Saint Somewhere Lectio Divina

Brewed by Saint Somewhere Brewing Company
Style: Belgian Strong Ale
Tarpon Springs, Florida USA

Bottle thanks to DragonStout, who loves balls. Poured a hazy light amber color with a slight off-white head that quickly diminished to a ring. Aroma of light Belgian candi sugar, mango, tangerine, and light caramel. Smooth, sweet Belgian candi entry with caramel and undertones of tangerine, peach, and a hint of plum. Finishes off a bit tart with some yeast coming out out on the finish. Decent bite on the finish, but overall the carbonation was a bit lacking. Pretty well known that that is a bottling problem, though. Thanks for hooking me up, Dragon.

Bottle. Too sweet and syrupy and too disjointed to be very enjoyable. Short off-white head. Hazy amber body. The nose has a strong yeast smell of mold and damp basement. Behind that are some malty notes of cookie along with sweet pear and peach. The flavor is moderately to heavily sweet and lightly acidic. Some tartness in the finish. Medium body with a syrupy, sticky texture. Moderate carbonation. Alcohol warming. While the aromas and flavors are all there individually, they don’t blend together the way they do in a good Belgian strong ale. In fact, they don’t have much of a chance because they are overrun by the sugary sweetness.

Bottle. Thanks to mcbackus for sending me this one. After the twist off helmet broke it took me a good 10 minutes to pry it off so I could pop the cap, this one was worth it. Poured a medium brown body with thin head. Aroma is dried fruit, plums, and candied sugar. Flavor is dried fruit, plums, candied sugar, light melons and earthy tones. Very drinkable and quite nice. Thanks Matt.

Bottle. dark amber beer with a low off-white head. Caramel, light fig/plum aroma. Caramel, light yeast, light dark fruit flavor. Medium-light body. Lingering caramel, light sweetness, light yeast. Very caramel. Yeast could be stringer.

My Bottom Line:
The earthy yeast of a Belgian countryside barnyard swirls within juicy tangerines and their spicy peel in this undercarbonated but pleasantly dirty Belgian-style Strong Ale. Too bad about the bottle conditioning issue because they’ve got a most authentic libation here.

Further Personal Perceptions:
-A wispy head surfs the cloudy orange sunlight.
-There is no alcohol appearance at all in the flavor profile.
-There was no pop upon uncorking, so the nearly flaccid carbonation was not much of a surprise.
-That yeast is definitely redolent of a Fantôme’s (or Blaugies’) flavorful, rural uncleanliness.
-That tangerine fruitiness proffers some honeyed suggestions.
-The body is healthily lean, but is sadly depreciated by the lack of carbonation.
-A few floral hops dance within, perfectly integrated.
-There is a lot of potential here for an authentic Belgian-style ale; I hope to get to try different batches of it later on to see if they’ve reached my high expectations for them.

Bottle. Thx Jason!

Bottle: Pours a hazy orange gold with a white head. Aroma, toasted notes, floral hops, some yeast and spices. Flavor, spices, yeasty, some slight funky notes, floral hops. Medium to light body, a pleasant carbonation. Pretty solid.

Courtesy of artusory

Bottle: The aroma is yeasty along with some plastic notes and faint sour apple. It pours a hazy amber with a small white head. The flavor is sweet and yeasty up front with some faint sour apple in the background. The finish has some faint floral bitternes. Light-medium bodied with soft carbonation.

bottle by way of dragonstout. pours a rich coppery color (hazy when the yeast gets added) with an off white head that vigorously foams up then fades to a film. initial aroma is distinctly like a corked bottle of wine along with apple pie spice/ REAL hard cider, button mushrooms (bloomy white mold), caramel and a light fruity tartness similar to cooked lemon skins. flavors of belgian yeast, cinnamon and the same profiles as the aroma. the white moldy flavor shows back up in the finish along with some alcohol warmth. light to medium bodied with lots of carbonation. it’s not terrible, just ’off’. there’s definitely something wrong with the bottle and it needs a re rate...5/3/5/3/8/2.4

bottle from sparky27...

rich hazy iced tea color with a small off white head and slight lacing. the aroma has some sour orange and apricot to it along with earthy carrots, caramel and spices. the flavor packs a lot of maltiness yet it is quite dry.... orange, flowers, caramel, sweet red apples and a touch of spice on the dry finish. so smooth and terribly well balanced.

it would appear as if the kinks have been worked out. 7/4/7/3/16/3.7