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Dullish lemony peel gold color with a massive capping of quick to top white foam. The roof of foam settles slowly to a dense skim that never leaves from its seat. Boney fingered lacing and some other big blotchy spattering engraves itself across the goblet.

Big floral dry yeast aroma, present with Brett, with a bit of brightly tinted lemon and/or lime peel and orange zest. Solid Saison nose.

Nice mellow tone on taste with a semi airy flintyness of Brett yeasty dryness. Some melon rind, lemon peel, and corrainder take up some of it middle ground. A touch peppery with a white Belgian petal floralness. Yet a softness lurks just behind its pep in a wonderful fluffy, flakey, doughy, maltyness. Just enough for a tender sweet balance behind its spices of yeast, citrus, and dryness.

Again, a well toned, airy like body with a firm tender mediumness of malt keeping the yeasty dryness in a nice balance of check. Definately read the back label for the recommended serving temp as it suits it very well. Anything colder and you'll be sorry...

Price: $9.99 Served In: Goblet

750ml

This saison was sent my way courtesy of Alen, thanks man! Saison de Lente has a glowing copper body with goldenrod highlights when backlit. Carbonation rises from random points all over the glass through the minimally hazed body. The head snaps to attention with a quickness but falls rather quickly to a skim coat with some chunkiness and a collar that leaves patchy sheet lacing. This is a good looking saison.

Dusty funk is the first thing coming from the bottle. A swirl of the glass brings out a note of orange peel and a deep pull shows coriander. The nose is a little weak unfortunately. Musty attic, cobwebs, and horse blanket show the brett characteristics and a little tart green apple is thrown in for good measure. The malt base is tough to pull out but if I have to call something it would be sugar cookie sweetness. As this one warms the aromas really open up. Lemon juice and orchard fruit complexity open up.

The flavor doesn't snap across the tongue like the aroma led me to believe. The brett is still very noticeable with horse blanket and musty attic. A few orchard fruits come across but they're muddled and undefined. A quick splash of lemon juice hits on the finish. This saison isn't super complex but it's still a good beer.

The mouthfeel is good. A medium body starts things off and the carbonation is moderate with a slight prickliness on the swallow. A mild dryness finishes things off.

This bottle is going down easy enough but rather slowly. The brett character is slowing me down a little more than I would have liked.

I loved Saison Rue form The Bruery but this one falls short. It's a good all around beer but there are many better saisons out there. Thanks for the bottle, Alen!

Reviewed: 6/15/09

Served In: Tulip

Originally reviewed on 03-11-2009. Good to see Patrick's stuff making the rounds amongst us Massholes finally. I celebrate the arrival by putting this fine effort into my trusty St. Bernie's chalice...

Pours a great citrus honey color - classic Saison look with bluish-thin head and yeast wisps up top. A little cloudiness and ample carbonation at speed of traffic flow.

Ooohhh...
...that orange zest, hay & barnyard scent from the mild Brett is combined with lots of soft vanilla sweetness and light yeast electricity. Soft caramel with mild peppercorn spice. The whole is much larger than the sum of its parts, though. Put in some nice pininess to the hops and stewed wheat and warmth and this is really perfect. As I told several people, I wanna bury my nose in this chalice like Tony Montana did with the mountain of coke in "Scarface." This is really fucking outstanding.

It all comes together on the palate...the mild Brett funkiness, the yeast and big stewy grain electricity, the soft coriander and orange peel with a tiny hint of ginger, and a softly austere piney hop presence (Styrian Goldings?). Classic Old World with just a bit of new world hoppiness to bridge the frontier. NOW I feel like Chairman Kaga as he snickers after chomping on the bell pepper in the intro to "Iron Chef."

Palate feel is also classic Saison...a little funk, quite yeasty and spicy with a little citrus bent. Those piney hops put it all together in Beautiful Chemistry and the finish is the gift that keeps on giving. Classic example of style.

I remembered that Patrick & Co. made some fine stuff from last fall's Belgian Beer Fest but this is insane. Well-crafted, traditional enough to be strictly on point for style but enough of a twist to break new ground. This one floored me and the next day I went out and found a few more bottles. Outstanding.

Price: $11.00 Served In: Other

Sampled March 2009
This pours into my 25cl tulip glass with a three finger thick head that fills the head space of the glass. The head is a pale tan color and it leaves quite a bit of lacing on the sides of my glass as it slowly subsides. The beer is a light amber, sort of honey color that shows a lightly hazed, amber tinged, full gold color when held up to the light. The aroma is quite nice; it has that earthy, almost musty, yeast-driven Saison funkiness to it as well as lots of general spiciness that reminds me of a combination of lemon zest, a hint of orange, light coriander, touches of sage and notes that remind me quite a bit of a floral / herbal honey. The malt contributes aromas of sweet grain (which boosts / interweaves the honey like aromas), cracker-like malt and grassy, just threshed grain. At times the aroma can seem quite herbal, at others sort of citrus-zest focused, while at others the honey notes seem to dominate. This has quite the characteristic Saison-like aroma to it; quite refreshing and quite appetizing.

The beer has a touch of sweetness to it that is well balanced by herbal flavors, a solid bitterness and slight phenolic funky cotton-ball type thing that helps to dry things out quite a bit. Grassy grain, crushed pale malt, honey notes. Menthol hops really linger in the mouth, but as warms honey linger in finish too. Good carbonation, though not as aggressive as some Saisons. Body is a bit viscous and chewy compared to my preferred Saison body. Flavors of lemon zest, sage at times, pepper (especially in the finish), hints of clove, slightly woody, . This does have a nice spicy / phenolic finish to it that mingles with a solid, dry malt character, both of which are much appreciated in a Saison.

The second pour of this beer has me noticing more of the grassy grain aromatics and a backdrop of lemon zest notes in the nose. Higher carbonation adds a bit of effervescence to the texture, which helps lighten the body a bit. In the taste, lots of grain flavors (grassy and cracker like) are accentuated quite a bit more.

Quite a nice Saison, though I must admit I would like it to be a bit drier and lighter bodied than it seems to be. Still it is not overly sweet or anything, it just has a sweet balance to it. I’ll be curious to see if this gets more funky with time considering that Brett was added in the primary fermentation stage instead of at bottling. This is a solid, quite tasty brew that I am quite enjoying.

Served In: Pint Glass

Thanks Joey for bringing this 750ml bottle to share tonight at La Bella (4/14/09). I’ve wanted to try this beer for weeks now.

The beer was a very clear and bright yellow with about an inch of foam. Some cloudiness in the color after the yeast pour and some lacing on the glass as the bubbled fell back into the beer.

Good aroma at first with some light fruits, powdery sweet pez candy, and dry apricot. Estery, flowers and honey later on with a lightly toasted malt sweetness that intensified, but never took over, when it warmed up. The beer just seemed to get better in this department so I just had to give it a little more on the score.

The first sip had some grapefruit, orange, light brett character, dry apricots, and some earthy and spicy hop bitterness in the finish. Yeasty phenols were more apparent later on. And just like the aroma, the sweetness was a little more forward when the beer warmed up but it was still very well balanced. Medium-low carbonation with enough dryness to make this one way too easy to drink. Very refreshing as well.

Served In: Other