The 750 Saison

Crack that whip. OK, OK.



Here's the usual group tasting. I left out the lambic-ish ones. In order of my preference:

5 - Glazen Toren Lentebier
4 - Dupont / Lost Abbey - Deux Amis
3 - Dupont Avril
2 - De Ranke XXX
1 - Blaugies La Vermontoise

The big surprise was Deux Amis not placing well in this context. It came across as sweeter than in the past. It also had a little sourness. I never would have properly identified this beer. My theory about liking XXX better without it being next to XX proved accurate. XXX felt more IPA-ish in this group than it has in the past. This proved to be a weirder group than I was predicting before opening the bottles.

 

I've been doing some shopping, and I picked up a new group. These feel like a collection of stragglers. We'll see how they do.

 

Jolly Pumpkin E.S. Bam

I also opened a Bam Biere to have alongside the big guy. I guessed the E.S. Bam was gonna be quite old. E.S. is a play on "extra special."

According to the brewer, E.S. Bam is Bam Biere with more hops and malt. It's significantly darker than Bam Biere. Is this a product of "more malt" or oxidation (or both)? E.S. is indeed maltier. It has a yogurt-like tartness and acidity. I really don't get much in the way of hops here... kind of surprising considering the hops on the label and "hoppy" in the name. Is the age of the beer causing a shift in the balance between tartness and hoppiness? I don't know. It's not that much different than Bam Biere, but this bottle of Bam is definitely more enjoyable than this bottle of E.S. The lightness of Bam just dances on the tongue and is a total asset.

 

Le Trou Du Diable La Saison Du Tracteur

Considering that this brewery is in Quebec, there is actually a good reason for a French name on the bottle... it's not like an American brewer marketing "authenticity." This beer has won lots of accolades in the World Beer Awards. If I removed all beers in the Shelton Brothers portfolio from this thread, it would be a lot thinner (and so would I).

I don't know if this handsome but undated bottle purchased in a new store is a victim of age at the distributor or if the beer is meant to be like this. I'm going with the old bottle theory. The beer tastes oxidized and sweet. There's some old-world bitterness in there, but I don't know what hops were used. Unenjoyable.

 

Mystic Mary of the Gael

This is Mystic's spring saison. I wish I knew which modern saison producer started the idea of a saison for each season. Was it Fantome? It's great to get a beer dated this year.

This hazy orange beer is incredibly dry - strikingly so. Tastes of pilsner malt with a very slight tartness. There's a minerality. The hops are very interesting and characterful. I don't know what hops are in here, but they are bright and slightly earthy. There's something unorthodox about them. This is a fantastic saison.

 

Blaugies Darbyste

I really liked an older label for this beer... the biological fig one:



Perhaps this fig label didn't seduce the customer like a coffee label would. The various Blaugies labels seem so disconnected when they change. There's another bizarre label for this beer that wouldn't be appropriate to post here. This beer used to be listed here as a "Belgian Pale Ale." Now it's a "saison." Given the sour aspect of this beer, saison is a better fit between the two. The idea of a reviewer rating a sour beer against the archetype of "Belgian pale" illustrates a problem with reviewing according to style. Oddly, when I first had this beer years ago, I don't recall it being sour at all. It was definitely sour when I've had it on tap. The Shelton Brothers website describes it as a "saison" that's a variation on a "Belgian Wit." You can see how muddy things can get.

This beer is fermented with fig juice. To quote the Shelton site: "A traditional style named for John Darby, preacher of temperance whose parishioners were oddly moved by a ‘soft drink’ they insisted was just fig juice." Make of that what you will.

This beer is without the typical Blaugies unrelenting head. It's soft but there is still a slight prickliness. There's a nice sourness to this beer. It's dry, but there is just the right amount of sweetness to balance with the sour to make it considerably drinkable. Hop presence is minimal. This is a beer that grows on you.

Fig trees are very interesting in their role in the ecosystem. Are there remnants of fig wasps in this beer?

 

Blackberry Farm New World Cuvee Dry Hop Saison

Wonderful. Underripe peach. Carbonation is a touch too prickly. Nice malt. Almost meringue (but not quite) head. Very drinkable.

 

Fantome Dark White

What in the world does "dark white" mean (especially when a brewery releases similar beers under a "dark" or "light" designation)? Regardless, it's nice to have a Fantome without any obvious issues. Apparently a spiced saison. Lately, Fantome seems to be releasing beers with trendy ingredients (lots of hops, coffee), or beers that don't reveal their raison d'etre. This is in the latter category. I wish I could just buy their plain "saison," but that's not what's hot I guess. I had that beer once and it made me a fan.

This beer is relatively dark. There's a nice sourness that recalls underripe berries. People tend to think of Fantome as a brewer with big hits and big misses. I'd say this one doesn't fall into that dichotomy.

 

Sierra Nevada Ovila Saison

Sierra Nevada Ovila Abbey Ales is a series of beers made in partnership with the Trappist Abbey of New Clairvaux. Located in northern California, the Abbey of New Clairvaux was founded in 1955. The beers are made in the mold of traditional abbey/Trappist beers (sometimes with a twist). It's weird that they went with a saison since it isn't an abbey-style ale. Apparently, they justify it's inclusion as a tribute to the work these monks perform in their fields. Seems like a silly stretch to me. When possible, some ingredients that go into these Ovila beers are grown and harvested by the monks.

The Ovila chapter house was a medieval structure in Spain. In 1931, William Randolph Hearst purchased the chapter house, had it dismantled, and shipped it to California… but nothing was ever done with the stones. The Trappist Abbey of New Clairvaux gained possession of them in 1994 and wanted to rebuild the chapter house. A portion of the earnings from the Sierra Nevada beer series goes to the monks and their efforts to build the structure (a very expensive undertaking).

I was able to find the plain Ovila saison and the "mixed pack" with three different 750 bottles - including the saison with sage. In very un-Sierra Nevada fashion, neither of these products appeared to be dated. I figured the plain saison was old… I didn't know about the mixed pack. Since I didn't want the quad and brown ale… and I didn't want sage in the saison… I went with the plain saison. That was a mistake. The beer seems to have become acidic from age. Carbonation was low and the beer wasn't hazy. I get the impression that this was a nice beer at one point, but it's not one now. Now that I've dug a little, I see that this beer is "retired" and that the box set with the sage saison is current. Oh well. The story behind the beers is great. Anyone interested can watch these videos for a fuller picture:

 

Jester King Noble King

This is another case of a sour saison marketing itself as hoppy. This beer is very tart. It's light and lemony. The noble hops are buried under the sourness. If I only drank sour beer, this beer might strike me as hoppy. Since sour beer is in the minority of my drinking habits, any hoppiness here is lost on me. It's as if different breweries were using a different scale of hoppiness (which is fine). Nonetheless, the gulf between the name/artwork and the beer in the glass seems so vast... and I'm not a "hop-head."

 

Here's the latest blind round.

8 - Le Trou Du Diable - Saison Du Tracteur
7 - Sierra Nevada Ovila Saison
6 - Jolly Pumpkin E.S. Bam
5 - Blaugies Darbyste
4 - Jester King Noble King
3 - Fantome Dark White
2 - Mystic Mary of the Gael
1 - Blackberry Farm New World Cuvee Dry Hop

I feel like Blackberry Farm got more proper recognition in this blind round. This round featured many sour saisons - half in total. In the split between sour, bitter, and spiced saisons - I'm a fan of bitter saisons. In this case, the sour saisons sat right in the middle... the oxidized saisons were in the back... and the hoppy saisons were up front (with the bitterest taking the top spot). That's a reflection of my preferences. Looking beyond this for a moment, I feel like this Fantome beer was the real standout in this group. I didn't expect to like it as much as I did. A great beer.

 

I think this brings a close to the normal portion of this thread for me. Now, I plan on entering into my "revisits." I've selected half a dozen Belgian beers, and half a dozen US beers to revisit. I will not be posting about each individual beer, but will be posting about the group (with the usual blind tasting segment). I will also post about all of the draught and 11-16oz saisons I've had this summer... in a very brief fashion (and the occasional oddball).

First up are the Belgians. I decided to include the Saint Somewhere Fraternite collaboration beer in this group. I will make a post about Dupont's Avec Les Bons Voeux, since we haven't seen this one yet. I decided to throw this fan-favorite in at the end. That's a lot of green glass.