Troll Saison Dau

Brewed by Birrificio Troll
Style: Saison
Vernante, Italy

Poured a hazy, pale golden color with a large, white head that left nice lacing on the glass. Aroma of earth, citrus, yeast, anise, grass, and floral hops. Taste of more anise (eek!) ginger, coriander, earthy, yeast, lightly doughy, and a somewhat thin mouthfeel.

Bottle at GBBF 2008 Pours hazy golden. The aroma is a bit green nutty like a filbert nut maybe with some soft citrus there as well, strangely I also get a waft of cooked pasta and a bit of perfume. Lovely fresh spritzy, zesty refreshing flavour, great taste nice soft malty flavours but quite drying and citrusy as well, I liked this a lot and would regard this as one of my beers of the festival.

Bottle. Hazy golden colour with a small white head. Rich aroma and taste of malt, coriander, yeast and licorice. watery, but refreshing.

Bottle at the ’Coles Italian Beer Festival’, Buffalo, NY. Pours a cloudy yellow with a small white head. Aroma of lemon, yeast, light grassiness, some light sweetness and a good amount of fruit. Flavour pretty much follows the aroma: Citrus, yeast, grassiness and a hint of pepper added. Average bodied, lightly carbonated. It’s just good, an average Saison.

Bottle labeled 06/06 thanks to bu11zeye. Pours with a small, white head and a clear-ish yellow body. Some good lacing left behind. Aroma is of sweet biscuits, with apple, light citrus, ginger, sun tan lotion, pepper, mint, coriander and anise. Taste is quite spicy and a bit watery (alcohol % noted), with notes of camomile, diacetyl, and a slightly bitter finish. Light carbonation and a water like mouthfeel.

Bottle at GBBF ’08. Many thanks to Christian for this reminder that there is for us North Europeans an undiscovered world of beer south of the Alps. Gold. Positively startling tomato ketchup aroma. Peppery cucumber taste thrown into focus by a sour sparkle. Thanks to oh6gdx for the identification of juniper in the flavour. Altogether an odd and rather appealing beer.

In short: A weird musty, spicy and dry Belgian Blond Ale of some kind. Light but kind of fun.
How: Sample at Mondial de la Bière 2008
The look: Cloudy golden Blonde body with almost no head
In long: Pleasant and surprisingly strong wild fruity nose of tangerines on a horse blanket. Flavour and mouthfeel is kind of weird, like oily and dusty at the same time. Rather yeasty, lots of dust, lemon skins, some “yellow” flowers, tangerines, strong unsettling unidentified dry herb/spice sensation, apricots in the finish. Something here reminded me of some of the absinth beer I’ve had. Body was pretty slim. A tough one to judge from a 5oz sample, I’ll need to drink at least a full bottle to really make up my mind about it. One thing for sure despite its below 4% abv this is not boring beer. Whether an annoying forum poster or a Saison beer, a Troll sure ain’t classy but it can be entertaining.

Courtesy of kiefdog. Pours fully opaque dull white paper to orange and thin off white head. The aroma is full of kitchen cabinet spicy hodgepodge with a wood sensation, some earthiness and a bit of yeast. The taste starts with lemon grass like spices and then moving into milder notes of various other spices that seem smooth and blend together. Refreshing brew.