Dupont Avec les Bons Voeux

Brewed by Brasserie Dupont
Style: Saison
Tourpes-Leuze, Belgium

From the Bottle at the Falling Rock Tap House, Denver 26/09/2009 Some malt aroma. Golden coloured and a little hazy in appearance. Bready and strong in alcohol with a crisp slightly dry and bitter malt finish.

Very musky saison beer. A highpoint in all saison-brews, at least in my book. This has all it needs: dryness, muskyness, sourness and it’s refreshing like nothing else! An awesome beer, deserves the 100 percentile, definately!

750. Huge rocky head with the definitiion of ’lacing’ happening. Nose is peppery yeast, pears, a little watermelon and a slight funkiness (like prosciutto/melon balls), wrapped up in some booze. Taste is the nose, a touch of tart sourness and, IMO, the heat playing prominently in the finish,, taking away from some of the delicate spiciness the nose promises. Good stuff - not as complex, refreshing and wonderful as their "normal" saison, but good stuff nonetheless.

750 ml bottle from Jonathan Ron. Poured a cloudy honey golden brown body sitting underneath one of the most impressive heads I’ve seen in a long time. The head was a large fluffy bright white that left giant dollops of marshmellow sized lace on the side of my Hennepin glass that would drop into the body as I rotated my glass after each sip. The aroma had lots of pepper, flowers and bread about it with some underlying honey and citrus fruits. Medium bodied with small bubbly champagne like carbonation and a finsih that is so dry it actually dried out the top half of my throat. Flavors of dried out flowers, bread, pepper, thym and citrus. Nice but I think I prefer the regular ole Saison Dupont more.

Orange golden appearance with a minimum off white head. Aroma: sour gum, mango, apple cider, orangerasberries, thym and lime. Flavor: salty ginger ale, white pepper, thym, ginfer bread and coriander. Palate: medium body, lively carbonation, oily with a dry chalky finish.

375 ml 9,5 % t.h.t. (guaranteed maximal containable quality date) 08/2011. Drank it young, she was beautiful with a white perky top. A sort of fine old geuze without the time spent. It can well be kept but why should you. Its fine right now. Also the bottle is uneasy kept in the fridge. Is this where saison and young gueuze (lambic) meet? An alltogether fine beer with perfect presence and flavor. Have yourself the depot to end it with.

75cl corked and wired bottle, label different from the one pictured (it’s green, like the bottle). Pours a beautiful hazy orange witgh a big, soapy white head with normal retention and decent lacing. Aroma, likewise, is of orange, with some spicy herbs, yeast and an alcoholic note on top. Active carbonation, thick, tickly but smooth mouth feel. Complex taste of orange and other sweet orchard fruit, some coriander and a dry, hoppy finish. Sour-bitter after taste. Sweet notes in the beer throughout, but it’s not a sweetish brew. Refreshing sour notes also present all along the way. Excellent bottle-conditioned strong Belgian blonde, supremely well balanced and not too boozy despite the whopping 9.5 % abv. Dangerously sessionable, and agreeably complex without being oppressively sweet.

Corked and wired 750ml bottle. Pours hazy pale orange with a huge dense rocky and lasting white head that provides excellent lacing. Nose is bready malts, light lemony citrus, subtle honey and earthy spicy hops. The taste is very restrained sweet grainy malts with a wonderful peppery spicy dry hop finish. Faint vanilla in there as well. It has a thick chewy mouthfeel with the ABV only apparent at the very end. Excellent, complex, classy and refreshing. Right up there with the very best.