The Wild and Safe Band Together
Garden Path Fermentation

 

 

its cool to see garden path in a can, this is the first one i think i have encountered, at least that i can remember, a dry hopped oak aged saison type with honey for can conditioning, sounds so good. its weird to see online some photos of this looking a lot clearer than mine did, mine was really quite murky, rust colored and cloudy, not full of sediment but not shiny and clean looking either. it was fizzy in the glass but only had a thin white head on it. the nose is maybe the best part of this, a nice mixed fermentation sort of profile to me with some funky brett and rustic saison notes, but also some bacterial tartness, piquant but not sour, orange zest, floral honey, citrusy hops, white wine grapes, and white pepper all come out, and a little woodiness too, pretty complex and appealing, brighter than it looks too. the flavor is good, woody up front with an almost aromatic cedar note to it, soft and slightly sweet malt, some wheat in here i would guess, and the juicy new school hops, very fresh with orange and lemon and kiwi fruit notes, delicious. the honey is pretty evident too, especially as this warms, floral and enlivening, really a nice touch, great with the fruity hops and the funk, which is subtle later on as more acidity seems to come out. complex and delicious, but for me not quite as well refined as their best beers have been, a little dense feeling and less carbonated than i want it to be, not super cleaned up, but full of flavor and rather distinctive. their yeast profile is so unique to them, i could pick this out as one of their beers in a crowd of many, i love that, sort of like jolly pumpkin or jester king, you just know it to be them. hoping to see more cans of their stuff come through!

edit: this has done pretty well in the can over some months, the funk seems higher, a little more tart and tang too, maybe slight fall off on the hops, and seemingly not as well carbonated from can conditioning as i want it to be, but its juicy and flavorful and quite good, even if a little unrefined compared to what i expected it to do over time. still, love these guys, cool to see something in a can, wishing for more!

Pours a slightly hazy bright amber with adequate foam in the Troubadour tulip. Mild yeasty taste, like a more restrained brettanomyces brew. Faint fruitiness, some mellow malt, a dry finish that tends toward some astringency in the aftertaste. But balanced by a bit of sugar and some herbal hop notes.

This is described as "oak-fermented・ can-conditioned・dry-hopped Saison." Oh, and "Native yeast ale conditioned with honey." The sweet note actually makes the scratchy yeast flavor more palatable. Overall this is really quite interesting and is definitely the safer side of wild. From the 16 oz can purchased at Garden Path at Skagit Airport.