Here Comes The Sunshine
Block 15 Brewing - Southtown Tap Room

Another beer from the Firestone Walker Fest Pre Party 2017. Looks like we're getting towards the end of the night (or early morning depending on how you look at 4am).

Pours golden, bright. 3/4" white head. Aroma was more bready than most saisons, I think this is a biere de garde or biere de mars so that makes sense? A little bit of citrus perceptible beyond that. Does smell like a saison yeast though. Hay girl, what up?

Taste is again a bready experience, like that untoasted white bread. Makes me think of those Bimbo soccer jerseys. The bready and creamy aspect aren't what I expected, and they're kind of a detriment to the crisp desired saison feel I look for. The clove and banana yeast notes could have chilled out better. This carbonation was up there. I like most Block 15 stuff so I think I'd like to try it again at a decent hour this time.

 

 

16 oz bottle poured into a wine glass

A:nice fluffy white head sits atop a burnished gold body that has some haze.

S: Light funk hay some orange peel and some grains a little very slight lemon.

T: Same as the nose very soft feel with nice bits of funk and grain interlaced throughout.

M: medium to lighter bodied soft carbonation.

O: it’s a really good saison I would come back to if I ever saw it again.

Poured into a Fremont small snifter. Pours a medium orange amber with a half finger white head with good retention and thick lacing. Nice color. Aroma of husky, grainy malt, saison yeast, orange, lightly floral hay and hint of grassy hops. Flavor is also husky, grainy malt, grassy hops, hay, summer herbs, light lemon. Finishes with grain husk and hop bitterness with residual earthy, sagey herbs. Medium bodied with light creaminess and sharp carbonation. A quite grainy biere de garde with more emphasis on the grain and hops than farmhouse yeast. It's a little rough around the edges, but the raw grain bitterness meshes with the hops nicely. Very interesting, I continually thought the grain was maybe a bit too rustic, but I was always eager to take the next sip to parse out the flavors. Although the name seems to hint at the start of summer, this really makes me think of late summer, with summer herbs ripening and hay starting to dry out and get ready for harvest. Possibly one of the better evocations of rustic summer I've had. Nicely done.

 

Here Comes The Sunshine, indeed. What better beer to have than this? It's 65° outside, the sun coming and going behind white fluffy cumulus clouds, and Spring has definitely sprung here in Oregon.

The most beautiful blend of yellow on bottom and copper resting above it is capped by a fitting bone white cloud. It stubbornly persists, and leaves every trace of its presence known to every square inch of the glass.

It smells like the convergence of seasons. Citrus cones to it's hibernation, but every last drop of lemon and orange are squeezed into this. Freshly tilled soil, sweet honey, and cut grass are signs of what's to come. And no Biere de Mars would be complete without a rustic dried hay and sundrenched wooden panels of a barn lingering in the background.

All of those complexities are brought into one, yet it seems to fall short. As if each ingredient were restrained really. Hints of oranges meet grass and earth. The slightest suggestion of funk takes a backseat to a drop of wildflower honey. All the promise in the world for something great, if only for a more generous hand.

And the promise fades a bit more. It's a bit creamy, which sounds nice but doesn't fit the style. Chalky too. The earthy bitterness is spot on, but this lacks the fresh, crisp, refreshing end that I was longing for, despite its advertised promise for just that.

I wonder if this will age well. This may be the first time I've been disappointed by Block 15, but not intensely so. This looks and smells great, but lacks in taste and feel, which to me are the most important aspects for this style. I plan to purchase another to age, and hopefully that bodes it well. Cheers.