Heavyweight Saison de la Soeur Golden

Formerly brewed at Heavyweight Brewing Company
Style: Saison
Ocean Township, New Jersey USA

Rating #600.
I had this bottle last year in Baltimore at Max’s. It pours a murky golden color with a creamy white head and sticky lacing. The nose is sour and yeasty with notes of citrus. Nice citrus and tart fruit flavor mixed with funky sour base. Also noted the spiciness and wheat in the flavor. It has a nice lemony sour finish that is crisp and refreshing. It is to bad about Heavyweight. This is superb beer. Beers like this will be missed.

750ml bottle. Pours orange\golden with a decent sized white head. (i am on a mission to scoop up all of these beers, before they cannot be found any more). Aroma of citrus, yeast, fruit. Flavor is citrus, fermented fruit, tart, carbonation, and spices, good body, good brew.

Bottled March 2005, Sampled June 2006
Pours a hazy, light-amber gold color and is topped by a frothy, creamy, two-finger thick, just off-white colored head that is held aloft by an ample carbonation for any beer except a Saison, for which it is merely customary. The creamy head sticks around for a goodly length of time and leaves a lacing pattern on the sides of the glass as I work my way through this beer. Fruity aromatic notes of apples and pears are noticeable as I pour this beer. Behind this fruitiness is a sharp, spicy, lightly musty note that is characteristic of a Saison. Underneath this is a lightly toasted, at times grassy (though that might be the hops), malt character that is just able to be noticed over the fruit and spice notes. After a couple sips of this beer a tart acidity begins to come through in the nose as well.

The taste is like eating a nicely tart pear. This beer has definitely been soured by something other than yeast. The tartness really plays up the fruit-like nature of this beer. As my palate gets used to the tartness, I notice that this beer is quite light on the palate perhaps even approaching thin. The finish is nicely sharp; a combination of the acidity, the spicy nature of this beer and the alcohol. The flavor of this beer seems to missing a lot of the sharp, spicy notes that I was getting in the aroma. Granted it may be drowned out by the pleasing tartness of this beer, but I don’t think so as the acidity is quite soft.

This beer is sort of like a combination between Saison Dupont and Fantôme; it has the spiciness of Dupont in the nose, yet the fruitiness and bonus acidity of the regular Fantôme Saison in the flavor. That is certainly not something to complain about, but something seems to be keeping this from being world class. It has all of the elements though they just don’t seem to mesh. This has hit the mark pretty well, it is definitely a pleasing beer to be drinking on the 100+ degree F day.

Indianapolis, IN 1/21/06 gathering and thanks to Sprinkle for supplying this one (Yes I copied my wife’s line so sue me!)This bottled brew poured a medium sized head of white colored frothy finely sized mostly lasting bubbles that left behind no lacing and a hazy yellow orange colored body with no visible carbonation. It had a mild fruity malty aroma. The mouth feel was tingly and sour from start to finish. The sour aftertaste lasted a long time. The flavor was malty hoppy sour dry and kind of like a cross between a lambic and a Saison.

750 ml bottle, with an enthusiastic nod of thanks to Eyedrinkale for the trade. Pours a rich golden color, slightly hazed with a huge fluffy head that leaves copiius lacing. Aroma is dry and champagne like, with brett character, funk, herby floral notes, wet woll and sweat along with nice tart fruits. Tart white grape flavors, bit of toasty malt sans sugars, wood notes, wild yeastiness, lemon, sour and dry. Medium body, easy carbonation. Liked this one a lot - another goodie from Heavyweight.

Nice aroma. Barnyard mustiness. Floral with orange peel, hoppy with mild sweetness. A bit of sour acidity, like lactic acid or a possible light infection. Yeasty. Warm golden color with mild haze. Rich foamy white lacing head. Mild carbonation with medium watery body. Starts rather tart, as if it was slightly infected. Fruity and barnyardy with yeast, straw, and orange peels. Mild grain and light hoppiness. Lactic acidity with tart bitter finish. A bit refreshing but has too much sweetness and tartness for a thirst quencher. Needs a drier finish and a bit more spice.

Sampled at Hopdogs place a while ago, old notes. Pours a nice cloudy gold color with an initial fluffy and white head, and stays around for a while. Musty sulphur aroma along with some yeasty barnyard notes and spice pheonls. Out of many of Tom’s sasiosn this has the most traditional saison yeast characteristics similar to the traditional dupont saisons. Flavor is a bit tart however, and might have more of a slight lactic bacterial infection. Green apple and other fruits are also noticed in the flavor. Finishes tart and dry. Ok overall.

Bottle: Dirty straw, dark and cloudy, very thick, large sudsy head, dies quickly, sparce lacing.   Musty nose, old wood and powdered pixie stix on the nose.   Other spices that I can’t quite pinpoint.   Barnish on the tongue, slightly tart, touch of citrus, light woody flavor.   Clean, but not as floral as expected.   Moderate body and mouthfeel.   Soft tart finish, old wood like tinge lingers.   Not bad, but at a year old perhaps past its prime?   Thanks Jeff for the bottle!   Happy to have been able to try this one.