Signature Saison
Brewery Extrava

 

 

A: Pours a lightly hazy golden yellow color with 2 fingers of head that fades down to a nice cap

S: Phenols, fruity and spicy Belgian yeast, light citrus, and lighter herbal notes

T: Follows the nose. Starts off with the spicy and fruity Belgian yeast and then picks up the phenolic notes and citrus. Finishes with lingering phenolic notes and spicy yeast

M: Medium bodied with moderate carbonation. Soft, dry

O: A solid saison that is easy to drink. Plenty of Belgian influence. Check it out

One of the better saisons in the Portland area.

 

Poured on draft at the brewery.

Pours a hazy yellow gold color with 2 fingers of creamy white head. The head leaves some splotchy lacing as it settles into thick blanket. Great retention.

The aroma is very grainy up front, lots of cereal grains and doughy bread. There's plenty of lemon zest here, with some fruity esters and Belgian yeast. The back end is peppery and spicy, with an herbaceous quality.

The flavor brings notes of lemon and orange, followed by a ton of grainy and sweet malts. Some fruity esters, with a hint of bubblegum. Finishes floral and faintly spicy. Nicely complex.

The feel is unfortunately not what I like for the style. It's medium-light bodied with moderate carbonation. A bit soft and creamy, lacking in crisp drinkability.

Overall, a great saison that is complex and full of flavor. The only knock is the mouthfeel which I consider to be a tad too thick and soft for the style. Still, a great beer and definitely worth trying.

 

Thin, no real body, yeast is not showing through. A really bad example of the style

 

Enjoyed on tap at the brewery and reviewed from notes.

A - Poured a nice crystal clear golden hue with a thick white head that fades to leave light lacing and nice blanket. Pretty spot on for the style.

S - Big aromas of big bright floral and lemon notes, light phenols, good light bit of esters. Decent flashes of grains and doughy malt with just a lingering cracked pepper spice on the back end.

T - Taste is similar to the nose with loads of slightly sweet malts and good almost dough like creamy wheat. Good floral hops, lightly grassy, nice fruity esters. That wheat makes way to an almost banana like flavour reminiscent of a hefe but without ever actually getting there; there for a flash and then gone.

M - Mouthfeel is super clean and lightly creamy, medium bodied, everything you'd look for in a saison.

O - Overall this was a very solid Belgian saison. Great interplay between esters, grains, and hops. Really well done.

Serving Type: On tap

Draft at the brewery
Big foamy creamy head, good retention and lacing, mostly clear straw color

Nose nice grainy sweet doughy malt, touch toasty, doughy wheat like, lemony citrus and light phenol spices and pepper, faint fruity esters

Trade sweet grainy malt, doughy wheat, nice phenol pepper as light spices, generic fruity esters, mild complex alcohol and yeast phenols, faint banana and clove like, dry gritty finish

Mouth is med to lighter bod, good creamy carb, medium fluffy carb

Overall quite nice, good malt, nice yeast complex characters, enjoyable

Pint can - dated 08/02/19 - poured into a tulip at 442F.

Pours an exceptionally hazy pale oramge hue, topped with three fingers of Rocky bone-whitw head, which eventually deflates to a small cap and collar, leaving spots of lacing behind.

Nose: Right off the bat, it becomes quite clear that this is sort of a new-age, dry hopped saison. Creamy wheat-based malt sits adorned with aromas of classic saison yeast with some light bubble gum esters, and a good dose of hops, bringinglots of citrus - primarily lemon, as well as lime, melon, and black peppercorn, woth lots of spicy and herbal undertones, slightly grassy, and even a bit woody.

Palate: Malted wheat greets the palate, bringing a little bit of sweetness, perhaps moreso than the style tradtiontially calls for, immediately followed by some strong yeast esters, bringing lots of bubblegum to the palate. Not much if any green banana, and certainly no clove, but the bubblegum is difficult to miss. The hops show up next, with not a whole lot of defining characteristics, much of which get lost in the yeast, but there's certainly some bright lemon zest, as well as a spicy, peppery note as well. The hops lean much more herbal and spicy over fruity and floral. Towards the finish, there is a subtle dry hop fruitiness, but it's gone quickly, leaving a spicy finish, with a surprising dose of bitterness.

Mouthfeel/Body: The beer is squarely medium-bodied, with the wheat providing a full, creamy softness. Between that, the yeast esters, and the hoppy bitterness, the beer definitely has an illusion of fullness for its weight. Effervescence is very lively, bordering on a touch scratchy, with a seltzer-like quality to it. The hop oils and wheat coat the palate, lingering into the finish.

Overall: This is certainly a saison. If blindfolded, I'm sure I'd know that. However, it isn't the traditional style of saison that you'd find outside the US. I get that beer ia constantly evolving, and I appreciate that very much. I'm just not the biggest fan of the overhopping trend, primarily in the US beer scene. Many breweries have a tendency to take a style, and then just hop it to high heaven, and call it by its style categorisation. This is a perfectly example of a beer that could be great, but is only good because it's hopped more than is necessary. Nevertheless, if you're looking for something hoppy, but want a change of pace from the onslaught of IPAs you keep buying and sucking down, this may be just what the beer doctor ordered. Not a bad effort.