Rogue FestiveAle

Bottle @ Oliver Twist, Stockholm
Aroma like a generic Belgian blonde (beer). Taste from grape seeds and virginia tobacco. Super dry. Light apple touch. Slightly more spricy and rounded when sediment is added at the end. I’m missing that special edge from a genuine saisson.

Pours a hazy golden orange with a bubbly white head that left spotty lacing. Aroma if lemony with some yeast and oranges. Flavors of lemon and a couple other spices that were hard to pinpoint. Also pick up some metal. Really tingly on the tongue. As the poured the 2nd half of this bomber it started to look more like apple cider.

What’s up spices. This beer is nothing more than a bottle full of harsh and astrigent spiciness. There is something left of what used to be a saison in here, but it is so masked and muddled with ginger and cinnamon, clove and a small malt component, and some yeasty biscuits.

22oz bottle poured into a wine glass. Too much carbonation right of the bat. It was somewhat flat by the time I could drink past the head. The aroma held a lovely melange of orange, gingerbread and spice leaving me somewhat hopeful for this saison. But.. when tasted it just didn’t seem to know what kind of beer it wanted to be (witness the range of ingredients). Certainly not a bad beer by any means. Just a confusing one. Mouth feel was a prickly pilsner, aroma was a spiced winter belgian, the colour hinted at saison... ultimately it was a misdirected drink that suffered from, among other things, the addition of far too much yeast.

Cloudy gold, short head, some lacing. Aroma is spices - like too many spices, it was too hard to pick anything good out of it. Body was somewhat thin, held up with a lively carbonation. Light malts mixed with a lot of spice - you could almost feel the spices like a sediment in the brew. It didn’t taste bad, it just turned into a muddle of ginger, citrus, corriander, etc.

One pint, 6 fl oz (650 mL) brown bottle purchased from Di Carlo Wine and Spirits (formerly Armanetti’s), Mundelein, IL. 6.8% ABV. 2005 vintage. Clear orange hued ale having a small diminishing white head with spare lacing. Soft carbonation. Interesting aroma of hops and sardines, the type that is packed in oil (not a bad smell at all). Medium bodied that starts dry with hop, coriander, orange peel, spice aromas. Finishes dry with no discernable aftertaste. A very good dry Belgium-style saison ale.

Murky orange pour with thin white head. Aroma is soapy and earthy. Flavor is bitter but not from hops. The ginger and other additives add to the bitterness and are quite odd with the Saison style. Not real crazy about this one.

(650 ml bottle at Oliver Twist, Stockholm) Very hazy orange colour with a big, sticky tan head. Mostly oranges in aroma with faint notes of lavendel, herbs and orange-peels. Flavour starts nice of mandarin and orange-peels but there is no aftertaste. A void of water, herbs and orange-fruit in the short aftertaste.