Tag Archives: saison yeast

Mad Ear, Naked Bière de Garde – Trinity Brew

by Mike

From Trinity Brew in Colorado Springs, Colorado comes their “Mad Ear, Naked Bière de Garde” a saison aged on Brettanomyces. The beer pours a cloudy orange colour with lots of floaters and a tan head.  The aroma consists of yeast, brett, pepper, earth and some citrus.  The flavour is of saison yeast, brett, pepper, earth, citrus, citrus rind, resin and some sweetness.  The alcohol content comes in at 8.1% with an IBU of 35.  Not the best Bière de Garde or Saison that I have had but this was a very enjoyable beer and I look forward to trying more from the brewery.

Commercial Description: Grist: Barley, Oats +Rye, 35 IBUs of Styrian + Saaz, Mad Extended Boil for Mad Red Color, No Spices, Free-Rise Fermentation with Proprietary Yeast, Pair with Truffled Foie Gras, Cassoulet, Rosemary Lamb

Shatterbier Golden Ale – The Moon Under Water Pub & Brewery

by Mike

Limited Release

From The Moon Under Water Pub & Brewery out of Victoria comes their “Shatterbier Golden Ale” a Limited Release Golden Ale refermented with Saison and Champagne yeasts.  My bottle was 50/1200 total made.  The beer poured a cloudy orange colour with a white head.  The aroma was of a malts, citrus and coffee.  The flavour consisted of coffee up front with sweet citrus, malts, yeast and some spice.  The alcohol content of the beer is 9%.  This beer sounds weird but it really works.  The coffee and Golden Ale and Saison and Champagne yeasts all play well together.

Commercial Description:  There are two new brewers in Victoria. One crafts his science with malt, hops, & yeast, the other with berries from the Coffee shrub. Kalen selected a coffee from Ethiopia with exceptional fruit qualities and cold brewed it to highlight this unique characteristic. Clay provided a strong, effervescent base and fermented it dry with Saison and Champagne yeasts. Inspired by the great fruit beers of Belgium, they look to re-define what it means to fuse these two great beverages. Bright, fruity and acidic, Shatterbier challenges preconceptions and dares to break away from the norm.

IMG_00000220  IMG_00000219

Noble Rot – Dogfish Head Brewery

by Mike

Half Time Beverages Beer Box #1

Limited Release

From Milton, Delaware’s Dogfish Head Brewery comes their “Noble Rot” a Saison with a major twist.  Grapes are added to this brew and the grapes are infected with a fungus called botrytis which reduces the water in the grapes but increases the sweetness.  This process is called Noble Rot.  The beer pours a straw yellow that is almost clear with a white head on top.  The aroma is of saison yeast, wheat, grapes and white wine.  The flavour consists of saison yeast, pepper, wheat, mild sweetness, grapes, citrus, white wine, mild alcohol and a hops finish.  The alcohol content of this Saison is 9% and the IBU comes in at 18.  The flavour is quite out there, but man is it tasty!

Commercial Description:  This saison-esque science project gets complexity and fermentable sugars from two unique wine grapes sourced with our friends at Alexandria Nicole Cellars in Prosser, Wash.
The first addition is unfermented juice, known as must, from viognier grapes that have been infected with a benevolent fungus called botrytis. This noble rot reduces the water content in the grapes while magnifying their sweetness and complexity. The second is pinot gris must intensified by a process called dropping fruit, where large clusters of grapes are clipped to amplify the quality of those left behind.
Noble Rot is brewed with pils and wheat malts and fermented with a distinct Belgian yeast strain. It has a spicy white wine body and a dry, tart finish.

Click here to check out the rest of the beer from my Half Time Beverages Beer Box

IMG-20130303-00422