Livelihood
Jackie O's Taproom & Brewery

gift from a homie, several years old at least and way way way past its prime, 2021 vintage i believe, listed at just 2.9% abv, super cool idea, especially to put the kind of energy it takes for a beer like this, bottle conditioning and all, i love the project and i could see this being amazing fresh, but its far past that now, and its super oxidized, thinned out, faded into an apple juice thing, and really doesnt do what it probably does when its fresh, and thats a shame, shame on us. still cool to try though, and always cool to drink beer from this wonderful brewery, i think this kind of presents as a healthy thing, probably a needed change of pace with all the high abv dark stuff these guys are known for. this is brassy toned, admittedly a shade deeper than expected with this low abv, fizzy at first but the head evaporates away in just seconds and its left looking a little dull and still. the nose and taste are newspaper and cardboard box, all oxidation, some light lemon funk, sweet white wine, and some wheat malt i think, maybe raw wheat too, but its real faded, not bretty but interesting on the ferment, red apple juice, dehydrated apple rings, bad champagne, faint white pepper, i think the yeast part of this was probably awesome but its all gone. some pear, some lemon, some tartness, its hard to really be too harsh on it, and its easy to imagine what it is at its best, but i have to more or less rate the beer in front of me right? hope to try this again without the gross cellaring error. this is a wonderful idea, a labor of love im sure, and just full of potential, hope to revisit! still thankful to my buddy for sending...

 

Slightly foggy pale gold, almost white, with a short, quick to fizzle out white head.

An airy, expanding carbonation within an otherwise light body exhibits notes of nutty funk and sea elements that are gose-like, with lightly tart lemon-lime coming out before a semi-dry finish.

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On draft at the taproom in late 2021, this seems to have dropped in quality since the original bottling, which I most recently enjoyed in early 2020.

Although it still features a nicely soft fluff, I no longer find it to have that natural gose-like quality in flavor. It now seems to translate more generally as watery and flavorless, albeit still fairly lemony. Over time, the exhale becomes lightly lactic.

While I love me a good low ABV saison, this leaves much to be desired. I'm reducing my original 4.04 score.