Saranac High Peaks Lemon Ginger Saison

Beer: Saranc High PeaksLemon Ginger Saison
Brewery: Matt Brewing Company
Style: Saison
ABV: 8.5%

Serving Style: Bottle
Glassware: Wine glass
Drinking Establishment: A New Brunswick apartment
Primary Consumer(s): Ally and Kerensa

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OVERALL RATING:

Sight: Slightly cloudy bright orange body with visible Champagne-like carbonation. There’s a dusting of bubbles in lieu of a head.

Smell: There’s a definite citrus scent, but it’s not distinctively lemon like the bottle advertises. There’s also a very sweet cardamom aroma and a slightly grassy smell, almost like some strange Riesling-Belgian White Ale hybrid.

Flavor: It more or less tastes as it smells, but the flavor is heavier on the grass and it’s less sweet than expected.  The high ABV (8.5%) is absolutely hidden in this, which is relieving. It’s quite spicy, but not in a hot way, instead a spices way. There are traces of cardamom, coriander, and ginger. If we had to compare it to anything, it would be spicy Hoegaarden.

Feel: Thin with moderate carbonation.

Concluding Remark: Saranac’s High Peaks line features beers that are “bigger, more complex and flavorful.” Well, Saranac, mission freaking accomplished. The Lemon Ginger Saison (WHAT?) is just that: bigger (at 8.5%, it has a higher ABV than most Saisons), more complex (lemon…and ginger…in a Saison…need I say more?), and flavorful (see previous parenthesis). While atypical of the style, it’s an adventurous brew deserving of the name “High Peaks.” It’s only downfall, really, is that it might be a little too much: it’s a little too spicy, a little too sweet, and a little too flavorful for hours of daytime drinking. However, if you can brave all of this flavor, you will be rewarded with a nice pile of drunk at the top of the proverbial peak.

White Birch Farmhouse Red Ale

Beer: Farmhouse Red
Brewery: White Birch Brewing
Style: Saison
ABV: 6.6%

Serving Style: Bottle
Glassware: Wine glass
Drinking Establishment: A New Brunswick apartment
Primary Consumer (s): Ally and Kerensa

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OVERALL RATING:

Sight: Opaque maple syrup-hued body, with hints of pink and orange. Creamy tan head with huge bubbles that resemble a boiling cauldron. A blizzard of yeast particulates float around at the bottom of the glass.

Smell: It smells distinctively of Fruit Roll-Up. It’s quite sweet, with a generic berry scent. There’s also a hint of ethyl alcohol. (These Fruit Roll-Ups are not for kids!)

Flavor: It bears resemblance to a Raspberry Lambic upfront, followed by a bit of a yeast/bread flavor. There’s a slight trace of spice, but it’s almost not even worth mentioning. Despite the average ABV, the alcohol makes itself known and distracts from the almost pleasant flavor. As it continues to sit, and we continue to drink, it begins to taste just like strawberry rhubarb pie.

Feel: Thin body with moderate carbonation.

Concluding Remarks: Well, as we’ve said, the Saison is one of the most ambiguous beer styles out there. In that tradition, this Farmhouse Red, straight outta New Hampshire, pushes the stylistic boundaries of what a Saison could be considered. It’s not your typical Saison, but it’s nearly as complex as one.

While the raspberry flavor is interesting, the major flaw in White Birch’s Saison is the obnoxious alcohol taste. However, as noted by the label, this is the first incarnation of the Farmhouse Red–batch numero uno. We have no doubt it will develop into a more satisfying Saison as the brewery continues to brew it up. But it’s just not quite there yet.

After coming to the conclusion that the ‘Red’ in Farmhouse Red is the strange combination of strawberry and rhubarb, we serendipitously realized that we had strawberry rhubarb pie in the refrigerator. So, clearly, we needed to test this pairing, using the Scientific Method.

Research question: Does this beer taste good with strawberry rhubarb pie?
Hypothesis: Yes.
Results (using a control group): Sometimes combining two good things doesn’t equal a better thing. The pie renders the beer less sweet and more bready, though it does mask the alcohol.
Recommendation: Enjoy separately.

Birrificio Del Ducato Nuova Mattina

Beer: Nuova Mattina
Brewery: Birrificio Del Ducato
Style: Saison
ABV: 5.9%

 Serving Style: Bottle
Glassware: Wine glass
Drinking Establishment: Chez Wood
Primary Consumer: Kerensa

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OVERALL RATING:

Sight: Rich golden opaque body with a frothy white head that leaves a thick lacing.

Smell: Bright lemon and grass notes with a slight Saison yeast funk. It reminds me of walking by a fresh garden.

Flavor: Well I’ll be damned; I’ve never tasted anything quite like this before. Not only is it like walking by a fresh garden, it’s also like drinking a fresh garden. In the best way possible (the worst way possible would be being reminded of fertilizer I suppose).

Feel: Thin with full carbonation.

Concluding Remark: Our first Italian beer of the year, Birrificio’s Nuova Mattina is Terrifico and worth it’s steep price ($7 for 330ml). While drinking Nuova Mattina, I can imagine a piccola Nonna picking fresh herbs and fruits from her Tuscan garden, throwing them into a ceramic vat, and letting it all ferment through the winter to produce this sensational beer to enjoy in the nuova mattina (new morning).

This Italian Farmhouse Ale is brewed with coriander, ginger, green pepper, and chamomile. You can really detect each flavor as you go, from the slight spice of the ginger, to crispness of the green pepper, to the soothing element of the chamomile. It’s a beer for any season, for any time of day, from the new morning to the…old night? Sure. Yeah. Old night.

Great Divide Colette Farmhouse Ale

Beer: Colette Farmhouse Ale
Brewery: Great Divide Brewing Company
Style: Saison
ABV: 7.3%

 Serving Style: Bottle
Glassware: Pint glass
Drinking Establishment: Chez Wood
Primary Consumer: Kerensa

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OVERALL RATING:

Sight: Pale, almost neon yellow, hazy body with a huge billowy white head.

Smell: Hell. Yes. This smells exactly as a Saison should: funky, citrusy, spicy, and sour. It smells like lemons that have been seeped in a gallon of wheat beer.

Flavor: Thankfully, it tastes almost exactly how it smells. It tastes like drinking extremely fresh lemons, with a touch of clove.

Feel: Thin body, Champagne-like carbonation.

Concluding Remark: Great Divide’s Colette is like the bizzaro, funky cousin of the Hefeweizen. It’s exceptionally tart, and makes me want to roll around in a field of lemon trees. It’s not spiced–instead, the four yeast strains used produce a banana-clove-like aftertaste, and the inclusion of rice creates a fresh feeling. At over 7%, which is undetectable, this is a near perfect beer. It’s balanced, perfectly carbonated, and has a complexity that makes you want to keep drinking until you realize you’ve consumed the entire bottle in three gulps. Whoops. If I’m so lucky, I’ll be spending much of my summer hanging out with Colette on a roof. Or anywhere, really.

Saison Dupont Vielle Provision

Beer: Saison Dupont Vielle Provision
Brewery: Brasserie Dupont
Style: Saison
ABV: 6.5%

 Serving Style: Bottle
Glassware: Wine glass
Drinking Establishment: Chez Wood
Primary Consumer: Kerensa

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OVERALL RATING:

Sight: Light golden, cloudy body with a full, frothy white head.

Smell: There’s an appealing lemony sour smell, as well as a generic doughy smell from the Pilsner malt. The yeast also produces a slightly phenolic scent (i.e., cloves and bananas).

Flavor: Saying this is complex is an understatement. It’s initially quite sour, like sour green apple without the sweetness. It makes you pucker your lips a bit. There’s surprisingly little sweetness.

Feel: This one feels like champagne through and through. Clean, crisp, dry.

Concluding Remark: Brasserie Dupont from Tourpes, Belgium is part of Belgian beer history. What was once an old 1700s farmhouse, became a brewing facility in 1844. To date, Brasserie Dupont is one of the only operating farmhouse breweries in all of Europe.

The Saison Dupont was the first beer produced at the small farmhouse brewery in 1844. The bottle-conditioned Saison is considered to be the quintessential Saison, the role model for other Saisons worldwide. It’s complex, tangy, and full of sass. The malt/hop ratio is expertly balanced, and the Dupont is as effervescent as one would want a Saison to be. Once intended to quench the thirst of seasonal workers (les saisonniers) everywhere (in Wallonia), its continued production means that you have the opportunity to have your thirst quenched as well–whether you’re working in the field or at a computer.

Saison Dupont essentially saved the Saison style. Read about it here.

Saison du Buff

Beer: Saison du BUFF
Brewery: Victory, Stone, Dogfish Head
Style: Saison
ABV: 6.8%

 Serving Style: Bottle
Glassware: Snifter
Drinking Establishment: Chez Wood
Primary Consumer: Kerensa

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OVERALL RATING:

Sight: Golden, slightly hazy body. Very small white head. Reminiscent of a fancy sparkling apple cider.

Smell: Intensely orange front note, with a subtle note of parsley and pine.

Flavor: The taste doesn’t quite live up to its promising aroma. While there’s a hint of citrus and sage, its bitterness overpowers the subtle herbal taste. As it sits, the initial complexity settles to a relatively simple citrus-pine flavor.

Feel: Surprisingly thin with excellent carbonation.

Concluding Remark: BUFF (Brewers United for Freedom of Flavor) is a collaboration between three craft brewing heavyweights: Dogfish Head, Stone, and Victory. In 2003, the brewers got together with “a noble endeavor with the goal to highlight the passion and camaraderie of the American craft brew movement.” Almost a decade later, they came together to dream up the Saison du BUFF, an American take on the Belgian classic. They utilized the farmer’s spice rack in this Saison, sprinkling rosemary, thyme, sage, and parsley into the mix. It’s decent, and initially pretty complex, but it’s not as punchy or dynamic as I would want my Saison to be. While it follows the Saison tradition of mixing available ingredients, it’s a good brew, but not the best of in show.

Jack D’Or Saison Americaine

Beer: Jack D’Or
Brewery: Pretty Things
Style: Saison
ABV: 6.5%

 Serving Style: Bottle
Glassware: Wine glass
Drinking Establishment: Chez 98th Street
Primary Consumer: Kerensa

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OVERALL RATING:

Sight: Pale yellow, cloudy body with a thick white head.

Smell: Initial smell is malt and a rich scent of lemony citrus. Then it smells like a Flemish sour, with an intense tangy note. Lingering smell of lemon Pine-Sol.

Flavor: The first note is actually lemon Pine-Sol. There’s an overpowering bitterness that feels uncomfortable going down. The bitterness is mitigated by a slight hint of coriander. Impressively, though, Pretty Things did not add any spice or citrus zest. The flavor that emerges is from mixing a number of hops, malts, and four yeast strains.

Feel: Thin body, slick, with moderate carbonation.

Concluding Remark: The brewers describe Jack D’Or (Jack is a cartoon of a grain of malted barley) as having a “bitter backbone,” but I would go so far as to say that it has a bitter skeleton. There is very little in here to balance the hops. In true American spirit, Pretty Things out of Cambridge, Massachusetts takes a Belgian classic and dumps a proverbial handful of hops in the mix. However, instead of appreciating their ingenuity, I’m just looking forward to opening the next Saison in my fridge (it’s a Belgian). All in all, it’s not a bad beer, but it was not what I was expecting from something labeled “Saison.” Maybe I just need to readjust my expectations of a “Saison Americaine.”

Brooklyn Sorachi Ace

Beer: Sorachi Ace
Brewery: Brooklyn
Style: Saison
ABV: 7.6%

 Serving Style: Bottle
Glassware: Imperial glass
Drinking Establishment: Chez Wood
Primary Consumer: Kerensa

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OVERALL RATING:

Sight:  Hazy honey body with a bright white sticky head.

Smell:  Bright aroma…lemon, grass, biscuity malt.

Flavor:  Sorachi Ace hop is a particular beast, lending a clean, grassy flavor. Notes of citrus and cloves as well.

Feel:  Medium body with crisp carbonation.

Concluding Remark:  To say that Brooklyn Brewery’s Sorachi Ace is aces is an understatement. It is not only perfectly balanced, but the complexity and dynamism of this Saison is surreal. It’s at once bitter and sweet, smooth and sour. Sorachi Ace, a Japanese hop, is noted for its lemony, clean flavor. While it is the presence of the Sorachi that does define this brew, there is still a spicy, herbal taste as well. Brooklyn’s Saison is really extraordinary–one of their best, for sure.