European Vacation
Noble Rey Brewing Company

RB transfer

 

 

after really loving their dark saison, i anticipated this one highly, but its not even in the same league, tasty when cold, but somewhat of a disappointment when measured against my high expectations. its brassy colored and with a short lived white head from the tap, smelling and tasting like its been on awhile, a bit fatigued, but at least the yeast part of this is interesting. its got some belgian candy sort of esters to it, subtle pear and apple notes, nice with the bit of residual sugar left from the grain at the end. its not rustic or funky at all, but its more compelling than a lot of clean saisons from a fermentation standpoint. the wheat gives some heaviness to this, well beyond what its modest abv suggests it should have, and there is a weird chemical element before the oddly bitter finish, no real hop flavor but i get a lingering bitterness and slight metallics at the end, makes me think its been in the line awhile. i could see this being better fresh from the can, really carbonation, but it sags from the tap in my experience and really devolves into something less than fully refined when it warms up. one hit and one kind of miss so far in for me with noble rey...