Sour/Saison Barrel Blend: Dark
Blindman Brewing

 

500ml, caged and corked bottle (with yet another shitty corking job that necessitated a vise-grip and corkscrew) - their Kettle Sour and Saison Lacombe: Noir, aged in a single French oak barrel, that had previously been used with their porter. Got it.

This beer pours a clear, dark red-brick brown colour, with two fingers of puffy, finely foamy, and rather fizzy tan head, which leaves but a few specks of teensy remote islet 'lace' around the glass as it quickly dissipates.

It smells of sour fruit (pears, apples, cherries, you name it), buttered white crackers (in a good way), some earthy yeastiness, ethereal cheesy funk, some free-range ashiness, and a hint of boozy wood. The taste is gritty and grainy pale malt, a lesser spicy cereal wheatiness, muddled tart generic fruit, musty oak staves, faint yeast, watery white fromage, and more understated damp char.

The carbonation is quite low in its faded frothiness, the body a solid medium weight, and generally smooth, the tart/sour character really doing well to stay out of things here. It finishes off-dry, the fruity, oaky, and malty essences all coalescing into a pleasant whole.

Overall, this is a surprisingly good version of whatever the hell that it's supposed to be - both input brews seem to have been overtaken by the barrel treatment. It's like all the edges that I expected have been sanded right off, leaving a very drinkable and enjoyable quaff. Once you get into the damned bottle, that is.

No idea how to officially classify this one, style-wise--add a bit more vinegar character and the *taste* isn't so far off from a Oud Bruin. But the actual components include a 50/50 blend of the brewery's dark saison (the Noir) and its Kettle Sour #1, laid down to age for a year in French Oak. A brewery exclusive one-off (IF YOU'RE READING THIS NOW, THERE ARE STILL A BUNCH LEFT IN THE FRIDGE AT THE BREWERY).

Whatever it *IS*, style-wise, it tastes beautiful. Sour, sweet, estery, oaky goodness. Champagne-like carbonation, little head. Smell is apples and pears and plums with sour tang and a touch roasty malt sweetness. Vanilla and a bit of butteryness (not diacetyl, just something that I can't quite explain without the word "buttery"). Taste repeats the smell. Goes down lightly, smoothly. Did I mention I love this beer?