Batch #2 Saison
The Colorado Farm Brewery

an estate saison here, including the malting of the grain, pretty incredible really, so cool these guys are doing this. the beer here still seems a little amateur to me, like as cool as the agricultural and recipe creation parts of this are, the beers i have had (just two of them so far) are in need of a little tidying up. perhaps its their estate yeast which has a funny slightly chemical character to it, or perhaps it just needs to be cooled and slowed down a bit. all the potential in the world is here though, and i like this being done with smoked malt, it has a very old world almost german profile to it as a result, woody and autumnal, with a light iodine character from it and more of a rauch than a saison character, mature like that too. some esters from the yeast are kind of weird, but i like the lumber, mild cocoa, and rustic smoke character this has, along with the body, which is quite full for what this is. so cool they are doing all their own grain here, growing and malting, i really need to get down there and check it out! i hope the bottles start making their way up to denver...

edit: just popped a bottle of this from 2017, im pretty sure its the same beer, says batch 2 on the label, also says draft ale on a little sticker on the back, not sure this really is a saison in any traditional sense, but the label is really cool because it says all the ingredients and also the details of the recipe, times, temperatures, etc, very uncommon and transparent, i dig it! darker than i remember, a mahogany tone, and with an immediate almost flanders type sourness to the nose. i like the laws whiskey smoked malt, they must have chunked up the barrels and used them for wood, which is a cool process and does impart smoke and vanilla notes to this, but its boggy and damp to me, kind of composty, and i dont think time has been great to it. still a german vibe to the malt, minerals, and light funk. just a weird beer, a weird recipe, and a brewery that still has me fascinated. doesnt look like these guys have gotten real popular yet...