Brasserie Dupont Saison Dupont

While at Cafe Bruges in Carlisle for my birthday, I finally ordered a bottle of Brasserie Dupont Saison Dupont. I can’t believe it took me so long to finally try it, but it was one of those beers that I always see and never order. The beer pours a golden color with quickly rising bubbles and a frothy white colored head. The aroma is spicy and fruity with lemon, grass, and yeast. The taste is spicy just like the aroma with great citrus accents. Orange and lemon pop out before a grassy finish that dries the mouth with an earthiness about it. The alcohol content is 6.5% ABV. This was a phenomenal saison and I will make sure never to pass this beer up again. It was so clean and fresh with great citrus flavors and a nice spiciness.

Cisco Brewers Island Reserve Saison Farm House Ale

As part of the August shipment of the Michael Jackson Rare Beer of the Month Club I received a bottle of Cisco Brewers Island Reserve Saison Farm House Ale. The beer pours a cloudy golden color with a lofty and frothy off-white colored head that leaves a thick lacing on the glass as it subsides. The aroma consists of lemon, grass, hay, barnyard funk, and horse blanket. The taste is funky and overly delicious with a great helping of lemon, hay, grass, and barnyard flavors. It finishes with a bit of a funk and some pepper and Belgian spice on the finish. The alcohol content is 6.0% ABV. This was a nice and funky saison with great spices. Overall, it was easy to drink and quite refreshing.

Saranac High Peaks Lemon Ginger Saison

I picked up a bottle of Saranac High Peaks Lemon Ginger Saison from Discount Wines and Liquors in Boonton, NJ. The beer pours a golden color with a lofty and frothy white colored head that leaves a lacing on the glass. The aroma consists of lemon, ginger, wheat, pepper, and grass. The taste bites the tongue at first with some strong ginger and lemon flavors. That subsides and leads to pepper, wheat, grass, and caramel flavors. The alcohol content is 8.5% ABV.This was a good saison, especially considering the cheap price, and had plenty of tasty flavors, especially the added ginger flavor.

Anchorage Brewing Love Buzz Saison

During a bottle share after The Beer Circle PA tour, Paige brought out a bottle of Anchorage Brewing Love Buzz Saison. The beer pours an amber color with a bubbly white colored head. The aroma consists of wheat, barnyard funk, pepper, red wine, and grass. The taste is dry, wine, pepper, wheat, and a barnyard funk. A bit of lemon comes out in the finish with a great dry finish. The alcohol content is 8.0% ABV. The red wine aspects to this beer absolutely rocked my tongue and made it a more than impressive beer. If there ever was a beer to help the wine aficionados convert to beer, this may be the one.

NOLA Brewing Hurricane Saison

I ordered a glass of NOLA Brewing Hurricane Saison while at d.b.a. in New Orleans. The beer pours a golden color with a bubbly white head. The aroma consists of lemon, pepper, wheat, grass, and earth. The taste is peppery and spicy with Belgian spice, hints of lemon, but most notably it has a large grass profile. The finish brings out a biscuity flavor. The alcohol content is 6.5% ABV. This was a really good saison that provide a dry and grassy finish that lingered for quite a while. I would definitely seek out this beer again and was quite impressed with all of the beers that I have tried from NOLA brewing.

New Belgium Lips of Faith Prickly Passion Saison

My buddy Matt picked me up a bottle of New Belgium Lips of Faith Prickly Passion Saison and I opened it to share at our weekly bottle share. The beer pours a golden color with a bubbly white head the recedes rather rapidly. The aroma consists of passion fruit, pear, fruit cup, pineapple, and orange. The taste is fruity at first with passion fruit, pineapple, orange, pear, green apple, and a fruit cup. Then a cardboard funk comes out and has a hint of pepper. The alcohol content is 8.5% ABV. This beer didn’t hit any saison flavors on my tongue and really left a somewhat foul taste behind. I really wanted to like it, but the fruit flavors muddled the better flavors in the beer and made it very disappointing.

Cigar City Cucumber Saison

For my July shipment from the Michael Jackson Rare Beer of the Month Club, I received a bottle of Cigar City Cucumber Saison. The beer pours a golden color with a very lofty and bubbly white colored head and leaves some specks of lacing on the glass. The aroma consists of fresh cucumber, lemon, pepper, wheat, and barnyard funk. The taste is dry and has a very strong and fresh cucumber flavor. There is a bite that comes along with it and a strong pepper spice. The finish has some lemon, coriander, and peppercorn. The alcohol content is 5.0% ABV. While this beer was very different, I absolutely loved it. It was fresh tasting and was like being in a springtime garden.

KleinBrouwerij De Glazen Toren Saison D'Erpe-Mere

My buddy Adam brought over a bottle of KleinBrouwerij De Glazen Toren Saison D'Erpe-Mere to share. The beer pours a pale golden color with an extremely lofty and bubbly/frothy white colored head that leaves a little bit of lacing on the glass. The aroma consists of banana, grass, wheat, lemon, and earth. The taste is sweet on the front end with lemon, sugar, and banana before finishing off with grass and pepper. There is a wheat and earthy after taste that sits on the back of the tongue. The alcohol content is 7.5% ABV. This was a smooth and easy drinking beer that is light on the tongue. It was absolutely refreshing and packed with flavor, making for an overly enjoyable experience.

Weyerbacher Seventeen

I ordered a bottle of Weyerbacher Seventeen while at Black Gryphon in Elizabethtown, PA for a buddy’s concert. The beer pours a cloudy golden color with a small bubbly white head. The aroma consists of pepper, tart lemon, coriander, and grass. The taste has a light sweetness before a funk sets in. Pepper, tart lemon, grass, hay, barnyard funk, and hints of orange and coriander all blend nicely with this beer. The alcohol content is 10.5% ABV. There was lots going on in this beer but it was fantastic and a really funky saison. I liked it so much that I picked up a four-pack of it at the brewery during the Sour Black release, and i hope it ages well.

Tired Hands FarmHands

As part of the Tired Hands preview at Teresa’s in Wayne, I ordered a glass of FarmHands, their saison.The beer pours a pale golden color with a foamy white head that leaves a lacing as it slides down the glass. The aroma consists of lemon, pepper, earth, Belgian spices, yeast, and a hint of banana. The taste is light and refreshing with a large lemon citrus flavor. Banana and Belgian yeast make up the backbone of the flavor, and pepper and earthy flavors come out in the finish. Overall, the flavor is very clean and well constructed. The alcohol content is 5.0% ABV. In the future when I am looking for a saison, FarmHands will be one of my go to beers. It was so fresh, clean, and refreshing that I would not recommend passing on this beer.

Pizza Boy Grasslands

Another recent tapping at Al’s of Hampden was the Pizza Boy Grasslands, a saison. The beer pours a golden color with a frothy white head. The aroma consists of lemon, grass, and pepper. The taste is dry and peppery with lots of grassy hops. Lemon hints provide a nice accent and the beer has an earthy finish, resulting in a light sweetness on the tongue. The alcohol content is 4.7% ABV. While not perfect, I’d say that Grasslands was a rather good first attempt at a saison from Al, and I look forward to see where this beer goes in the future.

Lost Abbey Carnevale

I ordered a glass of Lost Abbey Carnevale while at TJ’s in Paoli. The beer pours a golden color with a frothy white head. The aroma is funky and has hay, lemon, pepper, and light caramel in it. The taste is light butterscotch and caramel on the front end before it transforms into a light funk. Lemon and hay come out before a dry peppery finish takes over the mouth. The alcohol content is 6.5% ABV. This was a nice saison, but I did feel that the brett was more influential in the aroma rather than the taste. I would drink it again, but there are other saisons and other brett-induced beers that I would prefer.

Epic Brewing (UT) Sour Apple Saison

My buddy Matt picked up a bottle of Epic Brewing Sour Apple Saison from Discount Wine and Liquors from Boonton, NJ, and brought it over to share. The beer pours an extremely pale golden color with a bubbly white colored head. The aroma consists of lemon, pine sol, sour apple, grass, hay, and barnyard funk. The taste is light on the tongue but has a nice sour apple pucker. Lemongrass and pepper make up some of the background, with a bit of pine accent. The alcohol content is 8.1% ABV. This beer has a great quality saison mixed with a lightly sour apple flavor, bringing another dimension to the style of the beer.

Funkwerks Saison

On the east coast, I have never seen any Funkwerks beers, and having heard such great things about their beers, I ordered a glass of the Saison at Falling Rock Tap House in Denver. The beer pours a golden color with a bubbly white head. The aroma consists of sour lemon, barnyard funk, grass, and hay. The taste is funky with barnyard characteristics, some horse blanket, lemon, hay, and grass. The alcohol content is 6.8% ABV. This was a great funky saison, that stands out in my memory as pushing the envelopes of saison funk. There were wonderful flavors with just enough lemon to provide that citrus sweetness needed with the funk.

Sierra Nevada-Abbey of New Clairvaux Ovila Saison

At Giant Eagle in Pittsburgh, I picked up a bottle of Sierra Nevada-Abbey of New Clairvaux Ovila Saison, the second in the collaboration series. The beer pours a yellow-gold color with an extremely lofty and foamy head the hangs around for a while and leaves a tiny bit of lacing on the glass. The aroma consists of lemon, pepper, wheat, and grass. The taste is smooth with a nice lemon flavor, similar to lemon squares, with pepper and grass hops accents the sweetness. There is a hint of cream on the finish and the after taste leaves some dirt flavor behind in the mouth. The alcohol content is 7.0% ABV. This was a clean saison that I thoroughly enjoyed with wonderful lemon and pepper flavors. The finish was the best part that really made it an earthy brew.

Jolly Pumpkin Baudelaire Series iO Saison

My buddy Matt picked up a bottle of Jolly Pumpkin Baudelaire Series iO Saison from Al’s of Hampden and brought it over to share. The beer pours an amber color with reddish hues, which was surprising for a saison, with a lofty foamy white head that laces to the glass. The aroma consists of sour cherry, wheat, lemon, and grassy hops. The taste is light on the tongue with lots of wheat and lemon before a slight sour cherry twist comes in to play. The alcohol content is 6.8% ABV. I am a big fan of saisons, but the slight sour twist to this beer takes it to a new level with an excellent sour cherry accent.

St. Feuillien Saison

I picked up a bottle of St. Feuillien Saison from Al’s of Hampden, having heard good things about the beer. The beer pours an orange-amber color with a lively and lofty white bubbly head. The aroma consists of banana, Belgian yeast, grass, orange peel, and nice earthy hops. The taste is smooth and yeasty but with a wonderful hop accent. The hops come right to the front of the tongue, which is not typical of a saison. Other flavors that accents this beer are pepper, banana, Belgian yeast, lemon, and orange peel. The finish is very earthy and the after taste leaves some grass flavors in the mouth. The alcohol content is 6.5% ABV. This is definitely one of the more hopped saisons that I have had, and I really enjoyed that aspect. I also was impressed with the amount of citrus flavors and how it finished with a wonderful earthy flavor.