McKenzie Farmhouse Saison

Provided by jeffin7, unknown age. Muddy, opaque, gold body with a large beige head, slightly gushed on opening.Funky nose of orange, hay, dough, floral and pineapple. Flavor is bread, cotton candy, light spice, grainy, herbal and orange. Medium body is very soft with moderate, but gentle carbonation.

750mL bottle, about 4 years old?, courtesy of jeffin7. Thanks, Jeff!! Pours a very cloudy complexion; billowing yeast particulates in an orangish-brown sea; off-white head with patchy lacing. Dense, orangey and estery aroma; plenty of yeast and some spice. Soft, velvety mouthfeel: dense yeast and orangey chewy malts, with relaxed carbonation; some show of caramel from the age. Lengthy, dry orange and ester finish.

Light gold color, a bit flat. no aroma, clean. beer tasted like an american wheat beer, not even close to saison. too bad, mckenzie beers were fantastic at one time. again, not a "bad" beer, just not saison.

Draft at the brewpub, July 2006. A dark yellow beer with a thin off-white head. The aroma is sweet with light spicy notes. The flavor is sweet and lovly spicy and fruity, and towards the end it gets quite hoppy, from a nice blend, which both lends it a good deal of citrus, but also gives it a dry bitter end. Definately more hoppy than your standard Saison - a nice exploitation of the style.

Multiple samples, GABF 2006. Body is hazy light to medium yellow. Aroma is lightly malty (toasted grain), lightly to moderately hoppy (flowers, herbs), lightly yeasty (cobwebs, dough), with notes of lemon zest and clove. Flavor is lightly to moderately sweet, lightly to moderately acidic, lightly bitter. Finish is lightly sweet, lightly to moderately acidic, moderately bitter. Light body, watery texture, lively carbonation. I fully expected this one to blow me away, but then again I felt that way about the Super Saison from this brewery as well. There are things I like here, and things I don’t. For being 6 to 6.5%, it’s remarkably thin bodied and watery; a far cry from the velvety decadence that is Saison Dupont. The yeast character is not so great in the raw sense (somewhat doughy) but pretty nice in the fermented sense (spicy, lemony). Decent balance if perhaps a little too light on the malt. I so wanted to dig this, and I kinda do, but it’s not a primo example for me.

Had on tap originally a few weeks ago at Glen Mills location, but served in a cold pint glass so I didnt rate. Bought 3 growlers cuz I saw potential in a room temp tulip glass. Brought to the HWOH to share the growler, then again to BCTC. No one rated it I guess. Oh well. This is a phenomenal Saison as long as it isnt sampled at the pub (otherwise it is just "good"). Anyway- pour is a nice hazy deep gold with lively carbonation and nice fluffy white head which lasts a while. Not quite as immense as fantome or southampton etc, but maybe would be huge if bottle conditioned. Aroma is nice light fruity esters spicy clove and light pepper and a lot of sweet malt and wheat in there with just a bit of farmhouse aromas as well. Light fruity flavor, sweet malts, herbal hops, some apple-like fruity ester profile, and a traditional saison yeast character. Body and mouthfeel were both very full and big for a saison (especially for the gravity) but still finishes pretty dry. I love this stuff.

On draft, Glen Mills. Poured a golden yellow color with a generous initial head and near perfect lacing. The aroma was orange and grapefruit rinds, but not a lot of pepper. The flavor was most strongly citrus rinds, a strong bitterness to this one. It was lacking the yeasty, barnyard and phenolic pepper/spice character that I like in my saisons. Seems like a poor man’s DeRanke’s XX Bitter. Full bodied and well carbonated.

thin head. pale gold, hop beginning but thin finish. it does spice up as it warns though and burns as it goes down