Chinook Saison
Banded Peak Brewing Co.
- From:
- Banded Peak Brewing Co.
- Alberta, Canada
- Style:
- Belgian Saison
- ABV:
- 4.5%
- Score:
- 85
- Avg:
- 3.68 | pDev: 3.8%
- Ratings:
- | reviews: 4
- Status:
- Inactive
- Rated:
- Dec 28, 2020
- Added:
- May 30, 2016
- Wants:
- 0
- Gots:
- 1
SCORE
85
Very Good
85
Very Good
No description / notes.
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Reviewed by BPVandenbroek from Canada (AB)
3.56/5 rDev -3.3%
look: 4.5 | smell: 3.5 | taste: 3.5 | feel: 3.5 | overall: 3.5
3.56/5 rDev -3.3%
look: 4.5 | smell: 3.5 | taste: 3.5 | feel: 3.5 | overall: 3.5
Chinook Saison is slightly hazy and pale amber in color. Head is packed, off white, and lasting.
Chinook’s aroma is funky up front, with hints of what smells like banana. As such, the aroma reminds me initially of a funky hefeweizen. This couples with a bready, grainy aroma you’d find in many beers with lighter malt profiles. Graininess leads into a center that is a little citrusy. Citrus aromas remind me more of lemon peel than lemon juice and makes the aroma better in going that route. Subtle earthiness leads to a light, peppery hoppiness in the finish.
Taking a sip, Chinook Saison is smoother than I expected for a beer of this style. Up front, the flavors are a combination of lemon rind and pear, giving the flavor a pleasant fruitiness. Belgian funkiness takes a back seat to the beer’s fruit flavors, coming in just past the beer’s rounded center. There also seems to be a hint of earthiness, lending the flavor a decent, if subtle through note. All of this leads to a pleasant, peppery finish in the form of European hops.
The flavors are delicate, and nicely balanced. The mouthfeel is smooth, rounded, and boasts the crispness one would expect from a Saison. I particularly enjoy the beer’s fruit notes which somehow seem appropriate in taking the form of lemon peel and pear. And yet, you still have that Belgian spiciness lending support and giving you the overall character you’d expect for a Saison.
Oct 26, 2020Chinook’s aroma is funky up front, with hints of what smells like banana. As such, the aroma reminds me initially of a funky hefeweizen. This couples with a bready, grainy aroma you’d find in many beers with lighter malt profiles. Graininess leads into a center that is a little citrusy. Citrus aromas remind me more of lemon peel than lemon juice and makes the aroma better in going that route. Subtle earthiness leads to a light, peppery hoppiness in the finish.
Taking a sip, Chinook Saison is smoother than I expected for a beer of this style. Up front, the flavors are a combination of lemon rind and pear, giving the flavor a pleasant fruitiness. Belgian funkiness takes a back seat to the beer’s fruit flavors, coming in just past the beer’s rounded center. There also seems to be a hint of earthiness, lending the flavor a decent, if subtle through note. All of this leads to a pleasant, peppery finish in the form of European hops.
The flavors are delicate, and nicely balanced. The mouthfeel is smooth, rounded, and boasts the crispness one would expect from a Saison. I particularly enjoy the beer’s fruit notes which somehow seem appropriate in taking the form of lemon peel and pear. And yet, you still have that Belgian spiciness lending support and giving you the overall character you’d expect for a Saison.
Reviewed by Cwrw from Canada (AB)
3.5/5 rDev -4.9%
look: 3.5 | smell: 3.5 | taste: 3.5 | feel: 3.5 | overall: 3.5
3.5/5 rDev -4.9%
look: 3.5 | smell: 3.5 | taste: 3.5 | feel: 3.5 | overall: 3.5
473ml can poured into tulip glass. Clean, minimalist can design. Looks nice.
Pours a hazy, lemonade colour with a decent 2 finger head which receded rather quickly.
The aroma upfront is indeed a funky bubblegum, iced-tea citrus blast. Some definite funk, with some nice dry earthy notes. It's not bad as saisons go, but I'd like it to be a bit more tart or yeasty than it is. As it stands, it's somewhat less complex than I'd like from a saison. Initially it does have a very nice yeasty aroma, but it really goes away quick, and ends up smelling like a baby Unibroue saison.
Taste is much of the same, but it does have a very nice malt profile, leaving a finish of crackers and fresh-baked bread, along with some funky citrus and a dash of Chinook hopping. It's dry, but not overmuch. The taste, overall, is exceedingly mild. There are some nice flavours, but after all is said and done, something is lacking. I'm not a drinker who needs every flavour to be BIG--I like some subtlety, but this just doesn't really deliver on flavour for me. It's refreshing, easy drinking, and has a nice medium body making it easily crushable however. Unfortunately, it never really goes beyond being a middling saison. It could do with a little more carbonation, and a little more tartness. It'd be fine to have on a Summer patio somewhere, but I'm not sure I'd buy a 4-pack again.
Jan 09, 2019Pours a hazy, lemonade colour with a decent 2 finger head which receded rather quickly.
The aroma upfront is indeed a funky bubblegum, iced-tea citrus blast. Some definite funk, with some nice dry earthy notes. It's not bad as saisons go, but I'd like it to be a bit more tart or yeasty than it is. As it stands, it's somewhat less complex than I'd like from a saison. Initially it does have a very nice yeasty aroma, but it really goes away quick, and ends up smelling like a baby Unibroue saison.
Taste is much of the same, but it does have a very nice malt profile, leaving a finish of crackers and fresh-baked bread, along with some funky citrus and a dash of Chinook hopping. It's dry, but not overmuch. The taste, overall, is exceedingly mild. There are some nice flavours, but after all is said and done, something is lacking. I'm not a drinker who needs every flavour to be BIG--I like some subtlety, but this just doesn't really deliver on flavour for me. It's refreshing, easy drinking, and has a nice medium body making it easily crushable however. Unfortunately, it never really goes beyond being a middling saison. It could do with a little more carbonation, and a little more tartness. It'd be fine to have on a Summer patio somewhere, but I'm not sure I'd buy a 4-pack again.
Reviewed by biboergosum from Canada (AB)
3.56/5 rDev -3.3%
look: 4 | smell: 3.5 | taste: 3.5 | feel: 3.75 | overall: 3.5
3.56/5 rDev -3.3%
look: 4 | smell: 3.5 | taste: 3.5 | feel: 3.75 | overall: 3.5
20oz pint at Arcadia, still one of the coolest cats in YEG and AB beer, bar none (no pun intended).
This beer appears a clear, medium golden yellow colour, with one skinny finger of wispy and bubbly dirty white head, which leaves some springtime mountaintop snow cap lace around the glass as things slowly sink away.
It smells of gritty and grainy pale malt, a lesser cereal wheatiness, a bit of earthy yeastiness, mild pome fruit esters, equally sanguine generic spice, and very tame leafy and musty green hop bitters. The taste is bready and grainy pale malt, plain wheaten notes, some cotton candy fruity sweetness, a black pepper and clove spiciness, muddled yeast, and more understated leafy, weedy, dead floral verdant hoppiness.
The carbonation is fairly meek in its sort of bland frothiness, the body a solid middleweight, and mostly smooth, with a wee airy creaminess creeping in as circumstances warm up a tad around here. It finishes off-dry, the mixed malt and weak fruity essences carrying the fading day.
Overall - this is certainly a strange bird for the style, with the usual suspects not exactly bringing their A game to the forefront. It seems more like a west coast hopped Saison, which would explain the name here, and the general experience. Ok, but one is certainly enough for me.
Oct 08, 2017This beer appears a clear, medium golden yellow colour, with one skinny finger of wispy and bubbly dirty white head, which leaves some springtime mountaintop snow cap lace around the glass as things slowly sink away.
It smells of gritty and grainy pale malt, a lesser cereal wheatiness, a bit of earthy yeastiness, mild pome fruit esters, equally sanguine generic spice, and very tame leafy and musty green hop bitters. The taste is bready and grainy pale malt, plain wheaten notes, some cotton candy fruity sweetness, a black pepper and clove spiciness, muddled yeast, and more understated leafy, weedy, dead floral verdant hoppiness.
The carbonation is fairly meek in its sort of bland frothiness, the body a solid middleweight, and mostly smooth, with a wee airy creaminess creeping in as circumstances warm up a tad around here. It finishes off-dry, the mixed malt and weak fruity essences carrying the fading day.
Overall - this is certainly a strange bird for the style, with the usual suspects not exactly bringing their A game to the forefront. It seems more like a west coast hopped Saison, which would explain the name here, and the general experience. Ok, but one is certainly enough for me.
Reviewed by wordemupg from Canada (AB)
3.6/5 rDev -2.2%
look: 3.75 | smell: 3.75 | taste: 3.5 | feel: 3.75 | overall: 3.5
3.6/5 rDev -2.2%
look: 3.75 | smell: 3.75 | taste: 3.5 | feel: 3.75 | overall: 3.5
1L can into tulip 12/9/17
Hazy orange liquid, just a fast falling finger of foam leaves no lace.
Chewing gum and a little soapy, orange peel and spice I can't place, cracker, faint tropical notes and yeast. light bodied and fairly dry, finish is fairly clean, maybe some hay and rind but faint. Not far from the style but missing a little something, I doubt I'd bother with another all my other options on the shelf around here.....
Sep 12, 2017Hazy orange liquid, just a fast falling finger of foam leaves no lace.
Chewing gum and a little soapy, orange peel and spice I can't place, cracker, faint tropical notes and yeast. light bodied and fairly dry, finish is fairly clean, maybe some hay and rind but faint. Not far from the style but missing a little something, I doubt I'd bother with another all my other options on the shelf around here.....
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