Free State Holiday Ale 2004

Draft: Hazy caramel. Sticky foam of dense bubbles. Minerals, honeyed toast, and flowery hops in the aroma. Anise esters and orange whispers. Delicate carbonation but effervescently prickly, to boot. Tingly foundation of chalky yeast supports an influx of flowery hops and coriander, which softens the firm, minerally body. Delectable esters display hints of anise and passionfruit. Body remains juicily hoppy and melony with a thick honeyed malt spine. It’s dry and spicily yeasty enough to stave off some of the orange peels, which impart more sweetness than they do delicate acidity. Grains of Paradise “heat” in the finish emphasizes coarseness of the yeast and mineral notes. Pretty good interpretation, although it’s still oversweet, overspiced, and too yeasty.

bitter, orange, lemongrass, yeastynose. Coriander finish. different palette and finish. Nothing too crazy, or amazing, a good midwestern Saison. Very cloudy, dark orange, sweet, lots of candi sugar, breadiness.

Pleasant plummy-banana-apple aroma. Murky light brown/dirty blond color. Tint of alcohol in nose. Flavor is a bit too yeasty but still a nice depth of chewy, fluffy malt and appley yeast. Good for a domestic saison.

At the brewpub ... Earthy orange. Sticky head. Spicy orange with maybe a hint of corriander? An OK winter beer.

Well Indra beat me to it because it took me two days to get my notes in. 5oz sample. O.G. 16/1064. Hops 25IBU. Orange cloudy color, off white head. The sample glasses are not good at indicating the amount or length of the head, but there was some nice lacing on my glass. The aroma is citrusy, like orange peels and is sweetish. The flavor was malt, citrus, orange with some hops for a nice dry finish. The taste and smell reminded me of candied orange peels. Enjoyable beer. - I have since drank several glasses of it at the brewery and drank it from a growler my buddy brought to a party. This is good stuff. I didn’t re-rate, but just wanted to put another comment on it.