Clipper City Heavy Seas Red Sky At Night

Brewed by Clipper City Brewing Co.
Style: Saison
Baltimore, Maryland USA

On tap at Brew’s Cafe Granville Ohio - Poured golden with a fluffy white head that stayed pretty well and left nice lacing on the tulip that it was served in. Aroma was nice and yeasty with a little bannana, and a touch of citrus. Flavor is yeasty as well nice bready notes throughout with a touch of orange peel and a subtle bannana flavor as well. Palate is light and carbonated pretty well but a very smooth drinker that I enjoyed with my Father’s day dinner.

Pours with a creamy white head. The carbonation is low, though entirely adequate, and the beer is a deep clear gold color. This beer has a nice, funky yeast driven nose that has spicy notes of orange, coriander, and musty cellars. It is lightly sweet and quite fruity, with notes of tropical fruit. There is a spicy sharpness here as well, which helps to balance the other notes. I get notes of ginger, lemon, and a slight astringency. When the yeast is added to the beer I get a slight nuttiness that develops. This is a nice mix of competing flavors.

This is a very impressive American Saison. Yeasty aroma with hints of spice. 12oz variety 12pk.

Bottle from Whole Foods Charlottesville. Pours a golden straw color with a medium head. Good lacing and retention. Big malt aroma with Belgian yeast, red apple and spice. Taste has very little sourness or bitterness, and is almost cloyingly sweet.

Unripe banana funk in the aroma. Clear pale gold. Mellow mouthfeel. This is almost wheaty.

What an aroma here! I keep thinking of those pink frosted animal shaped cookies - that’s as best as I could describe it. Thin film of yeast in the bottle, but the light gold body is fairly clear; short soapy heat that disipates quickly, lacing is average. Taste is multileveled; a short prickle of carbonation on top; lemon and fruit; the flavor slides off the top of the tongue and then there’s a spicy, grassy, hoppy flavor that coats the underside of my tongue - what the heck?! - then the flavor rolls back up top with a moderately thick sugar syrup flourish. This finished mostly dry wtih flavors of Bazooka Joe bubblegum rolled in powdered sugar and hit with a dash of corriander - what the heck, indeed! You might not believe that this Saison is around 8-9% abv until you drink four of them on a hot summer day! Looks like the Clipper City Heavy Seas line has hit Ohio with a bang in July, 2005 (found at Acme, Montrose)

This one deserves to be rated as much as a hefeweizen as it does a saison. Poured looking like a saison, not a humungous head and the carbonation wasn’t high. It tasted and smelled like a hefe, though: all bananas with some light cloves in there. Very light peppery finish detectable if you’re looking for it, but geez, this wasn’t funky or much saison-like. Nevertheless, it was drinkable and tasted decent anyway - enough to where I couldn’t kill it because of a style miss.

This saison pours with a deep golden body topped by a thick slightly off-white head with a good amount of lacing. The aroma is slightly sweet yet bitter, flowery and grassy with a slight sourness and a nice spiciness, as well as, a touch of citrus. The flavor is slightly sweet and citrusy with a bitter grassy undertone with notes of flowers and spice. Light bodied, tingly on the tongue and dry.