North Coast Le Merle

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

Hazy light orange pour. Aroma of brett, fruits, yeast and noble hops. Good flavor of brett, fruits, yeast, hops and herbs. The palate is medium and creamy with soft carbonation. A very nicely done saison, feels very authentic.

Pours light golden and hazy with a mostly receding white head. Aroma is wildflowers, banana, honey, sweet doughy yeast, chamomile, and citrus. Taste is lightly sweet, notes of honey, pepper, bubble gum, and herbs. Medium bodied with foamy carbonation. Pretty tasty beer, originally rated a 3.1 as the "Whole Foods Silver Jubilee".

Botled. Gold beer with excitable large white head on gentle pour. Coriander salt spice funk stereotyp aroma, but I’ve had a break from these sort of beers and it’s welcome, natural, and "whole." The beer has plenty of coriander, a touch of brown sugar, some other seeds/spices/pine needles. Sharp immediate flavor with a residual honey sweetness and hop bitterness. Longer finish. Modest gravity. Pleasant.

Semi-translucent and bold, bright and lucid yellow in color with a sudsy white laundry foam-like head. Aroma riles with coriander. Lemon meets banana meringue, caramelized wheat stalks and burlap grain feed bags. It’s got authenticity. Big time saison candy sweetness moves in for flavor. Hints of souring lemons are trumped by effervescence and key lime pie, with that sweetened graham crust flavor playing out most prevalently. Rustic, aged coriander and paradise seeds have a sweetened sorghum sense. Effervescence is nearly punishing, and when it drops, the sweetness barrages in its stead, throwing balance out the window. Sweet, liquidated rock candi, licked like lollypops, moves into the finish, while bakers flour and coriander hide in the candy shell’s cracks.

bottle, sampled at the heavyweight final open house. cloudy pale yellow color, light tan head. sour aroma. flavor is tart and spicy sweet malt, and a little yeasty. finish is also spicy.

8/18/06: Bottle.
Nose of yeast, wheat and horsey. Lemon pour turns into a golden yellow body which is slightly rocky and ends up becoming a soft, white color. Flavors are of wheat and barnyard (more barnyard once beer warms). Some citrus. Finish is slightly lingering.

500ml - thanks Secret Santa July 06 - Aroma of cookie dough, lemon, wet grass and a touch of spice. Pours cloudy orange with a nice white head and great lacing. Flavor is still yeasty with sharp lemon, but now it is more wet sock than wet grass. A bit snappier than I prefer. Palate is tart and tangy. Overall different and not bad.

Last HWOH. Pours a medium hazy yellow with a nice fluffy white head which fades a bit but leaves some nice lacing. Phenolic aroma, some clove and spice, hints of pepper, light garden herbs, and hints of lemon and yeast. Flavor is yeasty, wheat malts, lemony, pepper and other spices, and more herbal hops in the end. Ok belgian ale overall.