Saison Du BUFF

The Victory version

Overall I’m not a huge fan of most “saison style” beers.  The “style” in general is too all over the map which generally has lead to me often being let down. That does not mean that I am completely dismissive of saison beers in a couple of my favorite beers have been saisons. Among my favorite commercial beers are Guava Grove from Cigar City and Colette by Great Divide both of which are saisons.  On the homebrew side my BeanyTink’s Farmstead Ale is a saison/farmhouse style ale and is one of my favorite beers not to mentions some of my friends saisons.

One saison style beer that I’ve enjoyed several times is the Victory/Stone/Dogfish Head collaboration Saison Du BUFF.  A few weeks back I was waiting for some guys to come over and decided to warm up with a bottle I had in the BeerVault and give it a quick review.  This review is for the Victory version to date I’ve had all three versions and think the Victory is one of the better versions.

12 ounce Victory bottle poured into homebrew fest glass.  The enjoy or best by date is smudged so I can’t read it.

Appearance: Crystal clear, pale yellow almost straw like gold.  Pours with a good ½ inch whitehead made up of small tiny bubbles, lacing holds the side of class well.  

Great color and clarity

Aroma: Immediately I get the spiciness I’ve come to expect from this beer, there is some clove not overly funky.  I can slightly perceive the herbs they’ve used.  It took me a while to identify what I smelled; it was familiar but not something that I associate with beer.  Upon reading the side of the bottle I determined it was the rosemary.  

Mouthfeel: The beer is medium to light bodied, the bubble dance on the back my palate.

Taste:  Probably my favorite non-farmhouse / funky saison.  The spiciness from the yeast is not overpowering nor is it underwhelming, just an all around clean crisp beer.  I’m detecting no off flavors from fermentation and the finish really nice and crisp, very enjoyable

Overall: This is probably my favorite of the Stone collaboration beers that I have had to date.  Ironically I don't really get much Stone influence in it,  I get the Victory, I get a little bit of the Dogfish Head but not the Stone, probably due to the restraint in the hops.  Overall really nice summer beer that was a great follow up to the spicy smoked gouda pizza that I had made for dinner.  As I said definitely a good commercial saison, it is borderline between the ones that I like and the ones I do not.

In closing I am going to offer up the official collaboration video that Stone put out about a year ago when the beer was launched 

Dogfish Head / Victory / Stone Saison du BUFF from stonebrew on Vimeo.

Random Tuesday Tasting

Warmed up with some rum

A few Tuesdays ago my buddy Eric of Addison Homebrew Provisions stopped by to hang out and have a few beers.  I took advantage of the opportunity to get some one on one feedback on my Rhino Stout (not to be confused with Imperial Rhino Stout still in secondary), discuss the schedule for some demos I’m going to do for him in October and give him a New Glarus Belgian Red I knew he would enjoy.   My wife Bonnie joined us sporadically as she was cooking and taking care of our daughter.

After getting feedback on the Rhino, too thin and green, it was time to start opening some bottles.

Nice little surprise

The IPAs

I’ve been a little lupulin deprived lately so we decided to start with some IPAs.  This presented a great opportunity to open some of the extras I’d received in some recent beer trades.  We started with the Old Man Hopper's India Pale Ale from Rust Belt that I received in The Barrel Aged Yeti Trade.  Overall it was a pretty good IPA; it wasn’t overly bitter or harsh just well balanced. Some hop aroma was present, could really tell if it was dry hopped or just had a solid aroma boil addition. Definitely towing the line between a pale ale and an IPA. 

Fight Dead Hop Flavor
Drink IPAs Fresh!

Next up was Arctic Panzer Wolf from Three Floyds. I got this beer as an extra in the Math Trade #4 - The Quad Lazer.  Killer name, killer label and killer beer, I’ve had some many bad imperial/double IPA that I’m pretty gun shy about them, so the fact that this was really good was a nice surprise.  Lots of really nice piney hop aroma with a gorgeous color and well balanced flavor profile. No mistaking the bitterness here but again it was nicely focused.

Ended this section of IPAs by opening a year old Stone 14^th Anniversary Emperial IPA.  I guess the only thing that annoys me more about using the term Imperial on any beer not a stout is a random spellings of it.  Last year when it was fresh I had a debate with my buddy Marshall on whether or not the beer needed to age.  I personally enjoyed the beer fresh while he thought it could use some age.  I wish he could have made it over so I could grab his notes on it now.  Definitely lost what made it good a year ago, Eric and I described the aroma as dead hops.

Bambic in my broken Zeno glass

The Sours

As I’ve been really into sours lately and knew Eric was an enjoyer of them as well I decided to open a few bottles I’d been dieing to try, starting with Jolly Pumpkin’s Bambic.  The story behind Bambic is pretty cool; it’s a blend Bam Biere and Batch 2 & 4 Lambic done to celebrate Winking Lizard’s, a beer tavern in Ohio know for their World Tour of Beer, 25^th Anniversary.  Now this was an excellent beer, the sourness was up front, great nose with excellent notes of the oak.  I got a good laugh when I gave Bonnie a sip, she just doesn’t do sour beers.

More of a dark sour then a stout

After that we opened a bottle of The Bruery’s Tart of Darkness… I’ll be honest this is a good sour beer, but not as fantastic as I’ve heard.  The sourness was a little one dimensional and while the label lists it as a stout there were no stout in it outside the color.

It’s really just a dark sour. I have a couple more bottles that I’m going to sit on and to see if it changes with age. 

The Rest

After the sours we sort of drifted into opening random beers from the beervault.  Eric had brought over an Ommegang Chocolate Indulgence that he wanted to try so we popped the cork on it next.  For most of the time we’d been drinking we’d also been letting this bottle warm so it was at a really nice temperature when we started to drink it.  It had a lot of good bitter chocolate notes on the palate and in the nose which paired nicely with the coffee undertones. The label lists it as a Belgian style chocolate stout but I didn’t get any yeast notes that would give me Belgian style.  Eric who does not like coffee wasn’t a fan which Bonnie the coffee connoisseur loved it.  Bonnie’s Notes: It had deep coffee flavor, possibly a French roast/Italian roasted coffee (dark roast) and a nice note of chocolate.  It was dyn 'o mite. Shouldn't be called chocolate indulgence, should be coffee goodness. First stout I’ve really liked in a long time. 

More like coffee goodness - BJB

I decided to then open the last bottle of brother Ryan’s pale ale that he brought back the last time he was in town.  This was the second time I’ve had it and everyone agreed it tasted off.  It might have been his hop choices, but I really believe it comes down to temperature control for primary fermentation.  This is a subject that can, should and will be its own post.

 

Bonnie had the next choice of what to open and decided to grab out her bottle of Ballast Point Sculpin that Total Wine now feels is a limit one kind of beer.  This was not the Sculpin that’s been swimming around the top of the craft beer scene this last year. It was definitely off and just didn’t sing to anyone of us.  Bonnie was let down as she really loves this beer.  Bonnie’s Notes: inconsistent, have had fresher (odd considering it was a fresh batch), too sweet on finish.

At this point I needed a palate rinser and my cider wasn’t getting it done so I reached for a ribbon, a blue ribbon that is.  I drink and enjoy PBR as it is a perfect example of a light American adjunt lager.  After that I cracked a Yeti which is one of my favorite imperial stouts.  Either it was off or my palate was off because it didn’t taste right.  It had a mineral graininess on my tongue that I didn’t care for.

Overall I had a great time.  There are few things I enjoy more these days than sitting in my garage drinking and discussing beer with a good friend.  The ability to talk about homebrewing was an added bonus.

Cheers

-SNB

The Line Up (Left to Right): Rust Belt - Old Man Hopper's IPA (nice IPA but almost a pale ale), Three Floyds - Arctic Panzer Wolf!, Stone - 14th Anniversary (aged IPA experiment - better fresh), Bambic - AWESOME!!!, The Bruery - Tart of Darkness (Get the stout off the label this is a dark sour), Homebrew Pale Ale, Ommegang Chocolate Indulgence (do you like coffee? yes - you'll love it, no - just ok), Ballast Point - Sculpin (was the batch off?), PBR (always a winner), Yeti (either it or my palate was off).

De Dolle Brouwers - Oerbier Special Reserve 2008

The picture is a little hazy
and the beer needs to warm

This review is courtesy of my friend Greg V (aka GFunk720) for whom I am a Bruery Reserve Society Trustee for.  The bottle was received as a nice surprise as part of a recent trade we’d engaged in.  Oerbier Special Reserve 2008 brewed in 2008 and bottle in 2009 by De Dolle Brouwers.  The label says it is aged in oak barrels and refermented in the bottle, 13 percent alcohol, poured into my St. Feuillien glass.

Appearance: Deep brown almost sort of a mahogany color.    The surface of the beer is forming a mini volcano carbonation. No real head but when poured it formed a small quarter inch maybe less tan head.  Bubbles are nice and small with a good amount of caked yeast on the bottom of the bottle.

Aroma: Boozy vanilla goodness.  Small degree is sour notes are present on the nose. Really good oak character, it doesn't say anything about bourbon barrels but it definitely smells like it but this could just be the oak.

Mouthfeel: Twang sour not a country song, it was too sour for Bonnie which isn’t surprising. There is a slight slickness on the tongue, not unsurprising for an Oud Bruin.  It has a medium body fell with medium level of carbonation.

Taste: Ah yes, a sour beer. This is how I imagine a sour version of one of The Bruery Anniversary beers would taste like.  The sourness is very light not over powering.  It does an excellent job covering up 13 percent alcohol.  Right before the sour hits I get a sense of Shawn's quad, sort of a stone fruit flavor.   This is a great mix of oaking and souring, it’s very well done in that respect.  I don’t know where the bourbon feel comes from, it might be a false impression based on other barrel aged beers I’ve had. 

Overall:  This was a really nice surprise.  I opened the bottle I didn't really know what to expect, I figured I’d get an oak beer with some Belgian yeast/malt notes.  This is definitely nowhere close to that! The sourness was a wonderful surprise and a perfect follow up to the BeanyTink’s Farmstead Ale that proceeded it.  I'll have to send Greg a thank you note for this one, definitely a nice glass of beer to end the evening with!

La Choulette Framboise

I decided on the night of Bonnie and My anniversary that I needed to get a review on the site sooner than later.  So I went out to the beervault and pulled out one of my newer procurements, La Choulette Framboise, that I picked up at The Bruery Provisions the day before.   While drinking it I used the voice to text feature on my phone to send myself an email with my notes and impressions.

12 ounce bottle poured into a Bruery tulip, served at around 44-50. Label lists it as a French farmhouse ale brewed with raspberry juice.

Appearance: Purple-red with a slight garnet tint in head. Reflective light off the glass is a very deep red color. The frothy head clings well to side of glass with some lace lacing which barely sticks to the side of the glass

Aroma: Slight funky with tart raspberry. Bonnie detects an almost metallic smell, it’s very subtle and only something her super sniffer would pick up.  I can barely detect it, it similar to the difference between stainless steel aged chardonnay and chardonnay aged in oak barrels.  Somewhat of a “clean” smell in the back in my nose, by clean I mean the way a room smells after a thorough cleaning.  Not as much funk as I would've hoped for in a “farmhouse” ale but the aroma is very enjoyable and improve slightly as warms.   Swirling definitely helped bring out the raspberry character.

Mouthfeel: very small bubbles, some twang, bubbles pickle my upper lip. It has a very raspberry juice and champagne feel 

Taste: It’s definitely a raspberry beer, this is by far the most predominate flavor in the beer however it is not overpowering like some fruit beers.  The raspberry is very much in balance in this beer not overly raspberry.  It does have very little funk and is not as complex as I would've hoped

Overall: A decent beer but nothing extraordinary. Still it’s very clean very well brewed.  I went in wanting a nice funky soured beer and that probably clouded my review.  While I’ve stated a lot that I would have preferred more funk I am a lot happier with this beer than if it were listed as a farmhouse saison.  A little too fruity of a beer for what I would like in a farmhouse but to me farmhouse means a beer with a great funky bretty character smell and taste.

Cheers,

SNB