North Coast Le Merle

Brewed by North Coast Brewing Company
Style: Saison
Fort Bragg, California USA

Pours a lightly hazy golden-blonde with a loose but enormous head with decent retention, which leaves a lot of lacing when it eventually subsides. Aroma is dry rubbing alcohol with a hint of sweet mango. Apple cider taste with sharp, sweet malting takes on a spicier aftertaste with a light hop bite. Reasonable carbonation and a crisp body. I could have gone with a bit more funk for this style, and a bit less apple. Reminds me a bit too much of a blonde ale, but still excellently executed and very quaffable.

bottle. hazy light orange pour with a big bubbly white head that never fully goes away - and spotty lacing. aroma of spices (pepper and clove), lemon and general sourness. pale malts, bread and spice in the taste. finishes a quick dry bitter. tight and crisp. good, but not quite great. K-7.5

Foggy brass colored pour with a medium sized foamy and fizzy head with moderate persistence. Medium lacing. Nose of yeast with traces of citrus. Initial taste impression is a sharp tartness, like an apple. Notes of citrus and bread in the taste as well. Initial tartness rather quickly and abruptly segues into a classic hop bitterness that lingers to form the finish. A nice, if not outstanding, saison.

Pours bright yellow-gold color with a thick white head. Moderately cloudy, with citrus and spice notes.

Bright orange color lightly cloudy in look with a nice foamy white head. Smell is oranges, spiced, cooriandor, and fruit. Taste is spiced, fruits flavrors, and some yeast.

Bottle: Hazy orange pour with a fading white head. The aroma has some orange peel, marmalade, musty yeast, and flowery notes. Spritzy palate, with a very yeasty flavor. Some very mild sweet notes of bubblegum come through, along with lots of mineral-y flavors. Dry Belgian yeast offers some mildly spicy phenolics. It’s a bit too mineral-y, still decent.

dry and fruity nose. well carbonated, nicely cloudy yellow tinge. yeast and alcohol in the aroma as well, flavor gives way to those same 2 charactistics and a late arriving bundle of fruit that persists, intensifies and evolves. despite its dryness, the bouquet of pineapples and other tropic tastes continues on even when the pallate feels clean. nice yeast character no question, espically interesting in a saison. above all, this is one interpretation of the style i agree with, one that i think can be fairly defined as ’saison’ regardless of opinions of its quality. however my opinion of its quality is that it is well executed and creative! as the bottle wears on, a wonderful touch of funk begins to peek out from around the corner, a welcome friend.

A very nice saison, the brew begins with a moderately cloudy, medium (on the dark side of medium) gold color, and a large, slightly off white head. Lovely aroma, full of spice, grassy notes, and alcohol. Flavor is similar, with spice dominating and a larger than expected hop presence. Finish is fairly short, though the alcohol and yeast notes linger for a long time.