Saison Imperiale

Brewed by De Proefbrouwerij
Style: Saison
Lochristi, Belgium

750mL Bottle. 2008. Very dense earth and sandalwood aroma, peppered with ripe pears and applewood. I’m surprised by the darker amber color, clearish, with a well-settled lacy off-white head. Flavors are good, but nothing particularly expressive. Like an Amber Ale, only with Saison yeast. A bit peppery, some floral subcontinental spice, and a waft or two of date palms. Palate is really well-balanced, between the tartness of the yeast products and a satisfying chewy malt run. Finishes crispy and dry. Solid brewing.

( 750ml bottle) This beer pours a 1 finger head that recedes quickly, but leaves a LOT of lacing on the glass regardless of temperature. Very pretty brown/red almost rusty orange color that is completely opaque and darker than I expected. The second beer I poured of course was completely saturated with yeasty floaters throughout. Nose of extremely funky barnyard smells here, horseblanket, and even detected what smelled like urine to me a couple of times. Sometimes a dark fruit aroma comes through which is good and Brett, oak and earth are here as well. The taste was quite a bit better than the smell. Lots of sour tastes, some sweetness, and definite bitterness was there. I felt that the sour was nicely muted by some of the fruit flavors, but not enough to counteract some of the funkiness and sour that was going on here. More sweetness would have balanced this out and made this beer far better. The one fruit I do taste is sour green grapes. When I bought it I expected less earthy sourness, and less color as well. Maybe some caramel in the first notes of tasting as well. The bitter aftertaste lasted longer than almost any beer I’ve ever had, and I did find myself appreciating that particular quality. Mouthfeel is creamy, extremely carbonated in a good way.

From an old rating note: Dark brown pour with a fluffy beige head. Aroma of apple, bread and spice. Taste is sweet version of the aroma with a dry sour finish.

Not your typical saison, but it was still an enjoyable beer. Taste was much more funky than a typical saison, as I detected no pepper or spice in the beer but got a lot of funk. When I smelled the beer the first thing I thought of was Victory WildDevil. The beer is very drinkable, but if you are looking for a standard saison, you need to keep looking.

Bottle from SL. The pour was amber-orange in color, some haze, weak head and quite pop upon opening. The aroma was strong oranges, peaches, light fruits, bret, faint funk, some citrus sour type notes - phenolic and wild spicing: not present? The flavor followed, really a quite nice Belgian Strong Ale, but not a lot of saison character, short of some funk. Lots of darker fruits, cherries, malts, some funk in the finish, bret elements. Really enjoyed this as a sour/funk type of a twist to the BSA family of brews, but Saison? Nah. And, that was ok. Good stuff!

Bottle pours brown and rust with a monster head that reduces to plaster like lace. The aroma is very yogurt like, spiced, and grassy. The flavor is sweet, grassy, tart, yogurt, some peach, some vanilla,and some wet leather. The palate performs as it mops up in the finish. Overall, pretty good and fairly under rated IMHO.

medium body, lively, medium sweetness, medium bitterness, caramel, spruce, brown, hazy,

Copper in color and cloudy with a large off-white head. Aroma is of citrus, yeast, clove, grain and hops. Taste is of caramel, clove yeast and grain.