Saint Somewhere Saison Athene

Brewed by Saint Somewhere Brewing Company
Style: Saison
Tarpon Springs, Florida USA

Thanks to me for bringing this to the Alesmith Release party line tasting. And thanks to Ibrew2or3 for leaving it with me. Lots of spice and clove on the aroma and the flavor. Earthy and somewhat bitter on the finish. Very good.

C&C 750 from kp - thanks! Cloudy gold with a small white head that could only be coaxed out by a vigorous pour. Mildly sweet nose of pear, cinnamon and cardamom, just a touch of tart funk. Medium bodied, feels kinda dead, not much carbonation at all. Lightly sweet and spicy, lots of cardamom and cinnamon, yeasty with some lemon drop and that hint of tartness eluded to in the nose. This one actually grew on me quite a bit, with a more lively body this would kick ass...

Just tons of coriander, clove, cardamom and nutmeg. By far, one of the spiciest saisons I’ve ever had. Worth a try for the aroma alone, it’s crazy spicy.

Happy cork pop. Pours hazy beige/gold with lots of froth and lace. Key lime, ginger, biscuit nose. Ginger ale, chamomile, key lime pie with graham cracker crust flavors. Fizzy palate. A little thin but such a fun and ambitious flavor profile.

Most Recent Bottling with Brettanomyces added to the bottle
Sampled March 2008
A careful pour yields a fluffy, almost four finger thick, pale, off-white colored head that grows to five-fingers in height as I slowly inspect it. As the head slowly recedes it forms dynamic, textured surfaces and lofted surfaces as well as substantial lacing on the sides of my tulip glass; yep, the carbonation in this one is definitely a-ok. The beer is fully hazy and shows a pale amber, orange-tinged color that shows straw-gold notes when held up to the light. The aroma is still quite spicy, as I expected from this latest release; quite pepper-like with notes of clove, cardamom, anise and a very perfume-like character; perfume aromatics make me think of lavender and herbal flower petals. This also has a slightly musty, earthy, funky yeast signature to it. Towards the end some sweet malt character comes through with aromas of honey, sweet grain and it even accents some orange-zest aromatics.

Soft and creamy tasting, yet with a definite peppery carbonic bite, the beer is light and quaffable like a good Saison should be yet still has some body to it. The flavor is again quite perfume / potpourri like with lots of floral characteristics and also has a substantial white pepper / grains of paradise note to it. This still has some sweetness to it with flavors of sweet grain, floral-pale-honey flavors as well as a touch of sweet orange peel. Turpene-rich spice notes of clove, cardamom and something that is almost allspice like. The spice flavors tend to mellow a bit as my palate gets used to them, but, especially the floral-perfume ones, they are still the dominant flavor character of this brew. The spice notes almost have a metallic quality to them. Towards the finish some more malt character is noticeable in the form of freshly crushed grain flavors, some lightly toasted malt notes and touch of soda-cracker flavors. Earthy spice notes, green coriander and some of the clove notes are definitely a signature of the Saison yeast.

The Brettanomyces has yet to contribute, but that is not surprising as this is less than a month old. Thankfully Solan was kind enough to include a bottle for me to age. Speaking of which, over-carbonation might be an issue if there is indeed Brettanomyces added to this at bottling as this is already pretty well carbonated. This beer is a whole lot better with the carbonation and, unsurprisingly the flavor profile has changed quite a bit; almost to the point that I could be convinced that the brewer may have played with the relative amounts / additions of spices in this batch (though it is just as likely that the carbonation has amplified / muted certain aspects of the beer on its own). I sort of like the potpourri nature of this brew, but I could see how it would get on some peoples nerves as it is quit prominent. Some age and the Brett should take care of this though.

Likely Batch 1; Sampled January 2008
I say likely batch one as the cork looks like it was done by someone operating a corking machine for the first time (way to deep) or at least who ordered the wrong size wires for these corks and it definitely has carbonation issues (see below).

The bottle has an amazing amount of sediment for such a sparsely carbonated beer; there is some carbonation as a careful pour sees a few lonely bubbles meandering there way up through the beer at a time. There is no head to speak of and the beer is a lightly hazy, gold color. The aroma is quite a bit spicier than I was expecting, or at least it seems like it actually has spices added to the beer rather than relying on the yeast character to contribute this naturally. There is some nice fruitiness here in the nose though. I can’t quite place what the actual spices are, but there is one particular note that jumps out at me that I should recognize. The spices evoke thoughts of nutmeg, clove, some cardamom and lavender. Up front this seems a touch tart in the nose, but if you really dig into it the aroma starts to have notes of honey and perhaps some orange-blossom notes to it.

The taste is sweet, with just a hint of carbonation to it. The low carbonation definitely makes this seem sweeter than it would be otherwise. Spice flavors are definitely found here and remind me of lavender and some turpene rich spices (a mix of clove, nutmeg and cardamom). The spice notes provide a touch of piquancy to the finish but there is also a touch of bitterness for balance there as well. Fruity notes of apples and pears are just noticeable under all the spice notes, but there is definitely a honey like flavor here that melds in with the ample spice notes fairly well.

I can’t quite nail down what spices were used here, but I am almost certain that some were used in the brewing of this beer. I like the flavors that are here, but the lack of carbonation definitely is a loss. I do think that the spices could be backed off on just a notch, I like their contribution, but it is just a bit too loud and tends to drown out some of the other worthy Saison characteristics. This would be quite a lively beer & quite a bit more balanced if it had an ample carbonation. I’ll just have to get another bottle of a properly carbonated batch.

Thanks eagle. Poured an orangey color with good sedimentation. Where was the carbonation?? flat. Aroma was spices all over ginger the most. Flavor was loaded with spices ginder and coriander caramel malts. Something in the one left a bad flavor in my mouth throughout.

750 ml bottle from Odeed; Nose of cinnamon and nutmeg, with some citrus and light funkiness; hazy gold with a small white head; hardest cork I ever had to pull!; Flavor of bigtime cinnamon, nittiness, with nutmeg and caramel, however no funky flavors! Good but not as great if a liitle funkiness had gotten into the flavor!

In short: A fruity Saison. Not funky but still wet and wild. Not excellent (just very good) but very interesting and very promising.
How: 750ml bottle, first batch, about 6 months old. Bottle from Beerlando, thanks a lot Brian!
The look: Very cloudy golden yellow body with a medium white head
In long: A lot of things going on here, through the course of the 750ml bottle I kept coming up with new flavours/elements. Citrus juice, wet dog, wet flowers, apple pie, chamomile, tangerine, light notes of tropical fruits and a little tickling spiciness (cinnamon and such) in the finish. Very smooth carbonation, a bit too smooth if you ask me. Felt rather sweet for a Saison, as if the yeast still had a lot of work to do but given the age (6 months) of my bottle I think the yeast did all it was supposed to do. Not a great beer as it stands right now but it’s obvious that these guys are aiming high and I really want to try future batches. But mainly I’ll remember this beer for its cork. I tried to act cool (like I know beer you know) but the truth is I struggled more to remove the cork of that damn bottle than to remove the bra of my first girlfriend.