The 750 Saison

Honestly as much as I liked hayseed I did not buy it either. I like the saison around 6 percent. The other thing with the saison is that people add fruit and then sugar. I like hoppier saisons that add spices and herbs but not really fruit too much.

 

I picked up a bunch of saisons/farmhouse ales in Ithaca today. The first of them that I've tried tonight is Gun Hill's Rise Up rye saison. It's quite tasty, but, honestly, this should be labeled as a hefeweizen, not a saison. There is a little bit of clove note on the finish, but it's mostly banana, apple, pear, lemon, cracker, bubblegum, and hay; like a typical hefeweizen. It's smooth, creamy, and wheaty, but it's not highly carbonated, it's not super spicy and grainy, and it's not super dry. A great beer, yes, but this is a saison that should be a hefeweizen.

 

Pardon my French in advance. Fuck! This beer is fantastic!!! It doesn't just meet satisfactory levels, it exceeds the hype. This tastes like a world-class Belgian saison, but it's a cheaply priced, unassuming canned six pack from a small-ish PA brewery. It's pungent with notes of apple, pear, lemon, cracker, hay, pineapple, and clove; it's insanely dry, endlessly drinkable, and every sip is as delicious as the last.
@utopiajane , @zid , this beer is legit.

 

Twist from Prairie Artisan Ales is probably the best sour saison I've ever had. It's labeled as a dry-hopped farmhouse ale. It's really tart, enough to make me pucker, but with a really nice juicy tropical fruit flavor, like pineapple, peach, lemon, and passion fruit. It's juicy, slightly funky, and moderately dry. I could drink this all the time.

 

Its an awesome beer. Sly fox in general nails it for me

 

If their Grisette is any indication of their overall quality, I must try more beers from them. Several stores near me have started carrying their IPA--which I must buy--but all of their beers I have to travel several towns over to find. It's probably worth it, though.

 

Around here they are usually fresh and at 7.99 a sixer its hard to beat. The Helles is amazing. The top of the can pulls off whole like on soup cans but not in NJ because of liter laws. They may have stopped completely with that top idk. i hear good things of pikeland pils and the oktoberfest. The SRT (schyukill river trail) pale was good and their hefeweizen was solid.

 

Yeah, their pilsner I hear is excellent. All of the most respected lagerheads here on BA love Sly Fox's lagers.

 

Not sure if it is worth resurrecting this thread or not, but thought I would try to make @zid jealous with my haul last week. Some classics and some new ones. I'm always excited to try something new from Fantome...although I've now read some less-than-stellar reviews of Boo.

 

I went ahead and popped Fanome Boo! today.

Nose had a lot of classic saison qualities, but I also get Haribo peach gummies, jasmine, and allspice. The taste is very earthy, with more bitterness than expected. The big earthiness combines with cloves and pepper as well. I don't really get pumpkin as a flavor here aside from what it adds to the earthy character.
So...the pronounced earthiness was a bit off putting with the first glass. Fortunately, the bottle is 750 ml and I was able to have 4 small glasses as it warmed. I enjoyed each subsequent glass more than the previous one. By the end, I wanted yet another glass, which means more to me than individual scores here.