Quelle Saison
Beavertown Brewery

 

 

 

 

Citrus on the nose but a slight aroma of pineapple. Head was lively and foamy but quickly disappeared. The beer looks pale and cloudy. A nice easy drink but not remarkable.

Can pour into schooner glass.

A cloudy, vibrant yellow beer with large resilient head. Smells like limoncello with some cinnamon notes. A very refreshing flavour with light yet crisp carbonation. Quite herbal on the finish. Will revisit in the summer for sure.

 

 

 

 

 

Pours a pale, slightly hazed orange color with an enormously huge, spongy head.

Smells of a profound hoppiness, with a nice yeast spiciness and cakey malts cutting through. Features a really exciting, diverse nose, pleasantly dominated by flowery hops, exhibiting qualities of unripe lemon, juicy orange and wet leafes. Amazing how well the soothing yeast and malts interact with the extroverted hops, creating a banana enriched spiciness among pungent hops.

Has a light mouthfeel to it, together with a higher carbonation, remaining soft enough on the tongue for the flavors being able to unfold. Very drinkable, while its spicy finish creates to desire in me to have another gulp.

Tastes of peppery, clove accompanied spices with a nice cardamom bite, opening up the palate for the hops. Those bring a late dryness to the palate, becoming recognizable after the swallow, while they are not capable to evolve from the spice supremacy in this. The beer's spice qualities are so overbearingly present that they are able to produce a tingling warmth on the palate, which is very surprising as for its lower abv. Not much else going on besides that, finishes clean with a recognizable dryness, seemingly partly evolving from the established spiciness, partly from the hops, wrapped up in earthy, leafy malts.

Easy drinking with a profound spice backbone, creating the whole experience by smelling the beer before every sip, estblishing a great interplay between hops on the nose and spices on the palate.

on tap at bull and bush, this beer is awesome. i think it deserves more love than its getting right now. amazing look to it, sexy as can be. it is pale yellow in color, impossibly light, with a two inch pure white head on top thats airy and light but it doesnt budge a bit. resilient and lacy. it smells delicate too, some saison yeast sure, but it also has that sort of stale bready english yeast aroma too, best of both worlds maybe. the grain appears real light, not all wheat, and something herbal going on. if the herbal thing is hops, its not a varietal ive had much of, it has citrus notes, but also apples and green tea in the flavor, very unique, and all very delicately layered in. the yeast is more saison type than it smells, with a little white wine and a little funk to it, again quite soft though. very light in body, as dry as can be, and carbonated like champagne. i am amazed at the feel, i love it. its a total summer crusher with quite a bit of nuance to it, and with some cool fruity notes of green apples and grapes, lemongrass too, there is a lot going on for how gentle the whole thing is. my first beer from these guys that hasnt been a collaboration, and its very good. i hope to see more of their stuff around. worth the steep price tag for a pour though. yum.

 

 

 

22.01.2016

Beavertown – Quelle Dry Hopped Saison
Saison / Farmhouse Ale – 4.1% - 330ml can - Best before 21.02.16

Appearance: Pale golden colour, looks like fresh apple juice with a rocky white head, started off at 4 - 5 fingers then dissaptes quite quickly. Medium levels of carbonation - very small bubbles.

Aroma: Citrus and pineapple from new world hops and not much else. Quite pleasant, reminds of just about every modern hop forward American IPA on the market at the moment in the aroma.

Taste: Soapy, then boom - hop bomb, with a dry finish and a tiny bit of sour funk, not much else to say here, disappointing. I was expecting a saison of St.Feuillien calibre with that lovely sour, refreshing yeast, unfortunately that's not we've got.

Mouth feel: This is where it really falls apart - very low in body, watery in fact, with a very dry finish. Reminds me of Beavertown Neck Oil, their session IPA.

Overall: Was expecting more from this one given some of the other beers I've had from this brewery (with the exception of Neck Oil!) and my love of saisons. If I want a hop forward citrusy beer I would avoid this next time and buy an American IPA with an abv of 7%, that way you’ve got more body and complexity, and if I want a saison, I'll stick with one of the classics from Belgium. This is neither here nor there. 5.5 / 10.

 

The colour is pale yellow (4 EBC), the liquid is clear. The three finger head is white and airy; it sinks slowly leaving some lacing on the glass.

The smell is sweet with lots of unripe fruits and floral notes. Hints of alcohol and citric peels, ripe bananas and honey.

The taste is semi-sweet and soda-like. Floral notes, unripe fruits and some earthy yeast. Light to medium body. The aftertaste is bitter-sweet with phenolic spices and exotic fruits. The finish is mild and short with some floral hops.

The carbonation is strong, the short-lived large bubbles are fresh. The light liquid is a bit sticky.

A pleasant modern Saison, but a bit too sweet.

 

The first word that comes to mind is clean. A very clean, grainy smell followed by very clean citrusy, grassy taste with a very dry finish appropriate for a saison.

 

 

A: Nice and champagne-like. Light straw body. Almost colourless with a large white head.
T: Same profile as Brewdog IPA but less intense. A bit of chlorine. More like a pale ale than a saison. Nice hoppy earthiness.
O: Quite nice. Wish I refrigerated it longer.

 

 

A fine looking beer. Pale with a good fluffy head and solid lacing (and my glass wasn't really that clean to be honest). The dry hop comes through cleanly on the nose along with dry grass, and citrus notes. Flavor is clean with a bit of astringent lemongrass. Sweeter with a bit of fruitiness up front, dry toward the end. Refreshing. Carbonation is solid for the style. Overall, a pretty fine beer, although the nose outperforms the palate. Could be tweeked to something really special.

 

 

Hazy, yellow, beer with a two finger high, offwhite, head.

Nose: Grass, hay, earthy hops, orange, citrus, lime, lemon and caramel.
Taste: Fresh lemon, grass, citrus, yeast, earthy notes, fruity hops, tart and a light bitterness.
Body: Light body with high carbonation. Dry ending.

 

 

 

CAN
Clingy white cream that rims over muddy tan-lemon. 3.75
Oily Sorachi-type lemon with herbs and cream o'wheat. 4
Cream crackers and kumquats, some canteloupe, an herbal hit, and tangerine hops. 3.75
Appley ester finish and oily hop linger.
Light round, slight cling, dry. 4

Hops hide the zesty lemon-pepper saison yeast and yeast mutes the hops - odd, because this is often a great combo. It's essentially Neck OIl with a French (does that matter?) saison yeast. No brightness, which keeps it from being quenching. Nice idea, but a bit sour, sharp, and aimless in practice.

Below par for Beavertown. 3.75

 

 

 

A 330ml bottle with a BB of Feb 2015, so it's a little out of date. Picked up a while back from Trembling Madness in York. Described on the label as a dry-hopped saison and features a very bizarre image.

A: Poured into a cervoise. Bottle conditioned. A hazy pale-gold hue with fine sediment and medium carbonation. Yields a large head of creamy white foam that lasts for a few minutes before subsiding to a patchy surface layer. Nice lacing.

S: Aroma of bright, fruity hops with hints of white grape, lime, citrus, mild tropical fruit, saison yeast, earthiness, subtle grain and faint stewed hops. A satisfying blend - lovely.

T: Tastes of subdued yeast notes with a lingering, bone-dry finish. Notes of fruity saison yeast, earthiness, subtle citrus, a hint of white grape, mustiness, faint grain and stewed leaves. Highly attenuated, followed by a twinge of sourness and a delicate bitterness upon swallowing.

M: Mouthfeel is smooth, tingly and very dry, with prickly carbonation and light body. Quite astringent, accompanied by an aftertaste of earthy yeast, subtle fruity hop notes and stewed leaves/cardboard.

O: A pretty good effort. Looks alright, while the aroma is a great blend of fruity yeast and hop notes. The flavour lacks character; the yeast dominates and little else comes across. Body is OK. Perhaps suffering a tad from hop fade but otherwise a rather nice brew. Shame the hops don't hit the palate hard enough. That said, an easy-drinking saison that is worth sampling if you stumble across it.