Afternooner Tea Saison - Earl Grey Blackberry
Situation Brewing

 

 

1L howler from the brewpub itself - a variant on their full-time saison, made by replacing the mango Oolong tea ingredient - what, was Bulk Barn out of that one this week? I kid.

This beer pours a murky, dark apricot amber colour, with one skinny finger of weakly foamy, and somewhat bubbly dirty white head, which leaves a minor impression of mitochondrial lace in places around the glass as it quickly blows off.

It smells of gritty and nicely spicy Belgian yeast, some supportive pale and wheaten maltiness, a dark orchard fruit character that, yes, could be blackberries, ethereal bergamot-flecked black tea, and a generic leafy and weedy noble hop bitterness. The taste is bready and doughy caramel malt, a lesser wheaty graininess, muted black fruity notes, that orange but not orange weirdness that is bergamot, some minor rainbow peppercorn spice, much lessened earthy yeast, and more plain weedy, leafy, and mildly perfumed floral hoppiness.

The carbonation is rather tame for the style, what with its dial-it-in frothiness, the body a decent medium weight, and generally smooth, with a wee aerosol creaminess evolving as things get a bit warmer around here. It finishes off-dry, with the heady malt, fruit-forward tea, and spicy yeastiness taking us on a ride to after-hours time!

Overall, there is a barely palpable difference between this iteration and the normal offering - namely, the form of tea, which when it comes down to mango or blackberry/orange, who really cares? Well, me of course, because the rest of this is going to go oh so well with the Chicago Deep Dish I drove all the way over there for in the first bloody place!