Recently in Saison Category

Well, what have we here? Yep, it's a saison, complete with baffling inclusions like trendy Galaxy hops and dark malts, brewed with Brett. Plus, it's got a label featuring constellations in the form of... the Harlem Globe Trotters? Also depicted: two disembodied blue hands pointing towards a galactic core consisting of a giant hot dog. And when I say "giant", well, if this is drawn to scale, let's call it about 1,000 light years long (and a diameter of about 200 light years). That's a big hot dog. Fortunately, no hot dogs were used in the making of this beer. Unfortunately, I'm not sure all the disparate components came together as well as Prairie hoped.

Served in appropriate glassware, of course:

Prairie Funky Galaxy - Pours a dark brown color with lots of bubbly, khaki colored head. Smells of pure, juicy Galaxy hops mixed with bready, spicy Belgian yeast. Not a lot of funk in the nose though. Taste has a nice saison yeast character mixed with some roasted malt and those juicy hop flavors. Some light, earthy funk emerging towards the finish. Mouthfeeel is highly carbonated, dry, and surprisingly crisp. Medium bodied, but easy to drink. Overall, I find myself wishing this didn't have those roasted notes, but it's still quite good. B

Beer Nerd Details: 8% ABV bottled (750 ml caged and corked). Drank out of whatever you call that Star Wars glass on 5/26/13.

Man, this lack of harmony seems to be the theme of last weekend, but fret not, for tomorrow we'll be talking about a spectacular beer that has harmony out the ying yang. Or something. Stay tuned.

I've mentioned this beer a few times since I brewed it, but haven't really done a proper recap. Oh sure, this bottle I'm reviewing was the last bottle in existence (supr .rar 24 bottle release guize), so it's not like you'll get to try it, but as per usual, I have some minor learnings. I think. I mean, I'm no master brewer, but then, that's the point. In W3C markup validation parlance, I get 1 error, 1 warning on this batch. Fortunately, beer fails gracefully, and drinkers are like browsers in that they tend to be forgiving of minor faults. Ok, I'll stop torturing this metaphor now.

First, the error, which was that I overcarbonated the beer. Normally, with a 5 gallon batch, you just pick up a 5 ounce packet of corn sugar and go to town, but I was making a small batch here, so I had to break out the measuring cups and figure out proportions. I clearly erred on the side of too much priming sugar here. Fortunately, all that means is a wicked big head that takes forever to go away. No gushers or anything that annoying, and if you pour carefully, it actually works well enough. Plus, this should be easy to correct in future batches.

Second, the warning, which is that I should probably be more careful about sourcing my hops. In particular, I'm going to be more wary of "loose" hops. This batch came out super piney and resinous, very dank stuff. Now, I enjoy that component of Simcoe and the like, but I also tend to associate that with hops that are less fresh. For my first batch of Simcoe IPA, I had the vacuum sealed HopUnion packets, and when I cracked open my first bottle of that stuff, it had this beautiful, massive grapefruit character. As time went on, that pine character emerged more and more, eventually fading back into the malts the way unfresh IPAs do.

I don't mean to say that the hop character was poor or that this beer was an immediate malt bomb (the way unfresh hoppy beers are), but I never got that big juicy citrus component that I was shooting for. Now, I did switch up the hop schedule, adding some Falconer's Flight and Citra into the mix (with Simcoe remaining on bittering and dry hopping duty), but FF and Citra are also known for their citrus components, so I was still hoping for more there. All my hops for this batch were just in loose baggies, not vacuum sealed or anything (like you'd get from Northern Brewer or HopUnion). Also, I was definitely buying the last of the FF, and there was only a little Simcoe left (in other words, those hops had probably been in the hop fridge for a while). Again, this wasn't a disaster or anything, but it's something I'm going to keep an eye out for in the future.

In general, though, the beer seemed to go over well. It was brewed for a specific event (the eponymous Fat Weekend), and we got through the full half case (which is all I brought) pretty quickly (and I only had one). But enough rambling, let's take a closer look:

Kaedrin Fat Weekend IPA - Pours a dark orange color with a big three finger fluffy, bubbly head. Smells super dank, resinous, piney, a little citrus too. Taste follows the nose, crystal malt with lots of dank, resinous, piney hop flavor, some citrus peaking out too. Mouthfeel is medium bodied, super carbonated, perhaps over-carbonated, but still very crisp and refreshing. Overall, it's a solid IPA, a little overcarbonated, and I'm getting the impression that the hops I used were not quite as fresh as I'd like, but it's still quite solid. Not quite as good as my first batch of IPA, but still a nice B level beer (borderline B+, and could have easily gone that way if I did the carbonation right)

Beer Nerd Details: 7.5% ABV bottled (12 oz). Drank out of a tulip glass on 5/11/13. Hops: Simcoe, Citra, Falconer's Flight. Bottled 2/18/13.

This, of course, reminds me that I should probably get off my arse and fire up my next batch. Planning on a saison at this point - a little scared to introduce Brett into my homebrew setup, but then Beerbecue suggested I name it Kaedrôme Saison and how can I really resist that? Can I do that without wild yeast? Maybe I can just find some strange farmhouse yeast instead of the typical 3711 or 3724 stuff...

So far, most of my beer trades (which I can count on one hand) have been with people I already "knew" in some way, mostly from interacting on each others blogs. But if you head over to Beer Advocate or Rate Beer and hit up their trading forums, you'll see a veritable cornucopia of stranger-on-stranger trading. This is a realm I've not really gotten into too much, and it's probably not something I'll pursue heavily, but there is a variant of the typical 1 on 1 trade called a "BIF".

BIF stands for Beer It Forward, and it's kinda like a secret santa, but with beer and without the holidays. Basically, you sign up for a BIF, get assigned a target, then send them a box full of beer. There's always a set of minimum requirements or a theme that you have to meet, and the general idea is that everyone ships (and probably receives) their boxes around the same time (there are several variants of this process - what I've described here is called a "shotgun BIF"). Everyone knows who they are sending their beer to, but no one knows who is sending them beer. There's a thread where people drop hints and try to guess who their sender is, and eventually everyone posts their hauls their too.

My target was in Chicago and we've already talked about future trades so that I can get my grubby hands on more Three Floyds awesomeness. My sender was from Texas, so I got me a cache of Texas (and other local environs) beers. The highlights, to my mind, were a few Saint Arnold beers, and three Prairie sour farmhouse ales (my sender correctly deduced that I was a saison/sour fan), the first of which I opened this past weekend. Prairie seems to be making the rounds of late, and I get the impression that these sours aren't distributed as far and wide as their regular stuff. This one is a sour farmhouse ale and a collaboration with Saint Somewhere. Check it:

Prairie Somewhere - Pours a cloudy golden color with a couple fingers of bubbly head. Smells of musty Belgian yeast, sweet and spicy, and just a little farmhouse funk. Taste starts sweet and very spicy, a light sourness pervading the taste throughout, finishing with a tart lemony kick. Mouthfeel is highly carbonated, spicy, crisp, refreshing, relatively dry. Overall, rock solid sour farmhouse beer here. B+

Beer Nerd Details: 7% ABV bottled (750 ml caged and corked). Drank out of a goblet on 5/11/13.

A decent first impression from Prairie, and I've got two more of their sours that will probably be popped open in the coming weeks. Expect some Texas locals to start showing up on the blog as well, including one tomorrow and probably some of that Saint Arnold stuff next week.

Last week, I got an email from some guy named Dany. Oh, it's the brewer from Fantôme, and he ran across my recent review of Fantôme Saison, a beer that has been inconsistent, but great (he said it's not always perfect, but he doesn't want to do the "same basic commercial work, like ... too much belgian brews"). We exchanged a few emails, and Dany recommended that I try out Brise-BonBons, which he said "USA amateurs" seemed to enjoy because it's more hoppy than your typical Belgian stuff. Fortunately, I just happened to get my hands on a bottle of this stuff, so I cracked one open this weekend, and yep, this one is competing for the very best Fantôme I've ever had. As the bottle sez:

With joy and a little bit of mischief, Fantôme brewer Dany Prignon dedicates this very bitter beer to all of the many varieties of brise-bonbons - literally, ball-breakers - in the world. Specifically, this beer is meant for wise-guys, braggarts, pains-in-the-ass, muck-rakers, troublemakers, know-it-alls, stuffed-shirts, blow-hards and bores, as well as nut-cracking, wind-bag, prattling-on, self-appointed experts on everything, and nose-in-the-air snobs, convinced they can do anything better than you. Dany intended to make a beer too bitter for a normal person to enjoy. The problem is, everyone loves it! Guess we're all just a bunch of brise-bonbons sometimes...

Fantôme Brise-BonBons! - Pours a cloudy yellow gold color with a couple fingers of fluffy white head. Smells deeply of funky Brettanomyces, lots of earthy aromas, a little yeasty spice, but also a sorta brightness to it. A kinda lemony bubblegum aspect, but, uh, better than that probably sounds. Perhaps even some hops up in the mix. Really nice nose, actually. Taste starts off sweet and spicy, like a Dupont-style saison, but then that funky Brett moves in, bring that earthiness and maybe some bright lemony tartness too. It finishes with a really well matched dry bitterness, presumably from the hops. Mouthfeel is perfectly carbonated (effervescent might be an overstatement, but it's got a high carbonation), crisp on the palate, refreshing, and dry. Overall, this is right up there with my favorite Fantôme experiences, fantastic beer. A-

Beer Nerd Details: 8% ABV bottled (750 ml capped and corked). Drank out of a tulip glass on 5/3/13.

If I may name-drop Dany again, he also recommended I try some Magic Ghost, that saison brewed with green tea that looks like straight-up ecto-cooler. I just happen to have recently acquired a bottle of that stuff as well, so keep an eye out for a review in a few weeks.

In the Beer Justice System the people are represented by two separate, yet equally important groups. The drinkers who investigate crime and the District Attorneys who prosecute the offenders. They meet once a month at a local BYOB to sample beers. These are their stories:

The following notes, compiled by our resident stenographer, should be taken with a grain of salt as I'm pretty sure the stenographer was also drunk (as evidence, well, the stenographer was me). In order of drinking (not in order of picture, and sadly, we didn't get to all beers in the picture either):

• Starr Hill The Love - A pretty straightforward but enjoyable hefeweizen. Super carbonated, overwhelming head, but a nice banana/clove weizen yeast character, highly drinkable stuff. B
• The Captain's Brew House All American - This is actually a buddy's homebrew, and I arrived a bit late, so I only really got to try the yeasty dregs of the bottle, but it seemed pretty darn good - easily the equal of the previous beer. Would like to try it fresh sometime. Still, truly a beer worthy of Captain America (i.e. the namesake of my buddy's home brewery).
• Ommegang Hennepin - You know, I've mentioned this beer numerous times on the blog, but I've never actually reviewed it. It's a really nice beer, one of my favorites, the beer that introduced me to the world of good beer. Nice Belgian yeast character, light, crisp, refreshing, quaffable stuff. I might be into chasing more funky varieties of saison these days, but it's always fun to revisit this beer and it holds a special place in my heart. A
• Ommegang Rare Vos - The slightly maltier sibling of Hennepin, I also love this beer (which, yes, I've actually reviewed before), one of those beers that is also probably impacted by nostalgia for me, but it's just as good as ever. A
• The Captain's Brew House Shameless IPA - Another homebrew, this one is actually a Northern Brewer Dead Ringer. It was very good, with a big malt backbone, but also a nice hop character. I'm not a huge fan of centennial single hopped IPAs, but this one was solid.
• Kaedrin Dubbel - My homebrewed dubbel continues to evolve, with an almost coffee-like character emerging right now (but not straight coffee, and not really a roast either, somewhere perhaps between those flavors). It's actually quite interesting. I'll be interested in trying this again in isolation, as beer club isn't exactly the best setting for my palate!
• Trappistes Rochefort 8 - Truly a classic beer, one of my favorites of all time. Previously reviewed.
• Boulevard Collaboration No. 3 - Stingo - A collaboration with Kaedrin favorite Pretty Things, this one goes a more English route, though it's souped up a bit more than that might lead you to believe. Nice subtle hints of breadiness and toffee with maybe a hint of dark chocolate. Didn't really strike a big chord with me, but it was certainly a well made beer. B
• Starr Hill Double Platinum - A solid, if a bit boozy DIPA. Nice hop character, but the booze was more prominent than I expected for an 8.5% ABV beer. It was probably a little warmer than it should have been, but I'll leave it at a B for now.
• Lost Abbey Red Poppy - Another of my contributions for the night, this is still a spectacular beer, and made a lot of waves with the attendees, even folks who don't normally go in for "beer". Previously reviewed, and still an A in my book.
• Firestone Walker §ucaba - Very generously contributed by Kaedrin friend Dana (she's not a huge bourbon fan, but knows that some of us other beer club members are), this sucker is as good as ever. Previously rated and still an A in my book.

Logsdon absolutely blew me away with their Seizoen Bretta, a Brettanomyces doesed version of their base Seizoen (aka saison). I have perhaps drank these beers out of order, as what I drank last Friday was that base beer, a simple saison conditioned with pear juice and whatever awesome farmhouse yeast strains they're using (which seem closer to the Dupont strain than anything funky). That being said, I'm hard pressed to think of a non-funky saison that's this good, save for that style-defining Saison Dupont. Special thanks to Jay from Beer Samizdat for sending this one my way!

Logsdon Seizoen - Pours a very pretty, very cloudy yellow color with a couple fingers of fluffy head that has great retention and leaves plenty of lacing. Smells of classic Dupont yeast, very spicy, clove, light amount of pepper, some fruit. Taste follows the nose, huge Belgian/Dupont yeast character, sweet and spicy, perhaps more fruit character than Dupont, pears and banana. Mouthfeel is fantastic, highly carbonated and effervescent, but not overcarbonated, a little of that spiciness, and actually quite refreshing. Overall, a great example of classic saison in the Dupont style. A-

Beer Nerd Details: 7.5% ABV bottled (750 ml capped and waxed). Drank out of a goblet on 4/12/13. Bottle No. S16826. Best by: 11/2015.

This marks the last beer of my most recent trade with Jay, so I guess I better get on the ball and find my way towards some more interesting beers. Some interesting local stuff coming up, and maybe a trade with someone from Texas, so stay tuned. And I'll definitely be on the lookout for more Logsdon beers, in particular the Peche 'n Brett, which just sounds spectacular.

I think I've mentioned before that my craft beer revelation occurred sometime around the turn of the century: a bottle of Hennepin, picked randomly off a well appointed beer menu at the now defunct Moody Monkey restaurant of Norristown, PA. Given that I'd spent the previous four years celebrating the entire catalog of Natty beers (you know, Light and Ice), Hennepin was a mind blowing eye opener. Of course, I still had no idea what good beer was, and given PA's draconian liquor laws, my beer wonkery grew slowly (one case at a time). The only thing I knew about Hennepin was that it was made by Ommegang and that it was a "Saison". Exploring Ommegang's other offerings was rewarding. Exploring every saison I could get my hands on was... confusing.

It was around that time that I began to suspect that Saison is the least coherent beer style in the history of beer. Here's a quick glance at a typical saisons run back in the day:

I drank those three beers one weekend and was floored. I actually liked all three, but they're absurdly, comically different. The one that really threw me for a loop was Fantôme. That's the one that popped up at the top of the Beer Advocate best saisons lists, so I pounced on it when I finally found a bottle somewhere. Then I drank it and my eyes popped out of my skull. What the hell is this stuff? Nothing at all like Hennepin or Dupont, this thing was weird. It was all lemony and tart and earthy and I had no idea what to make of it. And the damn label wasn't even in English, so I had no idea what I was drinking. It was super complex though, and even as a nascent beer nerd, I was picking up on that. I'm now a full-on Brett and sour fan, so this is no longer a problem.

Ghost hunting has thus proceeded over the past few years, even as these beers have become harder and harder to find. I've partook in a couple other tastings of Fantôme's "regular" saison (as well as some variants), and I've noticed something curious. Let's call this the strange case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Fantôme: sometimes the beer is sour and spicy and funky, and sometimes it's just plain funky. And sometimes it's inbetween. My most recent experience leaned heavily towards the funk without the corresponding sour. I have to say, I don't like that as much, but then, it's still pretty great:

Fantôme Saison - Pours a hazy golden orange color, almost fruit juice looking, with a couple fingers of ghostly (sorry, couldn't help myself) head. Nose is filled with earthy, musty, funky Brett, along with some unidentified spice character. Taste is sweet and spicy, peppery, maybe coriander too, lots of that earthy funk makes an appearance as well (along with all those weird Brett descriptions like horse blankets and damp cellars), and a hint of lemony zest too. Not nearly as "bright" as I remember, and only a faint hint of tartness. In fact, I even sometimes got a little smoke out of that Brett character. Not nearly as much as La Dalmatienne, but it's there. Mouthfeel is well carbonated and crisp, but still smooth and generally easy-going. No trace of booze at all. Overall, funky, complex, unique, and fascinating, as always... though I wish there was a little more of that tart sourness, which I know from experience takes this to another level. As such, tough to actually rate: B+ or maybe an A-?

Beer Nerd Details: 8% ABV bottled (750 ml capped and coked). Drank out of a tulip glass on 3/30/13.

Fantôme is infamous for being inconsistent. This is normally a fatal flaw in a brewery, but given the nature of wild yeasts and bacterial beasties, most beer nerds give Fantôme a pass on this, as when it works, it's a face melting experience. When it doesn't, it's actually still pretty good. I'll just have to break out that PKE Meter and hunt down another bottle. Speaking of which, I actually have acquired some other Fantôme offerings (and some other wild Belgian offerings), so be on the lookout for those soon.

Update: Apparently the smokey character evinced in this bottle was part of a larger issue with Fantôme's entire line of beer that lasted about a year and is generally referred to as Smoketôme. This is probably the same thing that was going on with La Dalmatienne. Good news is that the issue has apparently been resolved, even if Fantôme bottles are as unpredictable as ever.

Another Tired Hands bottle release today! However, the bottles being released had all made appearances on tap earlier in the year (or late last year), with no barrel aged components or anything, so while there was still a line, it was not anywhere near as crowded as it was for the last couple releases. The bottle was for ArtiSnale, a beer I already covered a while back. But I also have two months or so of notes on Tired Hands beers that I'm sure will interest everyone, since most of these will never see the light of day again. So I figured it was time for another omnibus collection of notes. Check it:

Mrs. Pigman - This beer came out right around when Pliny the Younger was making the rounds in Philly, like Jean was sorta counter-programming his beer nerd calendar. It's a huge, hoppy monster of a beer (really glad I got a growler of this 11% ABV sucker, rather than sampling 4 ounce pours). Big citrusy floral hop component, very little in the way of malt character. Overall, not as overwhelming as you'd expect from something clocking in at 11.5% ABV. A delicious "triple" IPA, a worthy competitor to Pliny (though I may still prefer the Younger to this). I tried the growler over the course of a couple days, and it was significantly better on the first night (the night I got it filled), while the second night had become more sticky sweet and less hoppy. Not surprising, but still. That first night was a solid A-...

Perfect Touchdown - More counter-programming here, this one was released right before the Super Bowl... and it's a superb 9% ABV DIPA! Big juicy hop character, lots of citrus, perfect proportions, nice solid malt backbone, more so than most tired hands beers. Really fantastic brew! A

StrangeOwl - A very pleasant hoppy red ale, very drinkable, not going to blow the world away or anything, but I really enjoyed this one. B+

Liddle Fiddle - Reminiscent of the singel hop saison Amarillo, gorgeous juicy hop aroma and flavor, with a distinct farmhouse saison yeast character. Well balanced, really well balanced carbonation, compulsively drinkable. A-

Ancient Knovvledge - A very trangely spiced saison, it's got some peppery notes, but also some aroma/flavors I can't really place... (thanks to the internets, I've got a full list here: "hemp seeds, nori, black & white sesame seeds, tangerine juice & zest, schezuan peppercorns, and long red hot peppers.") An interesting brew, glad I tried it, but not something to go nuts over. B+

Heaven Dream - A straightforward, perhaps above average pale ale, very light and quaffable, solid. B+

Entropic - The first in Tired Hands' Darwin Solera Series, this is a Brett fermented pale ale (using yeast from Crooked Stave). Pours a very cloudy yellowish color witha couple fingers of white, fluffy head. Smells slightly funky, with an odd salinity? Yep, that saltiness shows up in the taste too, kinda like a shellfish salinity, really interesting... Light funk, maybe some lemon lime action... Mouthfeel is nice, medium body, easy drinking stuff. Overall, I don't really know what to make of this, except to say that I like it! B+

Galapagos - The second in the Darwin Solera series, this is a new Brett fermented pale all that was blended with Entropic. Cloudy yellow orange, smells of funk and saline, very similar. Taste seems to be evening out a bit, more subtle but still complex. This really isn't that old, but it seems a bit more mellow, less brackish and salty. I actually like this better than entropic, but they're both pretty darn good! B+

Dinner of Champions: Tired Hands AromaFlavor and Candied Bacon

AromaFlavor - FlavorAroma was one of my favorite Tired Hands beers, so I was super excited for this one. It's a similar recipe, but the hops are different. Pours a deep golden color with a couple fingers of fluffy white head. Smells delicious, tons of citrus and pine, and plenty of floral notes too. Taste has that same hop component, but also an earthy, floral, almost spicy hop flavor that is well integrated with the traditional citrus/pine/floral notes... I'm betting significant Centennial involvement here. Mouthfeel is smooth, lightly carbonated, quaffable. Overall, really fantastic stuff, but I think I preferred FlavorAroma a bit more... A-

A Cold Freezing Night - A pretty straightforward 6.2% stout. Black color, nice roasted malt aroma, some light coffee notes, a relatively straightforward, normal beer. Probably grading on a curve, but this is a B sorta effort. Solid, competent, but not mind blowing... (but then, I like my stouts huge and chewy, so I'm sure others would love this.)

Liverpool - A "magical" dark mild ale, this pours a brown color with a couple fingers of off white head. Smells... British! Light caramel and toffee notes. Also tastes British! That caramel and toffe from the nose, but some nice biscuity character too, maybe a faint hint of subtle toast. Mouthfeel is pretty big for such a small beer (only 4%). Low end of medium bodied, with ample carbonation (more so than most Tored Hands stuff). Overall, a fantastic sessionable beer, if not one that really rocks my world (not that it's trying to...) B

HeavenDream - Yet another in a long line of solid pale ales from TH. Light yellow color, couple fingers of white head. Surprisingly muted aroma, lightly hopped taste, citrus and pine. Mouthfeel is nice and light, quaffable... Overall, solid... B

Stare At Yourself in the Mirror Until You Feel a Burning Sensation - Quite possibly the best named beer ever. Pours a super cloudy orange color with a couple fingers of white head. Smells of bright, juicy hops along with a sorta yeasty character. Taste is lightly sweet, delicate hop flavor, a little citrus but also almost spicy too. Mouthfeel is surprisingly big considering the abv, medium bodied, but smooth and almost creamy. Not entirely sure what to make of this, but it's good! B+

Honestly not sure which beer this is a pic of - one of the pales that's around this point in the post, I think!

Say It Muy Fabs - A 4% pale ale that I found to be supremely good for such a slight beer. Weird that it does not seem to exist on RateBeer or BeerAdvocate, but I love it anyway. Cloudy yellow, tons of lacing, huge citrus and fruit nose, perfect balance of flavors, utterly quaffable, light, refreshing body, really amazing depth for such a small beer. Maybe I just really needed a drink at that point, but I was very impressed with this one. A-

MagoTago - An IPA made with mangos, this pours a cloudy light yellow color with a finger of head. Huge citrus nose, mango coming through strong, but plenty of citrusy floral hops too. Flavor follows the nose, sweet, floral citrus hops, and that mango coming through loud and clear in the middle and finish. Nice light mouthfeel, quaffable, just really nice. Overall, this is right up there! A-

Bokonon - A hoppy brown ale, as the style goes this is nice, though its hard to compete with some of the other stuff (see previous two beers)! B+

Tabel, Printemps - A saison made with lime and cilantro, this is light and refreshing, really nice little beer, that lime/cilantro combo is prominent but not overpowering... B+

Singel Hop Saison, Pacific Jade - Wow, super "green" hoppy character, like Saaz or Golding, but a little brighter and more intense. Feels super fresh. Mixes well with the spicy saison yeast. An interesting entry in the series, though not my favorite... B+

Comfort Zone - Pours a super murky, cloudy, almost chocolate milk looking brown color with a couple fingers of tan head. Smell has that chocolate milk character, but also the lighter saison fruit and spice... Ditto for the taste, which has a very yeasty character that overrides the dark malts... Overall, a nice, yeasty dark saison, but nothing to write home about. B

Phew, that's a lot of great beer! I usually end up over there every week or two, so I think you can expect to see more posts about these guys...