Flying Fish Farmhouse Summer Ale

this should be a favorite summer brew as it represents great things in beer. it is pleasantly clean and sweet tasting and the sweetness is genuine. it has a very good hop aroma and taste for a summer brew. the body and yeastiness is moderate and just right for summer with the most pleasant citrus notes i have tasted in a summer brew. the balance is fine. just velvety enough to still remain refreshing. seems easy now for brewers to just knock you over the head with volume, yet clearly more beer drinkers are looking for quality and subtle refinment particularly in the summer. this years 2008 is no dissapointment. treat yourself if you find it in the cask!

Actually a decent beer for FF. Very refreshing for a lighter beer and has a bit of noticible hops. It’s also kind of sweet and smooth.

Draught as the "Grey Lodge 10th Anniversary Dunkel Farmhouse". Tried to get this one from the cask, but they hadn’t started pouring yet :( Light golden-amber color and a very light malty aroma. Taste was light, sweet & grainy. Not my favorite style or the best beer around, but pretty refreshing for a summer beer on an exceptionally warm day in October.

Sample at Sleepy Bear tasting 09/30/06 - Aroma is sweet, artifical bubblegum and spice. Pours clear yellow with a big head and decent lacing. Flavor is sweet and bland. Palate is thin and clean. A lame attempt at a wonderful style. Where’s the funk?

Bottle: Clear yellow gold color with a very small white head. Aroma, spice, floral hops, pale malts. Flavor, light malts, some sweetness, spice, a little musty on the finish.

growler from witbier... Billed as Grey Lodge 10th Anniversary Dunkel Farmhouse but this is no different than the regular Farmhouse Summer Ale. In fact, I don’t get the Dunkel monicker either b/c there is nothing that is "dark" about this version at all. A bit of a letdown, as I had hoped to have the same version but with dark malts added. Appears a pale light gold with a small white head that quickly falls out into a gentle collar. Mild CO2 bubbles slowly rise to the top. Small spotty lacing is left around the glass. Smell is of pils sweetness, sourdough bread, and definite wheat that comes out like crushed shredded wheat cereal mixed with a gentle hoppy spiciness. Taste is of the described aromas. Actually tastes ok with all things considered. The killer here is that it’s not a true saison. The English Ale yeast is definitley present and sadly not a Saison yeast. I would love to try this fermented with the duPont, or Fantome yeast. I know they do a sour mash with this but it just doesn’t touch upon the funky, horse blanket, open fermentation that the real style emulates. Mouthfeel is light bodied, smooth, crisp, airy, with a semi-dry finish that settles out with a slow wheat that drags down the back of the tongue. Drinkability is alright. I know FF keeps this drinkable for the masses. One of my old neighbors knew I was heavily into craft brews and she brought me up a few bottles a couple of years ago. She described it like a lighter hefe weizen. She didn’t know much about beer but something prompted her to buy a case of it. To me, this would be more of an American Ale than a Saison. Fellas need to make money though. Maybe we could get a Farmhouse "Roots" version of FF sometime soon in the big corked/caged bottles where they use the same recipe but a Saison yeast.

Draft. I think I get more disappointed each time I drink a flying fish beer. Nothing really noticable about this beer but the fact that it barely tasted like a saison. Fell too flat too soon.

[2006 - Oregon Brewers Festival] A golden pale color. A nice aroma and good easy to drink flavors. Loved as a beer for the hot summer day. This is a good lawnmower brew. A little sweet but this was easy to drink and I enjoyed every drop.