Smuttynose Farmhouse Ale

22oz bottle at Brickskellar, bottle conditioned, 2006 vintage. Pours nearly clear, striking gold in color with a soft off-white head. I know this is supposed to be a saison but it smells like a spiced triple, and is a little heavy on the acetaldehyde I think. The nose is so incredibly heavy on the sweet candy sugar it’s unreasonable. The aroma bites the nose with a peppery, almost boozy quality, the sugars especially are overpowering in the aroma, with peppery spices helping that right along. Can’t say I didn’t enjoy it, but it just smelled like someone threw this togethor, packed a lot of candy sugar to up the alcohol, and spiced it up, only because big beer is the trend now, and without consideration for how it actually smelled. Where is the yeast character? There’s none. I’m complaining and I haven’t even tasted it yet. Sounds like I hate it already but I don’t, I’m just being critical because that’s what beer geeks do. Flavorwise it’s ok-to-good, it has a ton of sugar, a ton of peppery, sharp spices, but again none of the spices really do much other than bite, they simply don’t taste very good and don’t go with the body of the beer at all. The bite is similar to apple cider, and in fact the flavor resembles apples quite a bit, I don’t know if this is the actual grain bill and yeast doing this or if it’s acetaldehyde. Still, an interesting beer but I think for all of the wrong reasons. Saison does not need this kind of treatment to be delicious and special.

was really impressed with the nose of this beer early on. had coconut on the nose, then as it warmed a good melon grapefruit flavour. nice intresting beer but its goota be nice and cold.

22oz bottle from MrBendo. Aroma: Medium sweet maltiness with a light wheat malt note. Spices, orange zest, and some light floral hoppiness. Some very light horseiness comes through as it warms. Appearance: Dark honey in color and lightly hazed. Off-white head is full and foamy with good retention. Good lacing. Flavor: Sweet maltiness upfront, again with a light wheat note. Floral and citrus, Spice and herb, Caramel and yeast. Some light musty horseblanket. Light bitterness and a sweet finish. Palate: Medium bodied. Medium-high carbonation. Overall: Pretty good, but a little too sweet throughout. Could have used some more hops, too.

22oz bottle 2006 vintage. pours clear copper with white head. nose has flowers, touch of spice, yeast, and slight english toffee. flavor is yeasty, slight orange, crisp, earthy, spicy note in the background. this is tasty and fun to drink but it’s too sweet and not dry enough to be a great saison.

Is there a bad saison? Smuttynose produces a competent saison that simulates, with bolder taste, your conventional farmhouse saison, horseblanket et al.I aged this and so the yeast is diminished and smooth flavour is in every sip over a complex lunch.

2006 22oz Bottle: Pours a dark gold with very little head. Aroma is driven by spice with some hints of citrus. Some coriander?, orange and other spice drive the flavor. The palate and overall balance is good. I again get some orange rind on the finish. I’ll be looking forward to the 2007 release.

Theisti was cool enough to share this with me. He even served it in red wine glasses. Classy. As for the beer, it poured a slightly hazed golden with a thick white head. There are definatly some spices in this beer, and some may thing that they are over done. I think that are very well blended into both the arom and flavor. Hops and malt both are both pretty crisp. Medium/full body make this a fairly substantial drink. Overall, this a really nice drink. Thanks for sharing Tim.

2006 22 oz bottle conditioned from beastiefan2k, big thanks Eugene! Enjoyed with tjthresh. Pour is a golden copper with a nice fluffy head. Aroma is malty, citrus and some spiciness. Taste is very nicely balanced between the nice malt base, with citrus, spice and even some nice funkiness layered in. Had this sitting on my back porch on a perfect late spring early summer day. Overall, a Saison I very much enjoyed.