Pinot Dojo
Aslan Brewing Company

very cool beer, love that they just call it saison, but its bretty and funky and anything but a classic clean belgian type, which has me excited, this is the kind of saison i like to drink, and i love wine grape beers, this one from 2018 harvest pinot noir, which is awhile ago now, obviously, and this is indeed mature and delicious, cool label art, real sharp. the pour is pretty too, fizzy with big bubbles but no head retention at all, rose to light ruby reddish pink colored, the fruit skins clearly doing their thing, only the lightest haze to this, no real sediment visible, light looking in terms of body, very fizzy in the glass, pretty color saturation. a musty sort of old bretty nose, but very much a wild wine character too, tart and tangy and tannic without being overtly sour in the bacterial beer sense, a lot of that seems from the fruit. i get subtle wood, i assume this had some time in oak, really nice funk to it, some cool oxidation that works, again as much wine as beer to me with not much grain apparent, hints of raspberry and hibiscus, musty basement, cranberry, rocky minerality. the flavor is all of this, ferment driven but the fruit is wonderful, light sulfur from somewhere, and there is some weirdness, like i just genuinely like this stuff, but im not sure a judging panel would call it a masterwork or anything, it just hits for me, love funky saison, love the wine aspect, the big bubbles, its just my kind of beer. old now, so that could be a factor here too, maybe more grain character and body would be beneficial, light cedar at the end, graphite, sawdust, paper, and apple cider. fun stuff, i want to drink them all from this dojo series!