Big Rock Chop House Saison St. Clair

Aroma: 8 | Appearance: 6 | Mouthfeel: 8 | Flavor: 7 | Overall: 7

Sampled March 2009
This is quite well carbonated as a carefully pour fills my 25cl tulip glass with four-fingers of pale white, fairly large bubbled foam. The head dissipates pretty quickly and doesn't leave any lacing what-so-ever. The beer is a light gold color that shows an almost brilliantly clear, bright yellow-gold color when held up to the light (as well as showing a mess of madly streaming bubbles). As I pour this an aroma of freshly pressed pear / apple cider is quite noticeable. A bit of a more focused inspection of the nose reveals a touch of flint, a subdued mustiness, some moldy cotton notes and really just a fairly spicy funkiness that pairs pretty well with the up front fruit aromatics. Other aromas of honey, spicy wildflowers, as well as a muskiness that I usually associate with Brettanomyces (though I am not sure this isn't just the yeast character).

Quite fizzy feeling still and this beer is also quite dry and effervescent. It does have some similarities with a sparkly, farmhouse Cider. This has a flint-like metallic character that is actually pretty nice and towards the finish there is a funky, phenolic character that reminds me of Brettanomyces. This is really quite bone dry, which masks much of the fruitiness that was found in the nose; this does have an herbal character to it as well as enough fruitiness to remind me a bit of a bone dry Cider. My second pour reveals just how effervescent this beer can be, it foams up quite a bit as it rolls across the tongue, while not quite vaporizing, it really is quite lively. Coupling this with the very light body makes this beer quite quaffable and refreshing; this is definitely a hot weather beer, though I think it has a touch more alcohol than the body might suggest. The carbonation provides a peppery flavor to this beer that couples with the herbal notes and other flavors of ginger, a hint of sage, a touch of clove, plus this also has a solid hop bitterness to it. As the beer warms up a bit a hint of malt sweetness does start to become noticeable, but it is quite slight in influence.

Now that I have gone back and read the brewers description, this beer was "refermented with a wild yeast strain", so there is a reason it tastes like it has a Brettanomyces influence. It is quite interesting that the aroma can actually smell quite sticky sweet at times (much like honey), despite the flavor of this beer being bone dry. This is definitely a nice beer, but I feel that it is missing a bit of complexity (especially in the flavor) and despite the perfect Brettanomyces influence, it does seem to be lacking a touch of rusticity some how. This is still quite enjoyable though and is definitely a beer worth seeking out.