Quest For Fire
Forest & Main - The Brewery

Pours a bright, effervescent yellow with solid clarity, but the tiniest bit of haze. Loads and loads of dense, foamy white head. Aroma is lemongrass and earthy funk. On point for the style, and smells very good. Taste follows. Plenty of barnyard funk with hints of hay and grass, but no lemon. Nice and lively. Enjoying this one quite a bit.

16oz can purchased from the fridge as a single from a local bottle shop for $4.50. No canned on date.

Look: Pours a moderately hazy orangeish/yellowish color. There was a huge white meringue head that slowly reduced to a much smaller head and lots of lacing.

Smell: The smell is spicy, peppery, herbal. Some clove and banana esters. Interesting, but smells like a typical saison. Honestly, I cannot tell that there is smoked malt in here based on the nose alone. After becoming accustomed to the beer on the palate, I can pick up faint smoky notes on the finish along with a medicinal note. It actually smells much more unique now and it's quite nice.

Taste: Okay, I get the smoked malt on the nose. Very interesting. Up front, there is a gentle acidity and a nice brightness and lightness. On the mid palate, it has that savory kind of note that is characteristic of smoked malt (think smoked meats). And the finish is very dry and charcoaly. I haven't smoked a cigar in over a decade, but I am getting strong cigar tobacco and leather notes on the finish. I like the way that the dryness of this beer from the smoked malts is also playing into the drinkability because it tastes really refreshing and thirst-quenching up front. Over time, the long lingering smoky finish mellows and transforms to almost like a burnt cracker (matzah?) or dark bread (pumpernickel) flavor.

Feel: Very soft carbonation, the can conditioning on this beer is excellent. The mouthfeel has a bit of chewiness to it. It is light to medium bodied.

Overall: It's a very interesting beer. For me, it's a pretty intense beer that I probably wouldn't want to have more than every once in a while. Very creative of Forest & Main and Troubles End to add smoked malt to a Farmhouse Saison. It really works well and is very well-integrated into the fermentation and the beer. A really delicious and enjoyable beer. It's pretty light, but the depth of the flavor profile makes it taste like a meal in a can!

From the can:
Can conditioned saison brewed with malt, some of which was smoked from Deer Creek Malthouse
In collaboration with Troubles End Brewing

From untappd:
A really special collaboration saison we brewed with our best bud Zach Svoboda from Troubles End Brewing in Collegeville, PA. Zach brewed at Forest and Main with us for a number of years and it was great to have him back in the brewery for a day. We’re super psyched to see what he’s been doing at Troubles End. We brewed this one with a base of @DeerCreekMalt and a bit of German smoked barley, hopped it with some attic aged hops and a blend of our favourite European varieties, and fermented it with our 2021 foraged yeast culture. It was conditioned in the can for extra good flavors and lots of perfect bubbles.