Delighted to pick this 22 oz bottle up from Jungle Jim’s in Cincinnati. Presentation is great with the green gold and white label adding a classy touch to the beer. The paper is a little higher quality too, with that slightly textured, cotton effect. Bottled on Oct 23, this is a 2009 vintage.
Pour is a beautiful, rich, yellow golden body with a nice, bright white head. Lace and retention are very good. Smashing looking beer.
Nose has light straw amongst the mild funk and barnyard notes. Some slight lemon zest but it’s pretty reserved.
Tastes seems more funky than the nose would suggest at first, but this backs down fairly quickly to even out to a moderate funk. Dry notes in the finish with a nice, and surprising champagne like carbonation at the back end. The tastes manifest the orange peel more and more with an increasing note of bitterness amongst the horse-blanket.
Very clean and dry but still manages to compliment those attributes with sufficient citrus fruit pith and zest to keep it all together. Overall the emphasis seems to be on the Farmhouse side of things rather than the Saison.
A beautifully constructed beer which reminds me a sweltering hot European continent summers and optimistic spring days. There’s a lot of character about this beer which screams France and Belgium to me, and makes me yearn for some Gite and street cafe time. Delightful beer that catches my imagination.