New Belgium Saison

Brewed by New Belgium Brewing Company
Style: Saison
Fort Collins, Colorado USA

Serve in Tulip

At Hops in Humboldt Micro-Brew Festival in 4 oz glass. Gold in color with a nice clean white head that left good lacing in the glass. Clean nose of hops wihth lots of fruit and flowers. Mouthfeel was clean and crisp, and it was nice going down. Flavor is a bit yeasty, and finish is a little like a hefe. Overall quite good.

Yellow gold. Broken layer of tiny white bubbles cling to the glass. Ordinary nose of floral hops, toasted straw, peach, coriander, and honey. Very yeasty. Carbonation is firm but airy on the palate. Sweetness is delightfully subdued, initially, which enables the snappy plasticy phenols to exude. Oversweet mixture of clove, candy sugar and crushed coriander soon overrides the deeply rooted phenols and waning glimpses of brightness. Fairly wet and limp in body, and the fruity yeast compounds this. Although relatively insignificant, the yeast does lend a meaty astringency, as well, along with the typically overstated fruitiness. Finishes heavily grainy and flabby with lingering notes of baked apples, coriander, and floral hops. Much to my chagrin, rather than allowing the phenolic esters to shine, they instead pummeled them with coriander and candy sugar. Pretty uninspiring, dull, and predictable for the style, but I suppose it could be worse.

via trade with Buck Dich - Pours a clear golden color with a good size white haed. Aroma is yeast, banana, and spice. I’m not quite sure about the flavor. Some yeasty esters. Light to medium body. I’m not sure what to think about this beer. Not bad. Thanks Jordan.

Light orange with white head. Notes of a spice future for my palate on the nose. Has an interesting yeast flavor with ripe citrus and bananas and maybe an apple thrown in there too.

Bottle: Clear gold with lots of bubbles rising to the top creating a white fizzy head. Malty aroma of rich spices and ripe bananas. The flavors are interesting - in some ways it is close to some hefe’s. I noticed flavors of cola, yeast and bananas. It is easy and smooth to drink as far as the feel, but I am not sure I want this beer to be that easy to drink.

Bottle pours a light slightly hazy orange bronze with a thin quick off white head. Aroma of soft spices and floral hops. Flavor was quite bland, subdued and thin. I expected a much more bold spice flavor profile. It seems to me that NB is trying top introduce a "Saison" for the masses and trying to hard not to alienate it’s regualr customers with something to wierd. Tons of the stuff showed up at the local co-op the other day so it appears to be "un"-retired. Maybe it still should be.

Whew...the aroma is one of the spiciest I’ve encountered: cloves, allspice, floral perfumes. There is an overlying impression of black tea, the palate is especially deceiving - hitting the back and sides of the tongue where beer doesn’t usually make itself known. Sits on the back of the throat. Something else of note, this beer doesn’t seem so have that bite associated with spice-laden beer - it’s actually very smooth finishing with an out-of-nowhere sweetness that gives me the impression of band-aid - maybe it’s the lavender. Unusual.

12oz. Employee Bottled thanks to Crosling. Clear golden color with a good sized white head. Floral, fruity aroma of green apples, coriander and hops. Flavor is mildly sweet and very fruity. Green apples, tropical fruits, coriander are the flavors that stand out the most with some earthy yeastiness. Very enjoyable.