Whole Foods Silver Jubilee 25th Anniversary Ale

Formerly brewed at North Coast Brewing Company
Style: Saison
Fort Bragg, California USA

Nice hazy golden coloured body with a super dense tan head and a ton of small bubbles rising from the bottom - c’est magnifique! Aroma of grass, hay, curacao, wheat, light hops, honey and even some chamomile flowers. Medium-bodied; Strong sweetness up front fading to a nice maltiness and a good biere de garde flavour overall. Aftertaste shows honey and curacao with hops and some light tea flavours coming out. Overall, a damn good beer - definitely woth trying if you can still get it. Packs quite a punch and nothing in this one is offensive at all. I sampled this 500 mL bottle purchased from Whole Foods in Vienna, Virginia on 12 January 2007.

2005 500mL Bottle. A soft banana-inflected pear flesh character rises from the glass, soft, subtle and lightly sweet. Minerals, carbonation, grasses, and a warm breeze. Very nice. Pours a well-clouded dingy gold, with a solid half-inch of thick, pure white head up top. Flavor is nice. Super light and airy, but not thin, the beer comes charging with a mouthful of tropical fruits, fresh banana skin, a bit of pithy plaintain, and orange peel. Peppery. Flower-filled. And with enough alcohol to make you pay attention, it lights up the nostrils. There’s a slight biting edge to the phenols and it gets a little dusty. But, this is nice! A fantastic summer refresher. Thanks so much Sean for this rare gem. I love Saison aged about 4 years!

[Review #200] (500ml corked and caged bottle thanks to rollinhard) Pours opaque yellow with nice lasting white head. Nose is sour, oak, plastic and grass. Very earthy. Taste is nicely sweet, light hops, citrus, spices and a great palette linger. Very glad to have had this one, I doubt it will get any better with more age so probably time to drink it!

This beer used to be aliased to Le Merle; however, they are different beers. Le Merle is at 7.9% ABV, this one at 7.3%. Further I was at the brewery last week and asked them explicitly if these are two distinct beers w/ two distinct recipes. The folks at North Coast said that Le Merle and Silver Jubilee were completely separate beers. Now onto the review. The bottle pours a hazy golden color with a frothy white head. Just as the description indicates, there is a lot of tropical fruit aroma in the nose, and for that matter, in the flavor too. it has a nice crisp finish. To me, it was sort of like a saison with witbier crispness and finished. I liked it.

Bought this at the brewery April ’09, but who knows how old the bottle was. Pours dirty gold. Aroma of toffee, grass, hay and bread. Tastes a little drier with flavors of bread, brown sugar, toffee, earth, light grass, and a little citrus. Medium bodied, creamy. Seemed weighty for the style, but I didn’t mind at all.

Bottle: Gold color, lots of carbonation and a strong pop from the top. A large growing white head with plenty of lacing. Nose of citrusy and acidic yeast and nice hops that blend with the sharp carbonation level. No malts really, the flavor is lightly bitter. Decent belgian style beer, but doesn’t quite strike me as a saison, more like a dry triple or something.

We were apparently lucky enough to get some of these in Seattle! Finally getting around to rating it. I don’t remember being particularly blown away by this, but I do remember it being quite true to style. Dry, grassy, and farmy hopped, tiny spice flavor through the finish. I’d definitely drink again!

bottle thanks to rollinhard. murky yellow pour with a white head. nose is spicy, fruity and earth. very smooth on the palate with a nice flavor of fruits and earth.