The Bruery Saison de Lente

Brewed by The Bruery
Style: Saison
Placentia, California USA

750 ml bottle from Plaza Liquors - Pours a slightly hazy golden color with a 2 finger thick off white head. Nice lacing. Aroma is herbal hops, faint citrus and yeast. Flavor is lightly sweetened biscuit malt, esters, and light spice. Full mouthfeel. Medium to full body. If there is brett in this beer, it hasn’t kicked in yet and that’s the way I like my brett beer. Very little brett. Very nice beer at this point.

Bottle. Opened this on a warm day, expecting it to be refreshing, but it really wasn’t. Aroma is sugary malt, light citrus, and earthy yeast. Flavor is the same, but the palate is too thick and syrupy for this style. I still don’t like the yeast that the bruery uses either, and combined with the light funk... it just isn’t a pleasant flavor.

Pours a cloudy yellow orange with white head. Citrus, lemon zest, grass, bread, spice, pepper, foral hop notes. Also funky brett. Pretty tasty.. refreshing and easy to drink.

Sampled March 2009
This pours into my 25cl tulip glass with a three finger thick head that fills the head space of the glass. The head is a pale tan color and it leaves quite a bit of lacing on the sides of my glass as it slowly subsides. The beer is a light amber, sort of honey color that shows a lightly hazed, amber tinged, full gold color when held up to the light. The aroma is quite nice; it has that earthy, almost musty, yeast-driven Saison funkiness to it as well as lots of general spiciness that reminds me of a combination of lemon zest, a hint of orange, light coriander, touches of sage and notes that remind me quite a bit of a floral / herbal honey. The malt contributes aromas of sweet grain (which boosts / interweaves the honey like aromas), cracker-like malt and grassy, just threshed grain. At times the aroma can seem quite herbal, at others sort of citrus-zest focused, while at others the honey notes seem to dominate. This has quite the characteristic Saison-like aroma to it; quite refreshing and quite appetizing.

The beer has a touch of sweetness to it that is well balanced by herbal flavors, a solid bitterness and slight phenolic funky cotton-ball type thing that helps to dry things out quite a bit. Grassy grain, crushed pale malt, honey notes. Menthol hops really linger in the mouth, but as warms honey linger in finish too. Good carbonation, though not as aggressive as some Saisons. Body is a bit viscous and chewy compared to my preferred Saison body. Flavors of lemon zest, sage at times, pepper (especially in the finish), hints of clove, slightly woody, . This does have a nice spicy / phenolic finish to it that mingles with a solid, dry malt character, both of which are much appreciated in a Saison.

The second pour of this beer has me noticing more of the grassy grain aromatics and a backdrop of lemon zest notes in the nose. Higher carbonation adds a bit of effervescence to the texture, which helps lighten the body a bit. In the taste, lots of grain flavors (grassy and cracker like) are accentuated quite a bit more.

Quite a nice Saison, though I must admit I would like it to be a bit drier and lighter bodied than it seems to be. Still it is not overly sweet or anything, it just has a sweet balance to it. I’ll be curious to see if this gets more funky with time considering that Brett was added in the primary fermentation stage instead of at bottling. This is a solid, quite tasty brew that I am quite enjoying.

Bottle. Pours cloudy gold/orange, with a large, whiite head. Aroma is spices, citrus, and a small amount of brett. Flavor is citrus, spices, and grass. Light bosy, ends dry.

Bottle pours cloudy golden color with white head. Aroma is spicy yeast, brett. Has a medium light mouthfeel. Flavor follows the nose has typical pepper spice, then has some brett, and finishes with slight tart flavors. Is easy to drink and is probably on the better beers I’ve had in this style.

Yeasty, spicy, bretty aroma with a hazy golden orange pour. Decent 1-inch foamy white head that left significant lacing although the body of the beer was only moderately carbonated. Grassy, earthy, honey-baked biscuit and brett. Minimal peppery spice but good. Medium mouthfeel.

750 mL bottle Spicy and brett in the aroma, pours a hazy blond color with nice white head. Spicy taste with a brett funkiness Overall, an incredible saison with the addition of brett Highly recommended