Tag Archives: Saison

Saison du BUFF! All THREE!

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Beer Name: Saison du BUFF
Brewery: Dogfish Head / Stone / Victory
Beer Style: Saison
ABV: 6.8% / 7.7% / 6.8%
Size: 12 oz. bottle
Beer Advocate: 87 / 87 / 86
RateBeer: 95 / 97 / 93

The dedicated, loyal reader of the works of this beer blogger surely has noted my affection for the collaborative experiments of many craft brewers. If you are one of these intelligent folk, it must come as little shock that when three of the bigger boys in Craft came together and agreed on an idea for a beer that they would then take back to their respective kettles to brew independently, that it might peak my curiosity; well if you thought that, then bully for you. The first time they released these beers I was never able to snag all three at the same time (one would always come up missing before the third one made it home), so when I saw them all in one place, at one time, I snatched them up so I could sit and compare. The following is my thoughts, enjoy:

DSC_0221If you look at the picture to the left, you might be able to tell that all three of these beers look nearly identical. The Dogfish Head is a bit more cloudy, but since it is bottle conditioned that might just be a little sediment that sneaked its way into the glass. Stone’s might be the lightest in color, but it would take a very detailed and thorough packet of color swatches to be sure. All of the glasses are full of an ale that is golden in color and topped with a half-finger of head after pouring. From the looks of them, they seem to remain nicely carbonated after they settle.

On smelling, Victory’s contained sweet with notes of fresh herbs, mostly sage, and maybe some some fresh-cut grass. While the Dogfish was a little less sweet and there was a barely noticeable increased sage presence on the nose. Also, as might be expected, the Stone offering had the most hop-forward smell – more cut grass and less sweetness, but there was still a lot of sage smell fighting its way through as well. If the nose does in-fact “know,” then my initial reaction would be that I think I would like the Stone the most, as a noted hop addict.

DSC_0222And now for the best part … the drinking. The Victory beer starts off sweet, but the sage still there; it has that dry barnyard finish that you get in so many saisons. The Victory is also the most smooth making it what I would consider the most easily drinkable of the three. Dogfish’s is much more heavy on the herbs, especially the sage (tons of sage, but not too much); there may be a touch more of an alcohol taste and less of the sweet. Unfortunately, the increased sage masks the barnyard flavor I got off the Victory, which would be great here. Finally on to the Stone. As the nose alluded to, there is much more of a grassy/citrus hop flavor on this one. The hops add a nice complexity to the finish of this beer; it finishes more like a low-hopped APA than what I usually expect from a traditional saison. The stone doesn’t have as much sage or earthy flavor as the other two do – this may be due to the increased hop flavors – but you still know it is a saison. All three are nearly identical on mouth feel having nice carbonation level light on the surfaces of the mouth.

Final notes: I loved doing this tasting, and I would do it again no question. What made it so great was that while each beer was very similar, they all were complex enough to be very different at the same time. It also was cool to me that they all remained true to what you would expect from each brewer. The Stone was the most hop forward, the Dogfish Head was the weirdest and most non-normal-beer-ingredient forward, and the Victory was the most accessible, drinkable of the group. Really a great concept that was executed wonderfully.

Ratings:
Sessionability: 3-pack / 4-pack / 5-pack. (Dogfish/Stone/Victory) The large amount of sage in the Dogfish prevents this from being more drinkable, but both the Stone and the Victory are very drinkable. The Victory is the smoothest so I rated it a bit higher than the Stone.
Overall: 4 pack / 5-pack /4 pack (Dogfish/Stone/Victory). The more pronounced hops flavor and aroma made the Stone my favorite (the nose does know after all), but they all were very good in different ways.
Would Best Be Consumed: If you are lucky like me and can drink all three at the same time do it; it was fun. But if you can’t, try it with some soft cheese; I think you’ll like it.

Lips of Faith: Peach Porch Lounger

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Beer Name: Lips of Faith: Peach Porch Lounger
Brewery: New Belgium out of Fort Collins, CO
Beer Style: Saison/Fruit/Brett Beer
ABV: 9.4%
Size: Bomber
Beer Advocate: 79
RateBeer: 85

 

Millions of peach beers, peach beers for me. Okay, if you are new reader, let me apologize for going back-to-back with the peach reviews. Those not familiar with me probably think I heart both Bartles and his cohort Jaymes. I don’t. Once again let me justify reviewing another “fruit” beer: I will try anything in the Lips of Faith series. I know it sounds like a Judith Light Lifetime original movie, but it’s slightly cooler than that. It is a series of beers that New Belgium does annually in one-off batches. For those not familiar with New Belgium, check them out. They run a state-of-the-art brewery that is both green and amazing.

The beer pours quite easily with little to no head. As the beer exits the bottle, go ahead and stick your nose in there to smell the peaches, earth notes, and booze. Tiny carbonation helps to deliver what would be a fantastic stand-alone saison. The grass notes work really well with the brett yeast to provide a fresh farmhouse taste. Following the great saison flavor is a bit of peach and booze taste. The peach is very well balanced with citrus and biscuit malt so that it is never too sweet, sour, or dull.

If you read my review of Brainless on Peaches you know that I thought very highly of it and considered it the best fruit beer I had ever tried. This trumps that. This is a perfectly balanced beer and if you can find it (it’s not distributed in Ohio), snag it. Don’t let the BA and RB scores scare you away; real men can admit they like their palate peachy sometimes.

Ratings:
Sessionability: 4-pack. One bomber will suffice because it is a high ABV, but you will want to keep drinking it.
Overall: 6-pack. This trumps previous peach reviews, and both ladies and gents will dig it. PDA!
Would Best Be Consumed: On a porch would be best, but also maybe with a Judith Light movie…no.

Beer Review: Orchard White: The Bruery

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20120820-153053.jpgBeer Name: Orchard White

Brewery: The Bruery
Beer Style: Belgian Witbier
ABV: 5.7%
Size: 750 ml bottle
Beer Advocate: 88 (The Bros 100)
RateBeer: 92

One of the things that I have been getting into as of late is beer and cheese pairings. And while I still enjoy beer as a standalone, it is a treat sometimes to make an effort to pair some food with a beer and see how they get along. If you haven’t had beer and good cheese together, you are really missing out. Beer, even more so than wine in my opinion, is an amazing partner for cheese. Its carbonation provides an amazing palate-cleansing quality between bites of cheese, and the sweet and bitter flavors of beer is accentuated by the smooth creaminess of cheese. I have only begun to scratch the surface of what makes a pairing work and what doesn’t, but I thought I might share one that I thought worked exceptionally well: The Bruery’s Orchard White with some Trugole Cheese.

First, lets talk about the beer. It pours to a clear straw color with champagne-like constant bubble action. The smell of the beer has a nice crisp malt sweetness, and a bit of that barnyard earthy smell that you find sometimes in witbiers. The first sip was sweet and tart upfront, but then it finished like a very dry sparkling white wine. It has a very light-thin mouthfeel and when it’s gone, it almost leaves the mouth with no lingering flavors. As it warmed up, I started to get a taste that reminded me of a grassy sauvignon blanc without the sweetness. I also noted that there was some flowery taste there – which I am going to call lavender because the bottle says lavender, but I couldn’t place it to be certain. As I drank, I kept coming back to the same thoughts: “This beer is ultra crisp and very dry.”

The Trugole cheese, which is a hard “Asiago-like” cheese, comes from cows that graze in on the grasses in the foothills of the Asiago region in the Italian Alps. According to the package, it is then worked by hand in the traditional way; this means rubbing with salt and water every day for sixty days. It has a nice smooth buttery taste, with a light tangy bitterness at the end.

I thought the beer and the cheese worked very well together. The buttery taste of the cheese was cut away from the tongue by the carbonation and the crisp dryness; this made every bite of the cheese like tasting the cheese again for the first time. The beer also brought out some more of the tangy bitterness at the finish of the cheese. The overall experience, switching from the buttery cheese to the crisp beer and back, provided an amazing yin-yang quality that really elevated my enjoyment level of both the cheese and the beer.

I would recommend picking up a witbeir and some Trugole, and seeing what you think. Worst thing that happens is you eat some good cheese and drink a good beer.

Ratings:

Sessionability: 5-pack, only 5.7% alcohol, I think I would love to drink this all day at a picnic on a cool summer day.

Overall: 6-pack. This beer was amazing and unlike so many other beers I have had, it was a real pleasure to drink.

Would Best Be Consumed: On cool summer evening with a small plate dinner including olives, cheeses, and maybe some ceviche.

Beer Review: Carnevale Ale: The Lost Abbey

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imageBeer Name: Carnevale Ale

Brewery: The Lost Abbey
Beer style: Saison
ABV: 6.5%
Size: 25.4oz bottle
Beer Advocate Score: 89
Rate Beer Score: 98

Not to give you too much of a peek behind the curtain, but you may have noticed that in this section of a blog post, I usually put some anecdote about why I picked the beer I did to drink to give you a little insight into my life/mind. But to be honest, today I wanted to drink a beer from The Lost Abbey. A friend who was on a trip to the ATL picked me up some craft beer that I can’t get here (solidifying Ricky’s place in my own personal pantheon), and I wanted to drink it. Sorry for posting a beer you can’t find in Ohio, but next time you are on a trip, try to look for something by The Lost Abbey.

After pulling the cork and pouring, the beer poured a hazy straw color with about a finger of light champagne-like head. The head dissipated quickly, even with the constant stream of bubbles rising from the bottom of the glass. Even though this was poured in a stemless red wine glass, the overall impression I got from it was that of a champagne – from the opening, to the color, and onto the bubbles in the glass. This is not a super beery beer (if that’s a thing).

When I stuck my nose into the glass (which I had to do to pick up much of any scent off of this beer), I could pick up smells of sweet malt, clove, earth, and some tart crisp apple. The beer’s taste is subtle and delicate, with no overpowering flavors to be found. It starts off with a very light but noticeable sweetness, which is launched into every corner of your mouth by the effervescent bubbles as they dance on your tongue. The carbonation also adds a little bit of acidity on the roof of the mouth and the tip of the tongue. But once the light sweetness and subtle acidity begins to fade, tastes of green apple, lemon, orange peel, clove, bubble gum, and earth start showing up and falling away like corks in the ocean. (That’s a horrible sentence, but it will be left as a reminder to be wary of analogies.) After the swallow, I was left with what reminded me of a very dry Brut, if it had been dosed with earthy hops.

I think the most accurate thing I can say about this beer is that it is not your normal fare. This is going to be not like most beers you have ever tried. It is complex and subtle, flavorful but demure; it is not going to knock your socks off, but at the same time it is not to be passively drunk.

Ratings:

Sessionability: I give it a 3-pack. This is good and if I was eating some cheese, bread, and salami with it (and I have no clue why I did not), I could probably drink this longer; but the majority of the bottle that I had left me in a good place, and I didn’t need a second.

Overall: I give it a 5-pack. It was hard not to give it a 6; it may very well be one of the best saisons I have had, and would probably get some kind of medal had I been judging this for a competition. But it would take an amazing saison for it to end up in my list of the most elite beers.

Would be best consumed: Beside what I mentioned above, salami and cheese (maybe blue), I think this would go very well with some braised pork belly sitting on a frisee salad with a warm bacon and apple cider vinaigrette.

Beer Review: Collaboration BRUX – Sierra Nevada & Russian River

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Beer Name: BRUX

Brewery: Collaboration between Russian River and Sierra Nevada
Beer style: They are calling it a “Domesticated Wild Ale”; I would call it a Saison.
ABV: 8.3%
IBU: Unknown
Size: 1 pint 9.4 oz
Beer Advocate Score: 88
Rate Beer Score: 97

Batman had Robin, Montana had Rice, Ace had Gary, Bert had Ernie, and even Gibbard had Dntel.  Rob Base and D.J. E-Z Rock taught us that “it takes two to make a thing go right; it takes two to make it out of sight.” And WHO are WE to question THEM? If you did not read the first post of the week by MattOhioBeer, it is our first annual “Collaboration Week” here at Ohio-Beer. When two or more breweries join Planeteer rings, more often than not the craft beer drinker wins.

For my first entry this week, I decided to go with Brux. Russian River beers are hard to find in Ohio, and I really liked the idea of a well-known brewery like Sierra Nevada joining forces with Russian River. Russian River consistently has at least two beers ranked in the top 10 in the United State. This should intimidate other breweries, but for some awesome reason it doesn’t.

I had serious trouble popping the cork on this beer. I finally got it off and a small amount of beer left the bottle with the cork. It pours fairly easily and comes with maybe a ¼-inch head, which is sort of surprising considering it is a Belgian-style ale. It smells primarily of its namesake, Brettanomyces bruxellensis or “Brett” yeast. When it first hits your mouth, a light but perfect carbonation delivers an earthy Belgian flavor. It has a nice sour grassy bite initially, but settles quickly into a pear or possibly a white grape juice flavor. As you roll your tongue around your mouth, this flavor and its sourness intensify, but finish smooth.

This is a beer you want to savor one sip at a time. A very well-crafted beer with excellent flavor progression. I would liken it to a Saison with a pretty big punch at 8.3%, but whatever you are calling it, Sierra Nevada and Russian River nailed it. The bottle recommends aging, so I will likely pick up another and add it to the “special event” cabinet.

 

Ratings:

Sessionability: 1-pack. The wine bottle size at 8.3% will give you plenty.

Overall: I am going with a high 5-pack. Great beer, but just a bit too “white grape” on the finish for me

Would be best consumed: I think something spicy could mellow the sour fruit notes without overwhelming them.