My second bottle however: oh my days. The hops appeared and changed the thing entirely. A powerful nose this time - rainwater mushrooms and grassy hops, some nail varnish. The taste was as above in places but more akin to a well made cappucino with hops. Some liquorice at the death but I could live with that. I've bought up a few bottles of the 2015 vintage - I can confirm that it's just as good and I'm quite smug in the knowledge that I still have 3 bottles waiting.
Looked a slight pink in the glass? A big fruity nose. Authentic saison high carbonation. The fruit was certainly up front but at the same time quite subtle, lending a key element to the beer rather than defining it. It's hard to find the words that do justice to just how well intergrated the fruit element in this was. I'd had the Ilkley Siberia on tap a month or so after this, prompted to do so primarily because it was the only other saison I'd seen made overtly with fruit. That beer was too sweet and consequently, I'm afraid to say, the little rhubarb there was came across as nearly sickly and almost artificial.
The Bloody Plums was the antithesis of the Ilkley. Following the fruit was a Fantôme-style orange hoppiness and that strong, saison yeast centre. Finish bitter and mildly drying. Some of Konrad's photos from his visit to the brewery are below. Check some of this other images here.
Funnily enough, I synchronicitously stumbled across this post by Adrian Tierney-Jones where he quotes Garrett Oliver, re: saisons, thus - ‘In my mind, there are really only a few things truly required of a saison. It must be dry – residual sugar would have a considerable effect on the beer’s ability to keep through the summer. They should also be fairly hoppy. Moderate alcohol, 5- 7%, would make them strong enough to last for a while, but not so strong that they’d stun the farm workers who drank it. So perhaps it is not a style that lends itself to orthodoxy, but rather one that originally existed to answer a question – “what can I brew that’s nutritious, refreshing, tasty, and will last for at least a year in the cellar?”’
This saison is certainly great although I drank my second one with a bit of a cold. Some hop and sweat (feet) on the nose. Sweet to taste, yeasty. Possibly some mild brett. Sourness not in evidence (I drank this after a gueuze). Bitter finish with slight alcohol. I will go back to this beer, but it is expensive. 750ml would be nice. (I missed the Anniversaire edition of this. Bah.) I have a soft spot for this brewery, even if, on balance, their output hasn't been as consistent as some others. The wallonian/sennian rhetoric and imagery on the site makes alot of sense when transposed to the South Downs and I'm eagerly awaiting (what I hope will be - I hope I haven't got this wrong!) the first, finished results of their ageing of some locally spontaneously fermented beers.
