Sour Harvest Saison
Collective Arts Brewing

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Appearance: Two fingers of frothy head that laced fairly admirably and managed to stick around compliment a partially cloudy yellow body with amber highlights. Quite a bit of visible carbonation can be see here.

Smell: Earthy hops dominate the nose, but it's very clear that acidic citrus notes and mild hints of cloves and pumpkin spice are present. Warming wasn't really needed on this one as the scent it gives out is quite ample.

Taste: Starts with a hint of spice at which point a big hit of citrus sourness comes forward as orange, lemon and grapefruit notes make their presence known, and then finishes how it came with a hint of spice and maybe a touch of earthy hops.

Mouthfeel: This stuff makes you salivate quite a bit, but not to the point where you are puckering. Carbonation is good and helps out the entire beer. The middle note of the beer is really where all the real character lies in this one though.

Drinkability: Light bodied, so easy to drink in that regard, but a lot of sour punch. That said, I wouldn't say it's the most refreshing thing out there. Also, much much in the way of an aftertaste.

Final Thoughts: The biggest issue I have with this one, is that I don't know really what they were going for here. I guess early fall drinker, but it seems a bit to summer like to fit that bill and doesn't seem to have the heavier parts of a fall drinker. It's still an excellent beer, but I'd stick to their dry hop sour.

 

From a 473ml can served almost straight from the fridge at 10 degrees Celsius into a white wine glass. Canned on Oct.1.2017.

Look: The beer pours an ever so slightly veiled gold with 2cm of frothy, white head that fades into a partial film in just about a minute. Poor lacing and overall head.

Smell: Medium strength and sharp. A fetid sulphur note as a first thing – luckily it's gone quite quickly and doesn't come through in the flavour. Someone who doesn't smell their beer seconds after the pour may very well miss it. The nose is definitely funky and acidic with pronounced pumpkin along with allspice, cinnamon, and clove. In addition, there's citrusy lemon (seems like from the yeast), toasty pale malts, and a faint ginger note. Plenty of complexity but I'm not convinced it's all harmonious.

Taste: Medium-strong intensity and sharp. Very sour, increased salivation sour, which I will tolerate but find it more difficult without food. Very similar descriptors as the aroma. Citric acidity with mostly fruity, phenolic yeast, pumpkin, and seasonal spices until the faint finish which balances towards sweet, grainy malts and lingering special ingredients.

Feel: Medium-light body with medium-high carbonation. Puckering, drying, and fizzy with no apparent alcohol. I feel like a sip of water afterwards to put back some of the lost moisture in my mouth.

Overall: An interesting seasonal offering from Collective Arts Brewing. This is a tall order in terms of execution but I'm glad it's not a hot mess. The brew has decent drinkability and quite a bit of complexity which in this case may ultimately be its downfall. Worth a try but pair it with food.

473 mL can from the LCBO; dated Aug 29 2017 and served well chilled. The blurb for this beer on Collective Arts' website is an almost word-for-word copy of their description of last year's 'Sour Pumpkin Saison' - which leads me to believe that they may be the same beer. Either that, or the recipe has been tweaked.

Pours a cloudy golden-mustard colour, topped with a half-finger of loose, bubbly white foam that recedes within two minutes' time. A modest collar of froth survives in place, but there's no cap and not much in the way of lace, either. Mild lactic acidity on the nose, with scattered hints of pumpkin spice - I can detect the nutmeg, allspice, clove and ginger, but the cinnamon is somewhat more masked. There's also a few notes of vegetal pumpkin flesh and wheat malt sweetness.

Neat stuff; seems a little more coherent than last year's batch, with not so much of the clashing spice flavour that I seem to recall. It tastes of gritty grain husks, lemon rind and wheat malt sweetness, which soon take a back seat to the lacto-derived sourness (which itself is mild-to-moderate in intensity). Subtle, gourdy pumpkin flavours arise by mid-sip, with the spicy elements playing a mostly-background role: I am getting hints of nutmeg, ginger, clove and pepper, but the cinnamon continues to elude me. Suggestions of allspice and damp cardboard fade into the aftertaste, which leans dry with some persisting peppery notes. Fairly light in body, with aggressive carbonation levels that prickles and prods the palate relentlessly with each sip, which works nicely in conjunction with the pumpkin spice and sourness.

Final Grade: 3.82, a B+. Sour Harvest Saison is one of those 'kitchen sink' sort of beers - there's so many ingredients in this one that it's difficult to even classify the damn thing. Is it a spiced ale? A sour? A pumpkin beer? A saison? The answer, of course, is "all of the above", although I'd say the sourness may be its most prominent aspect, especially if your taste buds are not accustomed to that sort of flavour. I like that the spices have been dialled down a tad from the original release, and overall this version seems to be a little more harmonious and enjoyable. I doubt I'd get this regularly, but (like most pumpkin beers) I'm not averse to another serving or two per year.

 

Looks just about as ordinary as you'd wanna get beyond having a bright hazy lemony colour. Minimal head to a partial ring, no lace. Sharp tart and spicy nose, lemony, plenty of spice. Same to taste, big spicy bite, sour lemon, juicy. Not really recognizable as a pumpkin brew. Thin bodied, slightly bitter finish. Overall, interesting to drink, refreshing. I like this brewery and this is another decent effort on their part. Worth a try, will be extreme and waaay off the beaten track to some tastes. Could require an open mind.

 

 

One of the most interesting pumpkin beers I've ever seen. I'm used to ales and porters, but this is a saison AND a sour.
Pours a whitish yellow, like a hefeweizen. No long-lasting head, but a lot of loud fizzing that you can hear upon the pour, so I suspect this will be highly carbonated.
Aroma is pumpkin-forward. There's some clean malts in there too, but a lot of pumpkin.
However, the funky, yeasty sour is the first thing that comes through in the taste. Sweetness, mostly from the pumpkin (although there is not a strong pumpkin spice flavor, and I think it would be acceptable to those who don't have much of a taste for pumpkin spice), comes through in the aftertaste, and the transition between the sour and sweet is pleasant. As I got further down into the glass, there became less of a transition and more of a blending between those flavors, but this was also enjoyable.
As I suspected, this beer has a very sharp carbonation. It also has a clean and dry finish.
This is a very clever pumpkin beer for how it uses the pumpkin not to create the conventional pumpkin spice flavors but as a sweet offset of the sour. As a sour, this is not the best or most intense I've had, but it is overall an enjoyable and well-balanced brew.

 

Lesson learned...always read the label. I assumed harvest saison meant using hop harvest in it. Nope they meant pumpkin.

Look is quite nice, with a golden color and a dense white head of about 2 fingers. The head lasts a while leaves little lacing, but very nice island of fluff. The smell is nutmeg and other fall spices and a nice bit of sour. The flavor is a nice sour saison and then the pumpkin comes forward along with the associated spices. Feel is medium/light with good active carbonation.

Okay, I don't usually like pumpkin beers, but this is one of the better I have had. The pumpkin and spice is a subtle add to a solid sour saison. My beef is that it does not say pumpkin on the label/name and that bugs me.