Saison Viejo - Further Tastings

The general character I'm getting from this beer over the course of the last few bottles is a minor amount of phenols..... minor spice, minor earth, a fair amount of esters giving off a fruitiness but not cloying and balanced with the phenols. Basically, what you would normally expect from some of your standard Belgian yeast strains. For the first time though I'm getting a major contribution in flavor from the hops.  The Motueka hops are really coming through with a tart fruitiness now (or at least in this bottle for whatever reason).  The commercial description they have of a lemon, lime, and tropical flavor is showing up quite a bit in the finish, giving it a big juicy/tart finish.  While "tart" is sometimes an overrated term for a standard saison that doesn't utilize wild yeast, the tartness here seems to be from the hops (and it is minor overall).

While this beer doesn't contain enough of the rustic/earth flavor for a saison, I really am loving it nonetheless. It's like a fantastic (in my mediocre palate's opinion) hybrid between a saison and Belgian strong pale ale. Very easy to drink and refreshing even at an ABV of 7.1%.

Some of the better saison or farmhouse beers these days utilize wild yeasts such as Brett and I'm just not there yet in terms of being able to use that (would need more equipment and time). But once I can start doing that a beer like this would have a delicious funkiness to it that some of us love.

Saison Viejo Taste Test #2

Compared to the first bottle I tested, this one has an extra week of carbonation at room temp and an extra week of cold crashing itself in the fridge as well. Somehow the ripe fruit, tropical, and lemon aromas have apparently left the building. I must say that's a good thing because they were a bit cloying and limited the refreshment factor of the beer. Replacing that was a better expression of the earthy component from the yeast. The body that was once too slick also now seems light years more thin and refreshing, but nowhere near watery. The carboation was good then, but even better now. On the higher end as I was shooting for. Nice and prickly and effervescent. A refreshing drink. It could have a better complexity in yeast derived flavors perhaps... I'll have to give that a deeper look on future bottles. For now I'm just happy with the difference between the first and second tastes.

(this was typed/published on my mobile phone)

Saison Viejo Taste Test #1

The first taste test comes after 2 weeks of room temp condition/carbonating and 3 days in the fridge cold conditioning. A pretty young beer.  I love the color and the stability of the head, it doesn't fade too fast.  The initial aroma was very lemony.  I'm not sure if that really was the hops or not (Motueka described as lemon/lime/tropical), but it actually didn't remain the entire drink.  A more ripe fruit took over... small hints of banana (didn't want that in there at ALL) and other tropical fruits.  I'm really inclined to think the fruits are from yeast esters. A bit of earth is found in the flavor.

The mouthfeel is very slick.  Way more than I thought it would be. 7% rolled oats was probably too much for a saison (would probably work perfectly in a stout).  Almost seems like it detracts a bit from the carbonation which on the surface seemed to be at a fine level. In addition to that, almost everyone reports that Wyeast 3711 French Farmhouse lends a smooth body to beers even after chewing them down to a final gravities near 1.001 or 1.002, keeping them from feeling watery. Saisons really need to be effervescent and I don't think this is going to get there with the slickness from those two sources. An ABV of 7.1 may play a third part there too. I'm hoping even more carbonation develops in the bottles that have more than 2 weeks worth of conditioning at room temperature. My goal was to get this on almost the "too high" carbonation side.

At this point, it feels more like a cross between a Belgian Strong Pale and a Saison.  That said, I could drink a glass of this easily, and no off flavors to me of any sort, unless the ripe fruit levels remain high in which I would be leaning towards calling them an off-flavor... at least in terms of what I was going for.