Brooklyn, 1/2 Ale

Bought this form M&S of all places. Citrus/lemon nose. High carb, foamy. Very watery taste, some lemon squash. Minerally. Some very slight saison character in the mid-palate, but only on about 1 sip in 5. Dry finish. £1.90 isn't bad, but I'd rather pay £1.99 for a Table Beer from Greensmiths for my sub £2 sessioning needs (or indeed the Fourpure session, also available at M&S these days for a totally reasonable £1.90).

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?”’