Saison de Pipaix

Brewed by Brasserie à Vapeur
Style: Saison
Leuze-Pipaix, Belgium

Corked and capped 750. Hazy orange amber with a big white head. Lightly spiced nose, ginger and mild orange, somewhat woody and biscuity, mildly funky. Mildly dry. White sheet of lace. A bit of toastiness, particularly toward the bottom of the bottle. Nice stuff!

750ml bottle. found on clearance for 3.99! pours hazy glowing amber with white head. aroma is fruity and spicy, ginger, orange peel, anise, coriander, and red apple peel. flavors are sweet red apple, orange, pepper, ginger, and biscuit. a musky and almost sour, and slightly tangy finish. a light body with lively and sometimes fizzy carbonation. could use a bit bigger body. i’m not sure if others found that this smells and tastes like a fantome. i’m not sure if they are using their yeast but it sure tastes like it.

Bottle: Poured a copper amber with a white head. The aroma seems very skunky and old, at first I believe that I had a bad bottle. The taste was very clean and refreshing, there is balance between the citrus and spices that make this feel so balanced for a saison.

1995 Vintage Bottle PP Belgian Fest. Pour orange with a bright white ring. Nose is nice and slightly sour, sweet. Taste is tart and very nice, this was a big surprise. I likely.

750 ml bottle from 1995 opened March 2008

Cap opens with a faint puff of air; the beer pours like apple juice with just a bit of frothy lacing along the sides. Rich nose: musty, vinegary, almost that funky gueuze sharpness once we get near room temperature. Marvelous array of flavors: musty cellar, dry apple cider, touches of goat cheese, white wine with ample oak, dusty pasture, mouth-watering dryness on the finish. Quite a bit more sour than one might have expected, pushing lambic territory but without all of the acidic sharpness that one typically finds there. Very limited carbonation, but the beer is full and smooth on the palate, quite substantive for 6%.

What a great experience trying this beer with that sort of age on it. Wonderful to see what happens to it; it becomes wine-like in some ways while retaining my favorite characteristics of lambics and saisons. I’m so impressed by this one and wish I had a way to track down additional bottles.

don’t know when this was bottled. the only date i see on the bottle is 1785 so i’ll go with that. holds up surprisingly well for a beer this old.

pours clear amber, rocky off-white head, a bit of lacing. an oppressive peppery-musk dominates the nose. also the flavor. also the palate. fizzy mouth feel. the peppery-musk is reminicent of auntie’s perfume. although there is a lot going on in this brew, i found the spicy, muskiness to be offensive in this brew.

(1994 vintage from Sommerville SuperSaver) Unwrapped the tape on this one and removed the cap to find a totally soaked cork with liquid on top. Real nice POP when the cork was eventually pryed from it’s quiet resting place for the last 14 years. Little effervescence. Poured a thin head of fine bubbles that reduced quickly to a thin wisp of foam. Minimal carbonation. Apple juice colored and very clear. Tart fruit and berries in the aroma with some apple cider and a bit of sweetness. Tart and dry flavor and remarkable thin palate. More apples and fruit along with a bit of spice. Very mellow. Some metallic notes and lots of succulent tartness. My mouth is salivatiing from every sip. Finishes thin and watery with a lingering tartness and a bit of heat. Kind of surprising for a 6% brew. This brew has held up pretty well after 14 years. Not really my style but pretty good.

750ml.bottle, bought at Empire Liquors, brewed in April of 1995, bottled in September 95, this bottle is almost 13 years old, label has different ingredients then whats listed in the RateBeer Commercial Description, ingredients are Pale and Munich Malts, Hallertauer Hops, Ginger, Pepper, Sweet Orange, Coriander and Curacao, label also states that this ale is Bottle Conditioned and Unpasteurized, the Vapeur website list black pepper, ginger, sweet orange peel, curaçao, star anise are used, I guess the ingredients have changed over the years, bottom of the bottle cap had marks on it that sort of looked like evaporated condensation, maybe the cork was breathing moisture to the top? Pipaix has a mostly clear orange pour with some amber high lights, there is some haze in this glass of ale, a medium or so white head emerges but looks restrained compared to other poured saisons, lacing is pretty good, first whiffs of this are of old air and dust then aromas of stiff lemon and orange citrus sour with floral sweets brushed against my nose, real faint funk barnyard rears itself here and there, some fragrances that remind me of the Duchesse De Bourgogne along with the ever tartness aromas that nudges thoughts of the Fantome Saisons I have had, some faint caramel and herb garden fragrances presented themselves after this warmed up a bit, with the sip I get an initial taste of tart apple, pear, and malt sweetness with hints of caramel, candy sweetness creeps in for millisecond and quickly all of this is pushed aside by a lemon sour tartness and a dry peppery-herb finish, this finish is pretty dry and leaves hints of pepper, as the saison warmed I got tingles in my facial cavaties with most sips, this places lots of tartness on the palate, a dry drink for sure, has a medium mouth feel maybe a little less, I think some of the carbonation is gone but this stuff is almost 13 years old, I think this is amazing that a 6% beer would last this long without having skunkiness or some off flavors, interesting to see a beer last this long