Wild Rice Farmhouse Ale
August Schell Brewing Company

 

 

I have only found this one in the six pack mixes and I have to mix them up in the cooler so I can get just these, though if I make a mistake Schells still has a real good selection.

What I think makes them different from other beers in the midwest is their unique yeasty flavor. They dont hold back on it and a love the flavor of it.

This is a nice farmhouse ale and has an old fashioned flavor that makes feel like you;re stepping back to prohibition days.

The wild rice is barely detectable, and what it gives is some nice lacing to the finish.

The schells beer labels are nice too.

 

 

golden amber color that was completely hazed over and cloudy with a full three inches of head sitting on top of the glass that just dripped down the sides throughout the entire session.

aroma is deep hops and herbs right from the front. dense citrus and floral lavender and herbs come through very clearly and brightly as the smell is intoxicating and just remarkable. i really am not paying attention to those panning this one as i thought it was remarkable. such a bright and flavorful beer. deep citrus hops, lavender and chamomile, hints of herbs, fresh grasses, light spices

 

So clearing out long unused boxes from the days when I used to trade semi-regularly, I found my first straggler, a beer unseen and wrapped in bubble wrap for 6+ months before I could get to it. Thank you, Bill. Best by 28 Feb 2011.

Pouring a mildly hazy orange with a dense, off-white head with excellent retention and nice lacing. The nose has a blend of stale pale malt, some citrus (orange in particular), some grains and honey. There isn't much of a yeast character that I'd expect from a saison here, and it smells too sweet too. There is, however, a moderate ester character with some tropical fruit. That said, it is still pretty decent as a beer.

I really wish I'd found this beer sooner, as the flavors I'm getting now are pretty promising. Fairly dry with a mild acidity, there's some citrus hops leaning heavily on the flavor, orange and sweet lemons. Mildly yeasty, this is more like a hoppy Belgian Pale than a saison, which it has none of the characteristics of. I can't say I get much wild rice character here. Sweetness is medium-low with mostly the juicy hop character, as well as some honey. Drying, mildly tart on the finish (a blend of carbonic acid and apple-like acidity), this beer is moderately carbonated. A little alcohol also appears on the finish. Solid stuff, this. Given the age, this seems to have held up *pretty* well.

And for those who care, my scores here aren't for the style, if I were to score it as a saison, I'd give it a 4/2/2/3.5/2.5

Reviewed in a tent, in Itasca State Park, with two card-playing little girls next to me & real wild rice on the lakes nearby. Seems appropriate to me.

Pour is a pale yellow w/head. Distinct saison yeast in the nose, along with cloves & banana (is this a hefe?).

Wild Rice Farmhouse Ale is...strikingly odd. Hefe leads in the taste again, banana, cloves, cracked-earth-drought dry. Unsalted nuts & rice come out of the brew as it warms, but without seeing the label, I doubt I could identify the wild rice aspect. Did Schell's beat this into canoes the old fashioned way?

Just a strange brew, meng. Pretty good, but glad I only bought a single of this, it would take a very specific mood (like this one right here) to entice me to order up another one.

Bold gold with canary colored edges and a disappointingly small and nearly featureless crown of ivory colored foam. Plenty of uprushing bubbles do their damndest to keep things inflated... eventually losing the battle in about three minutes. Minimal lace doesn't help.

The nose is earthy and somewhat fruity-spicy. Not exactly classic for the style, but not that far off either. The earthiness is most likely coming from the use of wild rice (which isn't rice at all, but a grain-producing grass) and a wee bit of rye.

Schell's Wild Rice Farmhouse Ale is interesting beer that has no shortage of flavors or flavor intensity. It wouldn't be nearly as good if the ABV was... say... 5.0%. Thanks to a good bit of messy esteriness (a positive), it tastes like some type of Belgian ale yeast was used.

The beer is more bitter-dry and tangy than sweet, although neither one draws too much attention to itself. Malt and yeast are clearly the stars of this show. WRFA tastes like a more earthy-phenolic-tart Belgian pale ale, with all sorts of flavors zinging this way and that. Come to think of it, that describes unfunky farmhouse ales pretty well.

The body/mouthfeel barely earns the above score. Just when it feels like it wants to fade away, it perserveres and adds a final blip of creaminess and smooth-edged carbonation.

Stag Series Batch #2 (Wild Rice Farmhouse Ale) is better beer than Stag Batch #1 (Barrel Aged Schmaltz's Alt). Here's hoping the boys from New Ulm come back to this one again, because it's one of the most characterful and tasty things they brew.

On tap at Stub & Herb's.

A - Poured a clear, golden-orange color with a one-finger, white head of foam. It left thin trails of lace.

S - It smelled slightly funky and quite fruity. There is a nice sweet aroma, too.

T - It had a good spicy bite with an apple-like fruitiness. Some pear, too. A little phenolic.

M - It was very crisp and sharp. A light to medium bodied ale with a dry finish.

D - This is a pretty nice beer. I was glad to find this on tap on my trip to the Twin Cities.

From a bottle! Pours a very slightly hazy light orange almost to the point of deep golden with a big white tight head that looses up in a hurry and doesn't leave much lace to speak of. The aroma is perfumy with notes of banana, orange zest, light pepper, and floral hops right up front. The flavor is earthy and minerally with some orangepeel. As the glass progresses notes of rosewater, banana, and earthy hops show up. The beer is dry in a sort of crackery way. Seems much more like an odd earthy saison than a beer centered on featuring wild rice.

pours out a bubbly, partly cloudy gold nugget colour with a frothy finger high head supported by some active carbonation. some chunky lace. aroma is some apples and pears followed by some earthy nuttiness and ever so slight sour teasing yeastiness. semi-tart flavours of apple and white grape appear then are gone followed by a moderate amount of sweet maltiness intertwined by a bit of yeast and lemongrass. alcohol spice shows up and delivers a warming sensation, too. the flavours are definitley layered and there is a bit of complexity involved here...definitely herbal and fruity with a touch of nuttiness. body is ample with a rounded yet carbed up mouthfeel, letting the drinker catch little nuances every time i sip. finishes dry. drinkability is pretty fair...at first i thought this might well be a summer quencher but the higher ABV lends itself well to be a winter quaffer as well.

overall i'm a bit conflicted as to how much i really like this. it's an interesting concoction and since i have limited experience with saisons and farmhouse ales, i'm judging purely on whether it agrees with me or not.

Lightly blurred brassy gold with a sporty white foam that rises and falls quickly, leaving little lace.
Lemon juice aroma with apple cider vinegar, a suggestion of wild rice nuttiness, and a vague yeasty mustiness.
Apple cider prevails in the mouth. Lemon juice and vinegar acidity add tartness. The yeast is doughy and dank, with musty cellar suggestions. Wild rice brings its calling-card nuttiness, which is neither entirely in-tune nor out of place with everything else. It gathers a late, floral, herbal hoppiness, and finishes continually tart.
A fairly high level of CO2 flushes itself out quickly, leaving it a bit flat feeling over time.
I'm in the middle of the road here. There are some interesting characteristics, but it doesn't really cohere into a interesting beer.

Clear bodied lighter goldenrod yellow tone with lots of activity within at first. Topped briskly about a finger high by some crispy white foam. Good amount of lacing in choppy, chunky strings of lacing.

Aroma is light and fruity; appley, pear, and starfruit with a nice twang of wild rice, pasta water, lemongrass.

Taste is a nice meld of what the aroma lends with wild rice soup dashed with a bit of lemongrass. Ghosted spices splay about underneath and lift a bit around the finish on the back end of the palate.

Body is a round, lean, clean, semi chewy malt rendered, sweetish medium body; perhaps a tad thin in areas, but not. Just as it escapes some taste, the body recaptures some boost and creates a smooth sweet tangy side that's welcome and quite easy going.

A nice surprise to find on the shelf. A fairly solid wild rice beer with a twist of Saison that definately says Schell's.

Bottle via fisherman34- pours light orange, good clarity minimal head or lacing. Nose- citrus, touch of honey, light spice. Taste- bitter, mineral like, pear, white grape skins. very spritzy mouthfeel. Dry bittler/alcohol like after taste. Odd clove like yeast profile comes through as it warms as well. Decent effort.

Clear yellow tint, slim white head on this pour.

Aroma: funky and wild, right on, saison. light citrus notes, gentle spice.

Taste: great play on the palate at first, low bitterness, but plenty of sass. Tart and tongue spanking, just a little sweet, with spice coming in loud and clear. Apple and pear in the flavor, a bit of citrus. Tasting the wheat here, not sure if I can pick up on the wild rice, though, not really my baiiliwick.

Tasty little guy, here, the second Belgian style ever attempted by August Schell Brewing. Really fits the feel of a true saison, with a Minnesota twist.

On tap at stub and herbs the other day.

The beer pours a solid gold color with good head retetion and lacing. The nose is fairly attractive, showcasing honey and some orange and lime citrus. It's nice, though I wish there was more to it. The flavor profile replicates the nose pretty closely, though once again it doesn't really have as much flavor as I would like. Mouthfeel is light to the point the beer is a actually a bit watery, something that surprised me given the abv. Drinkability is pretty good, as I got no sense whatsoever of the 7% abv. in this beer.

An interesting and enjoyable beer, though I thought the flavor profile a bit simple and one dimensional. Still, I was happy to be able to sample this the other day.

A - Clear orange color with a large white head. Decent retention, little bit of lacing.

S - Maybe by name, but on nose this is not a saison. Sweet rice smell with some sweeter fruit, banana, little bit of clove.

T - Too sweet and oily, golden fruits, lemon, little bit of citrus, and that common "rice" taste that rice beers seem to have. Not a fan.

M - Thin, oily, strong carbonation.

D - Drinks easier than a 7%, but the taste makes it hard to drink somehow. Too sweet and strange tasting, don't care for this.

Picked up a single from Princeton's Liquors. This is a pretty decent take on the style, but the lack of natural carbonation holds it back from being great. I immediately recognized the farmhouse aroma of lemon and citrus horse blanket. The body is dry and spicy but it lacks that fine carbonation. The nutty notes from the wild rice are a lovely touch, but overall this beer could use a touch more subtlety.