Saison Imperiale

Brewed by De Proefbrouwerij
Style: Saison
Lochristi, Belgium

Dark amber color. Caramel cocoa notes, semi-sweet. Somewhat dubbelish rather than saisonish but that doesn’t really matter. Lightly fruity, lightly phenolic. Balanced and easy drinking even with some malty heft.

Hazy ruby apricot. Dense and rocky ivory head clings nicely and shows fine retention. Iron and severely overripe plums and bananas plague the nose as mild notes of perfumey brett and puttylike yeast tease the senses. Malt yields a faint scent of toasted straw. Very dull. Carbonation is spongy and soft on the palate. Fairly fuzzy. Quick flash of iron immediately clashes with brash and tacky notes of stomach-curdling medicine. Dirtily bitter combination of brett, iron and rotten plums only compound the overly weighty body. Poor attenuation is compounded by the lack of spicy esters and rampant fruitiness which uncannily bears a resemblance to a variety of rotten fruits. Hop bitterness is also next to nil, and what happens to be detectable is unclean and oily rather than clean and flowery. Peppery alcohol continually warms the gullet. Bright splash of strawberry jam generates a twinge of bouncy acidity before succumbing to the simplistic brett and unpleasant hint of plastic toward the finish. Scratchy touches of iron and medicine linger as bready malt sweetness makes a late yet subtle emergence. This brewery should probably learn the art of low-gravity brewing before attempting to imperialize something such as a saison of all things.

I think a lot of the people rating this had a different beer than I did - this was quite good. Pours dark bronze with a medium sized off-white head. Aroma is spicy with slight sourness (lambic-ish) and grapes. There is also some vinious and earthy qualities. Flavor starts out with earthy wooden flavors mixed with a plum / apricot flavor. Finish has some spicy hops and viniousness traits coming out. It is medium / full bodied with semi-sharp carbonation. As it warms anise starts coming into the picture and passion fruit and hop element are more in front. Very nice saison.

Bottle: Pours a hazy purple/brown color with a big foamy white head. Aroma, funky, some sweetness, and some spice. Flavor, soft funk to it, a bit sour, bready, some sweet fruity notes, tart, a bit of a floral quality as well.

Bottled. Pours a dark amber/ruby color. Aroma is sweet and malty with a bit of yeastiness. Some sours candies as well. Somewhat bitter up front with some sourness as well. Some earthy almost champagne-like qualities. Some bitter maltiness. Bitter and malty finish. A little sour as well.

The look is cloudy, some sediment, beige foamy head. The smell is spices, slight funky, yeast, and decent. The taste is fruits, medium body, drier, some sediment, caramel, and yeast.

Thanks to Mike. Very cloudy copper color nice off white head w/ nice lacing and ltos of visable carbonation. Aroma of sweet belgian yeasts banannas carmelized sugars. Palate is well coated warm & creamy. Flavor is hot nicely spiced.. all spice touch of nutmeg & bannannas belgian yeast & candied sugars. Very Good.

Thanks to Eugene (beastiefan2k) for sharing this at Dickinsonbeer’s place. It was weird that he brought this as Paul and I were talking about this beer before he showed up with it. Anyway, Hazy amber in color with a moderate to large white head. Aroma is bretty with some phenolics (spice), moderately malty and funky. Taste is a bit more reserved on the wild yeast side of things with more saison yeast, spicy phenolics, pale and caramel malts, and a moderate bittering finish.