The Bruery Saison de Lente

Brewed by The Bruery
Style: Saison
Placentia, California USA

An excellent beer. Pours pale yellow with a voluminous head that dissipated rather quickly. Aroma is thick, sticky, spicy noble hops and some spiciness that I would attribute to the yeast. Taste is surprisingly bitter and hoppy (even though I had heard that it is already). Might be a little more interesting if aged out a bit. Very rustic and interesting character. Quite refreshing and tasty. Another good offering from The Bruery.

Sample at Fête bière et saveurs. Hazy yellow with a medium head. Ok rentention. Nose is very bretty, some yeast esters, hints of mango maybe. Taste is brett, yeast esters. Some hints of banana and hops. Finish is a bit dry and bitter. Very well balanced brew. Delightful. I need to have it again ! Carbonation is faint.

Bu à la Fête Bière et Saveur 2009, le 5 septembre. Blonde miel brumeuse, petit collet. Arome d’herbe malté, avec des notes d’aspérine. Goût d’herbe sec, très médical, un peu amère mais très sec. Intéressant!?

Sample from bottle at Festival Bière et Saveur 09.09.04 : Poured dark yellow with small head excellent lacing and is a bit cloudy. The body is medium the carbonation is soft with a short bitter finish. The acidity is balanced with citrusy note I can smell herbs. A nice quaffing brew.

Bottle from HopHead22, thanks man! Poured a slightly hazy bright yellow color with an inch and a half thick, dense white head that slowly receded and left some rings of fine lacing. Very nice aroma that included some dry apricot, some dusty straw, a lightly funky yeastiness, and some lightly spicy, floral hops. Crisp, somewhat prickly entry with some lightly tart orange flesh that transitioned into a lightly spicy, earthy yeast funkiness that bordered on a light leathery flavor that gave way to a lightly bitter hoppiness with soft undertones of dry apricot that lingered into the finish. Delicate carbonation and easy drinking. Overall, a well done and enjoyable saison, it was just missing something to break into the upper-tier.

750 ml bottle poured a clear golden yellow with a lasting creamy white head. Aromas of straw, citrus, light horseblanket and a hint of pine. Palate was light bodied and crisp with a dry finish. Flavors of straw, grapefruit rind, light spice and a hint of barnyard funk with a crisp dry lingering bitter finish.

My Bottom Line:
Tropical fruit, bready cereals, spicy yeast and the controlled wilderness of brettanomyces unite and stay playful until the very end of each sip where herbal, earthy hop bitterness peeks. This is a wonderfully complex and quaffable Saison.

Further Personal Perceptions:
-A tower of foam dissipates to a veil on top of the misty golden, lacing nicely all the way down.
-The fruitiness is expressive, reaching guava and mango-like form at times.
-Carbonation is quite soft, making this very drinkable.
-This is beautifully rustic throughout, nuanced, flavorful, and quenching. What more can you ask for in the style?

Bottles.

THOUGHTS: Really nice. Just funky enough, but not a quenching as I was expecting. A little too dry for that. When I think about the individual flavors here I wouldn’t expect to like it, but somehow together I loved it. The sour brett, and bitter h hops wrestled with each other and blended together in a figure four leg lock, where it was hard to tell where one ended and the other began. TECHNICAL: Bottle. Poured a light golden with nice carbonation and a large, creamy, almost meringue looking, just barely off white head that kept a nice sheet and left excellent lacing. The aroma was nice but not very intense. There was light to moderate grain, hay and wheat, light hops, light to moderate funky yeast, banana, tropical fruit, lemon and orange rind, spices and more fruit. The initial flavor was lightly sweet, acidic and sour; while the finish was sweet, acidic, sour and bitter with a long duration. There was wheat, grain, lemon, yeast, orange peel, spices, funk, floral hops, sour fruit and pepper. The funk and hops blended well together. The light to medium body was dry with fairly soft, yet tingly carbonation and a moderately astringent finish.