All But A Dream
Sway Brewing + Blending

my first exposure to this operation, didnt even hear of them before this, what a cool idea for a beer, a saison with wet hops fermented in oak, funky culture, very wild to me, the kind of beer i like to drink, even if it seems like a weird time of year for wet hops, a little early are we not? anyway, this is clever and fun, even if it still tastes a little amateurish to me. its sunny golden to brassy in color and has a tall craggy white head that rises high above the edges of the glass and stays around the whole drink, plenty of wispy foam left in the glass when the liquid is gone, fills out a stemmed saison glass real nicely. the nose is funky as can be without any apparent bacterial character, its bretty all the way, new and farmy, wet socks, wet paper, wet hay, wet dog, musty and sort of danky and weird, its mature in some ways but green in others, maybe overpitched, definitely not totally agreeable to me, especially with everything else going on in this, green oily hops, some greasiness there, herbal and with some bitter citrus, the oak which brings weight and a vinous element, tannins, vanilla wafts, and really light cereal malt underneath it all. the flavor is real similar, its ferment dominated, stinky brett but its also intriguing enough to keep me at it, like a young but already developed brux, odd and i cant shake the sweaty taste, especially as it warms, definite animal too. i like the hops but there is some onion with the green fruitiness, parts of this rule, parts not so much. notes of lemon, catnip, and starch, this has a mixed grain base which becomes more evident as it warms, hardy wheat and spelt, the oats in the mouthfeel, cool even if light on flavor there. the oak is somewhat subtle, but it makes this very long to drink, curious for how dry it is. the funk has an iodine thing to it, but not like aged hops in good lambic, its different, dishwater and light plastic too, hot lawn clippings, bitter lemon zest. the freshness of the hops is evident but it makes this slightly vegetal. awesome can conditioned carbonation and almost creaminess, they got the texture right. cool beer, i respect the effort and the project and the complexity of it, and i think this shows a lot of promise. i am tempted to sit on my other can for awhile and see if the brett cleans this up a little bit or if it synergizes some. color me interested in sway, even if this didnt quite hit as expertly as i hoped it would...

edit: over a year later, the other can looks epic, four inches of head crowning over the rim of the glass by at least an inch, hard to control, not sedimented until the bottom, light and airy, gorgeous, increasing the appearance score. that said, it smells nasty now, like bad breath, wild in a way that is really unflattering, and although its drier and more brett forward than it was a year and change ago, the nose is brutal, lowering that score but only a little to reflect that it was decent the first time around, but it really isnt now. tastes better than it smells, dry and grainy and funky and earthen and good, but the hops are on their way out, although not in an unflattering way, white wine, tannic wood, gym socks. this is weird, changed some but didnt really get better. still keen as heck to try more from these guys, this is real ambitious beer...