New Belgium Saison

Brewed by New Belgium Brewing Company
Style: Saison
Fort Collins, Colorado USA

Best by Jan 2007. Pours a clear coppery orange, with a tall two finger head, that fades quickly to a thin layer of foam, leaving behind a thick sheet of lace. Smell; this has a mildly earthy aroma, with a bit of a tart funkiness. Some lemon and coriander are present, as well as some other spices I can’t place. Taste; the tart and earthy flavors are there, as well as some biscuity malts. The lemon and coriander, fill out the middle, and finishes with a slightly peppery spiciness. But none of those flavors come out as well as they do in the aroma. Mouthfeel is medium bodied with moderate carbonation. Drinkability is pretty decent. Not nearly as funky as most people would expect Saison to be, but it’s still a style I wish more breweries would attempt. I just wish that NBB had bottle conditioned this beer, I think it might have turned out better if they had.

What is it with New Belgium that makes their ales so unpredictable? Fat Tire, lame. 1554, boring. La Folie, awesome. Trippel, delicious. Saison, just right. Yeah, this stuff is good. Nothing ground breaking or extraordinary, just an easy drinking saison that screams quality. It’s like gambling with these guys. It’s either superb or a let down. This falls into the superb category. I hope I can find it around more often.

Very clean ale but doesn’t stand out too much. Pretty well balanced beer with a nice bronze color.

Ever since an unfortunate binging of Fat Tire early in my legal drinking career I’ve never been able to imbibe anything remotely similar to it with any kind of blitheness. It’s a reaction akin to those individuals who can’t stand certain green vegetables. Apparently they lack a gene or some such silliness. My own revulsion for Fat Tire is trained and ingrained like a performing monkey and his tricks. I can’t erase it, and from now until the end of mankind I will forever be ridiculed for not drinking Fat Tire like all the other cool kids do. And here comes along an entirely different New Belgium brew, at least in appearance. And what does it taste like? It’s about one measly, specious, sinister step away from Fat Tire. For all I care it is Fat Tire, with a new label and a spurious taste of metal implemented in both the aroma and the taste. Like Fat Tire it is clear and copper colored, with a shy head that takes a violent pour to produce anything. As I said before the aroma mainstay is corrugated sheet metal, with corn and a slight skunkiness, redeemed only by a pleasant amber factor. The taste is bitter and the mouth feel is grainy with a little rusty construction grade I-Beam to touch things up, ending with a much needed respite of untainted hops and malts. And that’s all I really have to say. It’s unpleasant, industrial-tasting and way too much like Fat Tire. It has bad brewing and a gag reflex working against it, and those are some mighty big odds.

Bottled (thanks kenb!). Honeyish golden colour, small white head. Aroma is honey, hops and earth. Flavour is fruit, earth, slight hops and nectar. Not too exciting saison. Might be some American hops that make it quite sweet.

Bottled (BB 01/2007)
Honey golden color, small white head. Estery fruity aroma with banana and light sour notes. Fruity (grape, tangerine), earthy, notes of mould. Quite full palate, sweetness in the aftertaste. Yes, it is a saison.

In the bottle from Beertopia. Beautiful beer. Pours dark golden yellow with a copious white head that hangs on for dear life. Spicey mustard-like aroma- wild mustard that is. Strong saison esters that make this the real deal. Flavors of orange, lemon and floral nectar. Nice lacing left behind. Great body and a good hop bill. Honey emerges if you are eating something a bit salty with it. This beer does not cowtow to sweetness or gimmicks. Good stuff and affordable for a "hey, have you ever tried a Saison?" beer.

Pours an extremely rich gold color with a medium sized white head with lacing throughout. The aroma itself smells like corriander and the taste is excellent.