Well Traveled
Gunbarrel Brewing Company

usually saison falls into two camps, the dumbed down, one dimensional, estery, belgian saison that so many american brewers do, and then the rustic or wild style, more old world, or bretty types. this is unique because it has a ton of nuance to the yeast, is rustic and even sort of ancient to me, but its also very clean, not a wild type at all. its not even very belgian in the traditional sense, i love that they were able to get this type of complexity happening without this being wild and without belgian esters taking over. its oale and softly hazy, gorgeous white head on it pure as snow, and a nose of white wine, earthy minerals, bright noble type hops, and delicate rustic wheat, maybe some spelt or something too, it has the grisette multigrain sort of vibe to it, but remains insanely light. the yeast is the leading flavor element, but like their pils that i had, all the elements are somewhat mellow and supremely well integrated. light grainy spice maybe some rye, a french type saison yeast but seemingly done pretty cool, so clean in the finish, limestone and slate minerality that i got in their pils too, and light lemon zest and alfalfa or something from the hops at the end, even a subtle wash of vanilla from somewhere. this is great saison, one of the better clean american types i have had, and i would put this up there with the likes of blackberry farm as a favorite in that style subcategory. awesomely well done. cant wait to go back here and drink through the rest of their stuff!