The 750 Saison

Ha. I do the same thing too.

 

Cuvee De Ranke

I'm continuing the lambic blends with one more beer. I think this beer is a mixture of two blended soured pale ales (70%) and Girardin lambic (30%). Lambic producers can be brewers and/or blenders (who buy beer from brewers for blending).

This beer is unmistakably Belgian. It's quite sour, but there's a malt quality (without a heavy body) that provides balance and complexity. There's a restrained fruitiness. It's quite nice.

I'm going to go to Pieter Bruegel one more time. Here's his painting of a peasant wedding feast:



On the left you can see lambic being poured from stoneware pitchers. While I was in Brussels, I was fortunate to visit A La Becasse and enjoy tasty and relatively subtle lambic from a traditional pitcher. Here's my pic:

 

Blaugies / Hill Farmstead - La Vermontoise

Now I'm moving on to two American / Belgian collaborations. Both beers intentionally go for an American angle by utilizing Amarillo hops. Tank 7 also uses this hop. I am not sure why, but I keep running into instances of Belgian brewers talking about Amarillo. I wonder if this has to do with Belgian supply and access to this hop. The beer in this post is from Blaugies.

If you look back to my two posts on Blaugies on the third page, you'll see that the video mentions a Hill Farmstead collaboration and that D'Epeautre was Sean Hill's favorite saison. La Vermontoise is the result of the collaboration and D'Epeautre was the starting point.

The name of the beer points to a Vermont origin, but this beer is far more Belgian than US... and more Blaugies than Hill Farmstead... at least to me.

The usual over-carbed Blaugies gigantic head is here. This is a very different beer from D'Epeautre. It's firmly bitter in a soothing rather than abrasive way. The spelt is much more hidden under the hops but it is there. It's bready and soft. The yeast signature is downplayed in the scheme of things compared to other saisons. The Amarillo isn't really contributing much in the way of a dry-hopped citrus note. The hops feel more "old world" European... and they're not at all quiet.

This beer is just fantastic. It goes down sooo easy but character is not sacrificed. The bitterness and light body invite repeat drinking.

The pillowy head causes "lacing" to be an ill-fitting term. This is more like blobing or stalactiting.

 

Dupont / Lost Abbey - Deux Amis

This is a surprise beer - it wasn't in my group photos. I'm very glad that the release of this beer coincides with my thread. This is the second in my pair of Belgian / American collaborations. The bottle says: American Belgian Saison Ale.

This beer has a lot in common with the Blaugies beer on a conceptual level. It's more Belgian than American. The beer is clearly related to Saison Dupont. It was brewed at Dupont. The shift comes with the addition of Amarillo and Simcoe.

Deux Amis translates to "two friends." The result is fantastic. It's dry, delicious, bready, and bitter. The first time I had this beer, I thought it was a case of "does what it says on the tin" - in other words, it tasted like Dupont with American hops. I loved it but missed good ol' Dupont a little. The bottle in the pic is my second experience with this beer. This time, I didn't get that same clarity, but it was a pleasure to drink each time. I'd say this collaboration beer sacrifices some of the drinkability of regular Dupont.

 

An interesting thing I noted about the Deux Amis bottle: the date code on the label translated to an early 2016 bottling, and the cork was a 2015 marked cork. I believe this beer is from 2016. If I am right, that means you can't always trust the year on the cork. Would a brewery discard corks at the end of a year if they have surplus?

 

Dupont Avril

This is Dupont's Biere de Table or table beer. At 3.5, it's the lowest ABV in the thread. This is an organic beer. Dupont makes a range of organic beers.

This beer is three years old. Can a 3.5% beer in a green bottle on a store shelf remain enjoyable after three years? In this case the answer is definitely "yes."

Considering the age of this unfiltered and bottle conditioned beer, it's remarkable how amazing the clarity is. Granted this is due to me decanting the beer, but it's amazing that it can get this clear.

At 3.5%, the beer is watery. Like a hoppy IPA or malty barley wine, that's not a bad thing. It's a tiny bit tart. I don't know if that's a result of the age or if that was there to begin with. It's incredibly light, bright and lemony. It tastes like there's wheat in it but there isn't. It's very drinkable.

While it probably tastes different than a fresh bottle, there really are no bad qualities due to age. Against all convention wisdom, I wonder if the lightness of the beer was an advantage in this regard. Even if that's the case, when most are quick to discount something, it's proof that we can always be surprised.

 

Man that's a nice glass!
(I would've tried that beer if I came across it too.)

 

De Ranke XXX Bitter

This beer is a special variation on their more common XX Bitter (which I posted about earlier). I also opened a small XX so that I could have these two beers side-by-side for the first time.

Opening the XX was a bit of a mistake, but I really wanted to try them together. The disparity in freshness between the two bottles possibly ruined my intentions. Assuming these two both have a 5 year best-by, the XX was a 1/2 year old and the XXX was 2 years old.

If I had the XXX on it's own, I think I would have gotten much more in sync with it. Alongside the XX, the age of the XXX became an obstacle that I couldn't surmount. I couldn't enjoy the beer. The hops were still quite loud though. They gave the beer an American IPA tone. The 'light on its feet' but still potent XX just made the XXX feel old and clunky. Would I feel essentially the same way if they were both the same age and in the same shape? Possibly, but this side-by-side backfired.

I've had XXX on tap in the past and it was fantastic under the circumstances.

 

De Glazen Toren - Saison D'Erpe-Mere Lentebier & Saison D'Erpe-Mere Gerookt

On to more Belgian variations, more pairings, and more old beer.

I've already posted about Saison D'Erpe-Mere. The small Gerookt beer is the smoked version. The wrapped Lentebier is extra hopped and higher in alcohol.

I treated the Gerookt like an add-on to contrast with the main event - the Lentebier. Both beers were not dated. Unfortunately, the Lentebier tasted like an old disaster. It was very oxidized, hot, and very sweet. Totally unenjoyable. It just goes to show how you can't count on certain things: The Lentebier probably wasn't older than the Avril from a few posts back. It was 9% and wrapped in paper (compared to 3.5% and in an unwrapped green bottle). The Avril, however, fared much much better.

The Gerookt beer was probably from this year, but if someone told me that it was a few years old I would have believed it. The beer just didn't work for me (and I love smoked malt in certain beers). It's not terribly smoky, but the smoke that is there comes across harsher than it should. The smoke hides the saison qualities that should be there. Nothing is coming together in this beer. It's dead in the glass. I had this one on tap in the past and didn't care for it then either.

A very disappointing pair.

 

My inclusion of De Glazen Toren Gerookt (above) was well timed. You'll see that I'm still not a fan. Regarding Burning Rosids, I too had that one back when it was released. I thought it was clashy. The one time I enjoyed something similar was when Dupont released a special occasion smoked beer - Triomfbier Vooruit. Any bottles still hanging around must be quite old (I do still see bottles of this beer). I really enjoyed that beer. It had what the others lacked (to me)... harmoniousness.

 

I was glad to see you include Little Brett here. Even though this website has it listed as an "American Wild Ale," I approach it as a saison (albeit, a very tropical fruit forward one).