Saison Rue
750 mL bottle from Wine Warehouse, poured in to a cervoise. Appearance: Pours a thoroughly hazed tangerine peach, with (unusually) one large stream of fast, densely-packed carbonation moving not nearly as fast as I would expect from a beer with this much head. That is, the beer looks it's gonna be a thick one, but given the haziness of the whole thing, it's neither a pro nor a con of the appearance. What's truly fantastic about this beer is what's truly fantastic about any quality saison - the head. It's understandably explosive, requiring several of even the gentlest pours to get enough beer in this glass to get a proper review off of. At its height, it's incredibly sticky, bulbous, rocky, clingy, &lt;insert other appropriate adjectives here&gt;. It fades at a snail's pace, taking a good ten minutes to fade down to a mere (stylistically) half-finger. It's white, dense, cloud-like, and leaves huge patches and swaths of thin, dry lacing. Even on the "sip" side of the glass it clings admirably despite constant interruption, leaving dozens of flecks and remnants. Aroma: Heavy citrus and tropical fruits (similar to what's described below) provide the bulk of this one, particularly as it warms, blended with a fair amount of Bretty bandaid and barnyard (a "say that five times fast" if there ever was one). Aroma is sometimes the last thing I really rate about a beer (though I get notes on it first), and as I'm smelling again and it's thoroughly warmed now, I am getting the faintest vapors of booze. The rye does come through, surprisingly, probably more so in the nose than in the mouth, providing a nice kick. Taste: A little milder than I would have expected. Soft, gentle malts roll across the tongue, a little sweeter than perhaps I like my saison, with lots of honey, wheat, and especially graham cracker-esque sweetness. On second though, it's not really that much sweeter than I like, though before it warmed and a lot of the more subtle notes came through it seemed that way. As this one warms, it blossoms - citrus runs rampant, ranging from lemon and (surprisingly) lime to heavy orange and picking up peach and apricot along the way, not pithy of even really juicy, but more like the essence of citrus, citrus oils. This melds well with an earthy rye kick (which becomes much stronger as this one warms), some mild spice (clove-like, courtesy of the yeast, enhancing the graham cracker sweetness mentioned above), and the understated star of the show, the Brett, which lends a very mild underlying funk. It's not in your face or even really a "funky" funk, if that makes sense - it's sort of all-permeating, and registers very low on the tongue, hinting at deep horseblanket and heavier medicinal notes. Pairing with smoked gouda brings out the sweetness and Brett beautifully. Mouthfeel: The mouthfeel on this one started out near-perfect, but faded a little faster than I would like (and I didn't take forever to review this one). Both my drinking buddy and I commented (at precisely the same time, ironically enough) that we originally had the mouthfeel at a 4.5, but downgraded it to a 4.0 because it just got a little too soft a little too quickly, which results in this beer becoming - if not cloying - a little heavier than you'd want with one showcasing these sorts of flavors. Drinkability: And the Department of Eagle's "Waves of Rye" comes on as I begin to wrap up this review. I waffled a lot on my scoring of this beer, moreso than I usually do when reviewing, with a lot of borderline 4.0/4.5 scores, but I think I feel good with what I ended up with. This is a very, very good beer, and one I was impressed by. This bottle had about 6 months of age on it since I picked it up relatively fresh, so I can't really comment on how this one's gotten Brett-ier or dryer ... but I can say I really enjoyed it. In fact, it's one of the better saison's I've had the pleasure of trying (and I have reviews of 23, this one coming in below Hennepin, Saison w/ Brett, and Southampton's Saison Deluxe), showcasing lots of variety, complex, well-integrated flavors, and not even a hint of alcohol. At 8.5%, it's average or even a little high for the style, but I'm pleased that it hardly made itself known at all. All in all, a true pleasure, and probably the best readily-available Saison we have here in Charlottesville, VA. At least, to my palette.