Bison Farmhouse Ale

Brewed by Bison Brewing Company
Style: Saison
Berkeley, California USA

500 ml bottle from BevMo, Walnut Creek. Pours hazy golden peach with a huge fluffy head that leaves thick lace. Fruity malts and spice, citrus, coriander, sweet bread yeast. Sweet, tart and dusty, toasty and citrus fruity malts, yeast and bitter herbs, coriander and allspice. Medium body, gentle carbonation.

Pours a deep orange with an enormous lasting white head. Aroma is wonderful. Just wonderful. Earthy, Pepper, lemon rind, melon, bountiful noble hops. The pallate is dry, but not bone dry, could be more so. The CO2 is perfect. The flavors are rustic, somewhat barnyard with a clean funkiness. White pepper, tumeric, lemon rind, and spicy hops abound. The finish is drying, but could use a touch more bitterness Gee, I wonder if this is a Dupont yeast...? A wonderful example of the style, and it’s a hard style to brew, trust me. For those of you that rated this rather low, I have no idea what more you wanted...

Pours cloudy orange with a minor head. Strong aroma of bananas, wheat, and mild spice. Creamy mouth feel. Warm alcohol quality with a flavor of wheat, citrus, spice, banana.

Tasting from bottle in Orlando, courtesy the ever so hospitable boboski. Poured a hazy golden color, nice initial head, lacing only ok, decent but not overwhelming start. The aroma was bananas, cloves, very hefeweizen-like if I hadn’t read the "farmhouse" label. Flavor, though, was distinctively not a hefeweizen, although retaining some light bananas and cloves under a nice sharp spicing, light pepper, yeastiness (some bready and earthy type yeast character), with a very refreshing, crisp, light mildly citrusy finish. Not as funky as many a saison, and "refreshing" might be the best word to describe this one. Could very well be a fine high end summer beer if it were that available. A big huge thanks to Jason for sharing this one, glassware and all.

Bottle poured in to a snifter. Hazed straw yellow with a fizzy white head. Aromas of straw, yeast, and citrus peel. Flavor was mostly the same with some tartness. Fuzzy and refreshing. Pretty nice.

Quite cloudy golden color with a modest off-white head. Toasted grains with a light fruit and wild flower aroma. Some light spice and citric zest scents as well. Somewhat thick in feel, nearly to the point of being mouth-coating. Light candi sweetness start, with a sudden merger with a key line and and dry flower bite. Somewhat dry in the finish with some spices, but nothing to dominant. A stale shelf of spices including cinnamon, white pepper and cloves. A nice summer style brew. Thanks Andre’.

Date: 3/28/2007
Serving: 500 mL flip-top bottle shared by Puddintane. Thanks!
Event: Columbus Wednesday night tasting.
Location: nolankowal’s place.

Tasting Notes
Aroma: Cove, yeast, and some slight fruity funk.
Appearance: Cloudy golden color with a white head. Well carbonated.
Flavor: Biscuit malt, light fruit and acidic citrus (lemon), and spicy with a slight Saison funkiness in the finish.
Palate: Light and crisp.
Overall: Very good. I liked this one a lot. This beer improves my overall opinion of Bison Brewing...

Partially cloudy golden with a white head. Clove, banana and spiciness in the nose; very nice. Flavor has notes of pale malt/light grain and a nice balance of lemon zest, grass, banana, noble hops and the tinge of light caramel. Pleasantly sweet with a dry, hoppy finish. Medium bodied with a smooth texture and lively, yet smooth fine-beaded carbonation. Well done.