Merci (Blend #5)
Side Project Brewing

Look - Bright orangish color with a haze along with a nice white head and thick rimming and sticky lacing
Smell - Floral along with stone fruit and a winey woody
Taste - sour tart citrus and stone fruit along the lines of peach more than anything else. Slight woody wine and floral like the scent
Feel - Medium body and carb. Pretty dry
Overall - Really fantastic

 

Received from @fbarber in the NBS BIF. Poured into a Lambic style glass. It pours a cloudy, bright golden-orange color with almost a finger of foamy, bright white cap and modest lacing. The smell is highly floral with lemon peel, green apple, oak, white wine, grasses, and a fairly sweet, biscuit malt base. The initial sourness belies the sweetness on the nose. The lemon and green apple are puckering at first and the white wine grape has an acidic quality. However, as the ale warms and breathes in the glass the initial sourness mellows and I begin to notice increased sweet fruity esters, including a hint of apricot or berry, as well as and increased oak presence while the biscuit is dryer than indicated by the smell. The Brettanomyces add lots of musty funk. It's sour, dry, and quite bitter and acidic at the finish. The mouth feel is crisp and fairly viscous and the carbonation is lively. It's 6% ABV is barely noticeable. This is the fifth sour ale I've had from Side Project and all of them have been very good and highly enjoyable.

 

Pours a foggy orange with a couple fingers of snow-white foam. Aroma is earth, grass, green apple, straw, biscuits, lemon zest, and stone. Really great soft tartness right at the front, but it fizzles away. Oak smooths everything out, giving it a smooth transition between notes. Flavor profile is earthy, bready malts, straw and stone, and grassy, herbily hops. It has a really soft, plump earthiness that's rounded out well with green apple and a light funkiness. Oak helps smooth that transition out, adding a moderate wood tone to the middle, bridging the gap seamlessly. Lemon zest adds a little further tartness to the funk. It's never full-on sour though. It really develops a heavy white wine, green grape, consistency as the beer warms. This trait really smooths out the back, adding some contrast to the initial malty notes. Acidity starts mild, and remains mild. Mouth feel is medium in thickness with a very soft effervescence. Texture is delivered via the soft effervescence, otherwise no grit or silt. Overall, incredibly easy to drink with a soft tartness that matches the delicate texture. Splendid shaping from start to finish, all within a mild beer.

Served in a 15.5oz Spiegelau tulip from a 750mL bottle.

 

Cloudy stone fruit color, crisp stone fruit, SP yeast lactic acidity, light white wine barrel and oak, with a lingering acetone finish. Medium lighter bodied, good carbonation, slick acetone on the finish. Mild acetic acidity, toned down by SP's standards

Bottle. White head.

Wine barrels, grapes, oak. Tart, citrusy, fruity. Strawberry. Some peach and stonefruit. Some oak,

Complex and enjoyable. Light to medium bodied. Nice saison.

 

poured from a 750mL bottle into a lambic glass. pours a hazy light orange with four fingers of soapy foam head that dissipates quickly to a thin collar and a few thin swirls here and there. funky lemon and hay dominate the noise with a musty oak presence as it warms up. taste follows with lemon and hay but has a dry, oak-forward finish. medium full mouthfeel that finishes a tad watery and again, dry. love that SP is continuing to trend towards the funkier, softer saisons. not that this isn’t sour but it’s not electric. much heavier on the funk, and to me, much more approachable.

 

Golden pour with frothy white head that settles slowly. Small amounts of sediment around the cap.

Dry oak, white grape, yeast, hay, and a touch of blue cheese on the nose. The bouquet continues to open up as it warms.

Dry and tart on the palate; oak-heavy with a bit of ammoniated funk and undertones of grape skin and lemon zest. The acid is subtle and really lends itself to the overall softness of the beer.

Effervescent and soft mouthfeel, with a light acid that gives a bit of pucker. Finishes clean and dry, with a punch of yeasty esters that lingers on the tail.