Saison de Pipaix

Brewed by Brasserie à Vapeur
Style: Saison
Leuze-Pipaix, Belgium

Serve in Tulip

UPDATED: MAR 1, 2008 First bottle I had was a few years ago; it was an awful experience! After reading some positive reviews I figured I just got a bad bottle and decided to try again: Pours a burnt gold with a modest head that quickly recedes. Smells like chinese restaurant table mustard, fungus, and anise, but also brett-like sourness. The taste is more balanced, with a nice cereal malt thing anchoring down all those weird flavors, and hops really blend well with the spices. Kind of a thirst quencher, albeit a peppery, funky one. Not unlike Fantome in this respect, but the flavor profile is more "sharp" and vinegar-y. The finish is extra dry, leaving only vinegar and fruit behind. A nice thing about this beer is that all the flavors unfold in a very discernable and complementary way. Probably not a beginner’s beer, and I know there are some drain pours out there, but I recommend it to those who have a nose (and a tongue) for adventure.

[1994 bottle graciously shared with Chris at Ebenezer’s] Opened with a mild ’pop’, and poured with minimal carbonation. Funky aroma, tart, musty, almost like an aged Orval, or gueuze... time has funked this beer out BIG TIME. Flavors are really quite interesting-- tart, dry and mildly spicy, with a contrasting funky, acidic note. Super dry-- BONE dry finish. Really nice, overall...it’s interesting to see what time will do to a beer. Drinking this was quite a learning experience.

Bottle from 2004. Pours a clear amber with a small, white, diminishing head. The beer is surprisingly sour with a light sweet- and bitterness. Aslo som vinegar notes. Aromas of grains and fruity citric notes. Medium to full bodied. Soft carbonation with a dry finish. Tastes very much like a mild gueuze - Not sure if it’s supposed to taste like that, but I like it.

"(This beer) is brewed by a schoolteacher, Jean-Louis Dits. He revived a steam-powered brewery from the early industrial period, and operates it as a working museum." Awesome. The beer pours a beautiful gold with a strong white head that leaves amazing lacing. The carbonation is full and slow moving, almost like a tornado lamp. This brew smells, to me, like an aquarium. A stinky, dirty, algae-filled tank. Well, maybe I’m exaggerating a bit. Not horrible, but not incredibly pleasant in the nose. Very funky. The taste is super dry and perfumy, with strong flower and pepper notes. Slight tart funk towards the finish, and ends with a pleasantly acidic twang mixed with a grapefruity hoppiness and tart green apple notes. Very good saison.

750 ml. Humongous, sticky head atop the hazy, burnt orange-gold body. Aroma is citrus peel and spicy yeast. Flavor is tart, peppery cedar on the front, then has some musty flavors peeking through, and finishes with a light fruit and toasted nut note. Light-medium body is smooth, dry, and tongue-tingly. Doesn’t seem to be exactly according to "style", but that’s all the better to me.

750, corked and baled. Pours a ruddy dark amber with a towering platinum blonde froth atop. Falls quickly away to a rather drab headless and laceless glass of fluid. Big tart vinegar notes hit you when you first open, when you’re pouring, when you swirl, when you lift the glass--not that they’re so amazingly intense, just that they’re there at all. Not used to that sharp whip-crackin drain cleaner tang in a saison, but it’s fantastic. Brightens up the nose and the mid-palate immeasurably. Medium body, slightly fizzy attack. Lots of vinegar on the mid-palate, but well blended under layers of the usual grass and light saison nuttiness. This is a beer born of inspiration, and made cleverly and with care. It’s not for every taste, but it’s got a special little sweet spot in the crosshairs between saison and lambic.

Hazed copper body is topped by a two finger beige head that diminishes to satiny sheets of lacing. Aroma is spicy and fruity. Ginger and orange peel dominate some citrusy notes of lemon peel. Unremarkable mouthfeel, medium in body and carbonation. Tastes like lime leaf and ginger mostly, with subdued notes of lemon and kiwi. Finishes earthy with some wet basement hints. Decent enough but seems to lack the pastoral character of a topnotch saison.

750 mL bottle. Pours gold with tall white head. The aroma is lemon and coriander mostly, with ample musty and farmy notes and spiciness. The flavor is mildly tart and rather spicy. There are some earthy notes in the middle, and the finish is nice and round. Citrus notes bounce around once in a while. Not bad.