FestivAle Cherry Saison
Old Ox Brewery

 

Pours a light cherry color with a slight head and lacing
Aroma has tart cherry hints
Taste has a tart cherry flavor
A medium bodied well carbonated beer
A good Saison

 

Poured from the can into a tulip glass.

Very clear and nearly crystal beaming body appearance of a pinkish orange like color. Excellent middle column of carbonation easily seen rising through the middle. Fluffy and creamy topped off white head, picking up some of the pinkish color too. Has some surprising retention as it settles from it's simple two finger height. Very beautiful looking beer.

Good mix of aromas going on. Bready and surprisingly biscuity mix of malt, getting into sweet digestive cookie flavors. Faint bret like funk with a small hint of stone pitted dark fruit, but slightly hard to discern fruit. Cherry notes are overly dominated by the sweet biscuit quality which overpowers the nose. There's variety here, but some of it is hard to pull out.

Palate gets a bit more balanced. Nice tasting hints of light cherry juice mix with a faint touch of peppery yeast character. Good contrast of that sweet cookie and biscuity malt backbone, which also gives the beer more of a thicker mouthfeel and sweeter flavor too. Juiced up fruit flavor, more prickly funk on the finish to add as well.

Lacks a little bit of saison character, but the sweet malt backbone is a nice touch you don't normally find on a beer like this.

16 ounce can poured into a tulip.

Pours amber/pink and slightly hazy with a two finger white head that seems to turn more and more pink as it sits. Head is persistent and leaves a bit of lace. Nose is weak, what is there is nice, Belgian yeast and tart fruit aromas. Taste is light, yeast, tart fruit and light grainy cracker-like malt with an abrupt clean finish. A tart and fruity aftertaste builds as I go and draws the finish out some. Feel is lightly effervescent. Not bad but somewhat light and watery.

Pours a hazy pale orangish/pink color with a whitish foamy head which dissipates quickly turning into lacing. More like a Belgian ale on the nose with some spice and mild funk. Taste is of spice, mild cherry with some very minimal tartness. Tastes solid but I was hoping for stronger flavor rather than the watered down version. But still a good brew!

 

Poured from can into tulip glass. Poured a clear rose color with fluffy white head. Notes of clove with a hint of cherry on the nose. Taste followed the aroma. Light in body with crisp feel. A very good beer and characteristic of the style.

From a tall can. Poured with a very short lived white to slightly pink tinted head. Body is opaque, pink, and has some particulates/bubbles. The scent is acerbic and very tart. Taste is similar, a bit less tart than it smells, and more of an emphasis on the cherry than the blossom. Feel is on the lighter side, decent carbonation, and a bit of fruity sourness lasting in the aftertaste. I find it to be enjoyable and a nice change of pace from sweeter cherry blossom-centric beers I have had!

From the pink can, it pours a lovely clear rosy color with a very lightly rosy white head that is small but lasts. In the nose, it is very light with some fruit and a bit of funk. In the mouth, it is refreshing with a touch of sour and tart malt. Enjoyable!

My can is undated.

I was in DC on the peak day (70%) of the cherry tree bloom. (And I lived here eight years and only really saw the blossoms twice and never this good.) So given the slim probability, I had to celebrate with Festivale.
But, I'm sorry to report that this is not recognizable to me as a saison.
While a thoughtful brew that celebrates a key event of Spring and I want to show respect for the effort, the cherry syrup hath chased my buds away.

But I went on their website, and they are good folks in what seems like ex-urban DC. A family brewer that has fun and shares their crafted wares. So all is good.

 

 

 

 

Can, no date:
This is a lovely looking beer, if you are okay with the pink (or rose) color body that hibiscus and possibly cherry bring to the table. Clear initially, the last of the can fogs things up. A lovely, forceful white head falls from flufy to creamy and provides a nice back-wall curtain.

The nose is not forthcoming. There's light farmhouse and floral notes, and with some effort and warmth, I get a little cherry. All scents that are decent once I struggle to find them.

Feel is light, with a nice carbonation level. Refreshing. The flavors aren't as hard to find as the nose, but they are subdued as well. A clean, watered down crackery malt comes first, saved by a the tingle of carbonation. The cherry note comes in along side - not overpowering or integrated. The main beer line gains a few saison-like qualities (more as it warms) by mid-taste. There's a little hay, a little yeast, a speck of white pepper, and a mild earhty undertone (something I sometimes get with hibiscus). These bonce around with the beer and cherry side car to the end.

This isn't an offensive beer at all, it's just not put together well for my palate. It's a tad weak/light, which is fine, but the lighter notes don't seem to be working so well together to produce a grander sum of the parts.