cabernet barrels, never heard of anything like that before, but it seemed perfect for the fall and the holiday season, so i took the plunge. its a pretty brew, effervescent on the pour, giving rise to a tall airy white head that sits easy atop a light copper brew with pretty good clarity. it smells really interesting, a little more bacterial and acidic than maybe i was first expecting, but there is some cool funk and heavy oak to it as well, makes my mouth water, and i get quite a lot of the sage, a rubbed white sage vibe, although im not sure how its added or what varietal it is specifically, very autumnal. the flavor is killer, i like the slightly more robust malt base in there to balance and support the herbs, at first i dont really taste the squash, but as it warms up there is an awesome earthy sweetness from it thats both killer with the malt in here, and needed to cancel out some of the acidity, which i think would feel quite high without this element at work. a serious champagne taste from the saison yeast, and a similar carbonation level, this one is really highly charged. the sage is bold and natural, and it fits the theme really nicely. i could have taken a little more of the red wine flavors themselves coming in, but all the oak ans the tannins are awesome. at first i thought this might be a little too sharp to drink the whole bottle myself, but it warms up really well, and it was a fun one to drink through. i wont soon forget this, truly a one of a kind seasonal brew, using strange ingredients really well. very cool beer overall!