The 750 Saison

Chances are it would just get moved to the Europe board where nobody but a few would see it anyway .

 

Haha very true. Besides, the Bayernbiere Bought and Drunk thread has covered a lot of it already.

 

But seriously, i very much enjoyed this thread and it coersed me to be thrown into my belgian obsession. In a case of the internet going down, out, or this thread eventually disappearing, when i get bored enough i feel like writing down @zid posts in a journal, with drawn color pics, (im quite the arteest. i had a tattoo apprenticeship once) just so i can have the info given. It has fully interested me. Don't think of it as "weird" im just going to get cabin fever this winter and if the power goes out i can still read the 750 saison. I enjoyed it that much.

 

Ok, finally getting to this saison:


Lickinghole Creek Seven Region Oyster Saison:

Lickinghole Creek is a Virginia farm brewery, similar to Blackberry Farm in Tennessee which has been in this thread a few times. LC does a variety of styles, and one of the first to make its way to NoVa area was their Three Chopt Tripel. All their beers that made their way up here (mainly Double IPAs and Imperial Stouts) have been decent to pretty good.

With regard to the topic of this thread, they have a Short Pump Saison that they make fairly regularly (which I don't recall having). They made a Rosemary version of that saison and I really enjoyed it (bought 3 bottles total). Let's see bout this beer.

Apparently they use oysters from, you guessed it... the seven oyster regions of Virginia. The bottle does not indicate how the oysters are used, just that they are. The tasting notes on the bottle indicate this is light with the flavors of lemon, oyster, and Belgian yeast. Let's see.

This beer pours a bit darker than I would've expected. Maybe knowing how the oysters were introduced to the beer would give a clue to the darker golden color. The beer has a nice saison smell, mainly hay and grass and herb. There is a little earthiness to it as well.

The taste is similar to the nose, leaning perhaps a little more on the earthiness than I'd like. I am not an oyster aficionado by any means. What I expected was a light salinity, perhaps, and in searching for it, I can make myself think I find it, but I am not sure. The feel is like that of soft water, though, so maybe there's something. In the part of the taste where I might be getting the lightest of salt notes, I do also get a little sweetness and a bit of wet sand.

Am I tricking myself here? Maybe a little, but I continued to get it on a warmer beer. Regardless of why I am getting these notes, I am at this point and enjoying it quite a bit.

 

Ah yes Two Roads. Funny you remember a few times now. Ive never been disappointed by them. Their Bergamonster imperial wheat was crazy. 600 beers in and it was unique for me. I dont see them much around me but i always try what i can from them.

 

By all means do, and another thanks for maintaining this most engrossing thread.

 

Hope you don't mind me having a little fun with it in your absence .

Ok, so I am going back to the "710 Saison" version of this thread, where I grab two 12 oz (355 mL) farmhouse/saison offerings.

I will echo what others have said recently, in that these threads really make me get into a style and look at it in different ways (and then bore you guys with the details). In this case, I actually ended up looking to see that I have not rated Ommegang Hennepin. I am not sure I actually have ever had it (though I likely have at some point).

Wasn't hard to figure this out, either, as it is the most rated beer in the style (I have had 9 of the rest of the top 12). I think I am about 50% on enjoying those 9 to purchase them again, which is an indication of my diciness with enjoyment of the style.


If I am reading the etching right, this beer was bottled in January. The label says to pour carefully with the bottle conditioning, which I failed to consider (what?!? read instructions??!?), but I don't think it affected the pour that much. I also didn't need too aggressive a pour to get a nice head built up. And a nice foamy cap it is that adorns the glass for a long time.

It seems this one falls in the good 50%. The website helps me understand what the small print says on the label: brewed with coriander, ginger, grains of paradise and orange. Knowing this helps explain some of the notes I was getting, including a nice citrus tinged grassiness. I get the ginger after understanding it is in the beer. And funny enough, thanks to having another beer by the same brewery as my second offering below, I may also get the coriander (grains of paradise I am not sure of).

The website also deems Hennepin as hoppy and full-bodied. I wouldn't really consider this beer hoppy, even against my next beer. And that beer, Apex Predator is a weird beast. He seems to have a wild side, maybe the result of the "Free-Rise Fermentation" it talks about. It is only two months old, so it's not that. But that almost tart, but mainly funky citrus in nature, it is what draws my attention in this beer.


Going to the brewery's site, this technique of fermentation is right up front on the description of the beer:

There is also a dose of dry hopping with Crystal hops. Getting into the beer, there is a distinct hop bitterness (woody pine) in the nose and back of the taste. Funny thing is I also get a little sweet orange in this beer similar to the Hennepin.

That's about the only similarity though. The Hennepin is closer to what I would consider a typical farmhouse ale, where the Apex Predator seems to use it as a backbone for something different. The funny thing about this distinction is that the Hennepin definitely has additions while the Apex Predator is actually closer to your Reinheitsgebot "just beer."

Anyhow, glad I took the time to try both of these, and thankful to this thread for lighting a spark to get off my ass on at least the Ommegang beer.

For fun, the tale of the tape:
Malts: Hennepin (Pilsner, Pale); Apex Predator (Pils, Flaked Wheat, Honey Malt)
Hops: Hennepin (Styrian Golding, Spalter Select); Apex Predator (Crystal, Sterling)
Yeast: Hennepin (Ommegang house yeast); Apex Predator (???)
Gravity/ABV/IBU: Hennepin (16.8P / 7.7% / 24); Apex Predator (14P / 6.5% / 25 [note: IBU is 35 on website, 25 on bottle])

 

I thought apex predator was something special when I had it. Hennepin was a mainstay for me for a long time until they went to the amercian side of brewing with boulevard after the spiced saison. Which also was a fabulous saison. Then I did not see to much of it either in 750 or 4 pack for a long time. Very lovely reviews. Cheers!

 

I've been enjoying reading this thread so much that I felt compelled to contribute rather than just lurk. Cheers to @zid for coming up with and maintaining this tribute to perhaps my favorite style of beer. The 750 mL saison is a great accompaniment to the simple pleasures of life: a good meal, good weather, and day drinking.

In that vein, I opened a Brother Soigne from Grassroots Brewing (aka Hill Farmstead), a saison brewed with lime and blood orange. This bottled has been poorly cellared since its creation in October 2015, including a musty garage, bedroom closet, and a 1500 mile cross country move.



The beer pours an opaque orange color with gold and pinkish highlights. No gushing despite the mixed fermentation and year of storage at room temperature. There is a finger worth of tightly packed off white head that slowly dissipates. On the nose I get sourdough bread, citrus peel, flowers, and slight sulfuric barnyard funk. The nose screams Hill Farmstead even though the brewer wants to pretend like this isn't his baby. The taste follows with lactic tartness upfront, followed by lavender or aloe soap, wheat bread, and pithy lemon bitterness. There is a lingering lacto finish that tastes like lavender flavored yogurt. The mouthfeel is full given the low abv. I'm really impressed with this beer and how well it has held up. The adjuncts complement the base saison well without creating something that veers into medicinal or artificial.

 

Finally got back to France a few weeks ago. Always nice to have this classic. Please note that it had a massive head when poured. I just got distracted for a while and got around to the picture after it fizzled away.

 

Also had this one (Thiriez and Get Radical collaboration--dry hopped saison). Apologize for the glass used in this one (hotel glassware)...and the fact that no matter what I do, this picture shows up sideways here?!?!?!?

 

Also bought Les Québecoises (Thiriez) and La Vermontoise (Brasserie De Blaugies / Hill Farmstead collab), so I'll post when I eventually pop them.

 

Okay...now that picture isn't showing up sideways. WTF?

 

When I looked at your pics of beers in the first post, I said, "I'd start with the Vielle Provision and the Hiver".
Then I scrolled down...
Well done mate. This is a solid thread.

 

What does the last beer from the keg of a saison from a west coast IPA-producing brewery taste like??


Not very good. I was truly hoping to get an interesting review of this Ocelot saison, but the keg kicked. So can I judge a beer on the dregs??

Nice tight head on that foamy pour, though. Looks really nice. Nose is hoppy floral, feel is flat and it brings the taste with it.

Ocelot makes a decent German Pils, and their Oktoberfest was solid, so I had hopes...

So hard to tell, but if I were to posit a guess, I think this would've been a too-hoppy saison that was somehow not dry enough. It's shocking b/c their IPAs are usually quite dry. But it's also a complete guess.

 

That's got to be one of the most beautiful head formation I've seen however. Really good looking brew if anything.