State St. Saison
Structures Brewing

Big, wine bottle-sized (750mL?; the label actually doesn’t say, which might be technically illegal ) bottle received as part of a box of Whatcom County goodness courtesy of beertunes. My first from Structures. Apparently, this is über rare in bottled form. The way beertunes tells it, the stars had to sort of align for him to have found this bottle at all. I can’t remember the details he went into back when I first heard mention of this (during the last NBS BIF), but I think there were only 150 bottles of this released, and they were released last fall or winter. If it turns out I’m thinking of something else, I’ll modify accordingly.

Poured into a Selkirk Abbey glass, this was a color that looked a hazy shade of honey until held up to light, when things became much more golden-hued. Lots of tiny bubbles could be seen arcing skyward. There was a big, pillowy, white head that took quite some time working it’s way down, and left lots of lace on the sides of the glass.

Lightly fruity and spicy in the nose. Slightly sweet, honeyish fruit esters and bits of coriander and pepper greeted the workers at my olfactory.

Classic saison flavor, just a tad bit restrained, no doubt due to the relative age of the bottle, but still delicious. Crisp, fruity, spicy, and finishing on a dry, slightly bitter note.

Fairly light bodied, with a light, slightly effervescent and crisp mouthfeel.

For a beer that’s been in it’s bottle for many months, it’s held up pretty well, but I can’t help think things might be a little bit brighter if it were newer. Still, I’ve had much fresher examples of Saisons that were more lacking in both flavor and feel depts., so I feel pretty glad to have been able to have had a bottle of this. If I were in a bar and this was on tap. I'd be inclined to have several glasses of it. Whenever I get myself up to Bellingham again, I think a stop at Structures is in order.