[Reaper16]

Drank a Saison de Lente from The Bruery tonight. Damn good. Its pretty much a ripoff/clone of Boulevard's Saison-Brett (same generous hopping, same use of Brettonamyces yeast, same appearance even. I wouldn't be able to tell the difference in a test of appearance). My review:
750mL bottle served into a tulip glass

This beer is gorgeous. It looks like a carbon copy of Boulevard's Saison-Brett. It pours a straw yellow body, very style appropriate, that has just enough clarity through the haze to make out streams of carbonation jetting upwards. The white head is fantastic in scope. It pours out like four fingers if you aren't careful. The foam produces a towering hill in the middle of the glass with the consistency of meringue. The edges of the foam is full of large bubbles that leave behind sinews of lacing all around the glass. You'd be hard-pressed to find a saison that looks better than what I am looking at right now.

Lemon and crackers and candy sugar hit me first; very Belgian nose upon first whiff. Dried-out hay and a considerable hop presence make for a large amount of earthiness. The Brettonamyces is certainly noticeable. Dog hair and musty old barn funk and, like, radishes (yes, radishes. I am quite sure now. Maybe some mustard greens) come out of the yeast. There is a lot going on and the highlights will fluctuate with temperature. Great stuff.

This is a good tasting saison but the complexity of the nose doesn't quite pan out on the palate. It comes close though. The taste is strongly vegetal, actually. It tastes like mustard greens and plant roots and earthy soil; some of this is from the bittering hops and some of it is from the yeast. There is just a hint of lemon rind on the back sides of the tongue, masked by all of the earthiness. The aftertaste presents hop bitterness and hay; it is drying like good saison should be.

The carbonation is, surprisingly, not all that active. The beer can get watery at the tail end of a glass. It is on the lighter end of the medium-bodied spectrum. I'm scoring drinkability a 4.0 because all the earthiness (while quite tasty) can get to be a chore after a while. You might share this 750mL bottle for best results. If not, you will still enjoy drinking the entire thing.

This is my first beer from The Bruery. I can tell that this brewery knows what they are doing. This is a lovely American Saison, one of the best that I've had. It is clearly an attempt at a Saison-Brett clone - everything about it from the generous hopping to the appearance to the amount of Brettonamyces present is eerily similar to a bottle of Saison-Brett, only not quite as good - and it succeeds. Buy this beer if it is available to you. It is plenty funky right now and it will only develop with some cellar time.