Saison Frileux
Is/Was Brewing
- From:
- Is/Was Brewing
- Illinois, United States
- Style:
- Belgian Saison
- ABV:
- 7%
- Score:
- +9 ratings needed
- Avg:
- 3.95 | pDev: 0%
- Ratings:
- | reviews: 1
- Status:
- Active
- Rated:
- Feb 09, 2023
- Added:
- Feb 08, 2023
- Wants:
- 0
- Gots:
- 0
NO SCORE
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Saison Frileux is a Dark Saison inspired by the English dark beer cannon, particularly the dark mild, porter and Russian Imperial Stout traditions. It is brewed with golden naked oats, flaked barley, crystal malt, debittered roasted barley and dark invert sugar. After it was fermented to complete dryness with our house saison yeast we conditioned on some very special coffee from our friends at Dark Matter. It pours an inky black with a cascading chestnut-brown head. You’ll be greeted by notes of cacao, light roast coffee, hazelnut, poached pear, black currant, dates, allspice, and dark chocolate. It has a rich, creamy body and a dry finish.
Recent ratings and reviews.
Reviewed by Beginner2 from Illinois
3.95/5 rDev 0%
look: 3.75 | smell: 3.75 | taste: 4 | feel: 3.75 | overall: 4.25
3.95/5 rDev 0%
look: 3.75 | smell: 3.75 | taste: 4 | feel: 3.75 | overall: 4.25
These saison kids nearly pulled off this extreme hybrid. And for that, I give them lots of Overall Hugs.
But, let's first talk about how extreme an experiment this really is. While the ancestral grounds of saisons and porters are separated by only narrow water known as the English Channel, the two styles are world's apart within mid-range ABV ales. Saisons are pale and alive and fruity and hoppy and yeasty and more unpredictable and are designed to be great table ales. On the other side of the Channel, porters are dark and musty and malty and predictable and rarely seen at my table.
Enter Saison Frileux and the saison kids at Is/Was, ambitious to push the saison's already ranging envelope by merging these two divergent styles. They nearly accomplish this feat except for one key problem: they conceptually and metaphorically have no boat to cross the Channel.
This inability to bridge two brewing traditions reminds me of the fusion trend two decades ago in the culinary world. The better fusions fused kitchens that were close. Beer is closely related to the kitchen, more so than micro resolution admits. Frileux tried to fuse two worlds and failed... but it is still an interesting tasting brew.
Bottom-line: Saison Frileux went too far too fast and I got neither saison nor porter. I like Is/Was a lot; having had 18 uniques from them. But if someone else wants to review Frileux fully, have at it.
Feb 09, 2023But, let's first talk about how extreme an experiment this really is. While the ancestral grounds of saisons and porters are separated by only narrow water known as the English Channel, the two styles are world's apart within mid-range ABV ales. Saisons are pale and alive and fruity and hoppy and yeasty and more unpredictable and are designed to be great table ales. On the other side of the Channel, porters are dark and musty and malty and predictable and rarely seen at my table.
Enter Saison Frileux and the saison kids at Is/Was, ambitious to push the saison's already ranging envelope by merging these two divergent styles. They nearly accomplish this feat except for one key problem: they conceptually and metaphorically have no boat to cross the Channel.
This inability to bridge two brewing traditions reminds me of the fusion trend two decades ago in the culinary world. The better fusions fused kitchens that were close. Beer is closely related to the kitchen, more so than micro resolution admits. Frileux tried to fuse two worlds and failed... but it is still an interesting tasting brew.
Bottom-line: Saison Frileux went too far too fast and I got neither saison nor porter. I like Is/Was a lot; having had 18 uniques from them. But if someone else wants to review Frileux fully, have at it.
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