Skinny Dip Saison-Weiss
Great Lakes Brewery

On cask at the Toronto Festival of Beer

Hazy blonde, light bubbly white head, no lace to speak of. Smell is quite funky and yeasty, good amount of spice, coriander and clove, a bit of fruit is noted as well mostly in the way of orange. Taste has orange and spice, funky and lightly sour, yeasty-malt backbone here, coriander comes back, a bit of green apple and a light acidity, good funkiness throughout. Medium body with a nice light carbonation. Solid saison, didn't see anything about this being a weiss at the booth but I get the spice and yeasty profile from it but much more a saison and a pretty good one at that.

I originally wasn't going to review this beer, but what the hell. Brewed by our man John down at Great Lakes as part of their Project X series of cask nights. This is the event's second incarnation and I think they are already finding their feet. Second Thursday of the month - highly recommended, people! Anyway, as the name suggests this is brewed as a hybrid between a hefeweizen and a saison on Great Lakes new pilot system. Here's my thoughts on how it turned out:

The beer had a really murky apricot milkshake/apple cider appearance that would probably clarify a little with some settling at the cask. A small collar of bubbles rings the glass before disappearing. It gave off a nice bouquet of ripe banana, which mixes in with brown sugar, cinnamon and a bit of wheat. Very strong banana flavour makes this beer far closer to a hefe than a saison. Some good wheat flavour becomes apparent after the banana dies down, as does some nice spicing and a hint of pepper. The beer used a Belgian ale yeast, and it does have a good Belgian lean to it. Smooth and satisfying mouthfeel. Heavier than normal for a saison and lightly carbonated, but it worked well with the sweet banana flavours that were going on, and put me in the mind of a liquid dessert. This beer reminded me a lot of the Pyramid imperial hefe.

This is a pretty good cask from John. I know his intention was to have this beer closer to the saison style than it turned out to be, but I really enjoyed the rich hefeweizen flavours that appeared in the end result, and it made a great quenching brew on a hot summer's evening. I'm looking forward to the next evening!