Upland Bloomingfoods 30th Anniversary Ale

Formerly brewed at Upland Brewing Company
Style: Saison
Bloomington, Indiana USA

Brewed June ’06. I’ve been sitting on this a while, as I’ve had mixed luck with Upland’s saisons. I thought this might be the same saison they brewed up before, but I dont’ think it is the one I rated. This reminds me so much of my first experience with upland’s saison... which wasn’t a great experience. Looks gold with a decent, though quickly diminishing greyish head. Lightly sweet, with some astringency and cloves and ginger in the nose. Some honey, lemon grass? A bit of pepper in this relatively sweet beer. Smooth and a bit creamy on the palate, with some good viscosity. The flavors are still sharp on this beast. Maybe another couple years of aging might have made this more palatable. Creamy tart lemon, big ginger and cloves. A lingering acidity on the tongue A bit of diacetyl is quite a bit out of place. A peppery finish also sticks out. This is too sweet and over spiced, in my opinion. I’m not a huge fan of cloves or ginger, so maybe I’ve got no right to dislike this beer. While I don’t like this, I certainly don’t seem to have the same strength of feelings as the dude who rated this previously.

Just awful. Aroma is ok, but with curiously strong spicieness. There is a decent, but unreamakrable, beer underneath, but then absurd amounts of spice are added. The cloves realy stick out, and just dominate the beer in a wholly unacceptable maner. Finishes sour with a horrible clovey burn. Ive come across some realy bad beers in my day, but this might be the worst I have ever had.