Glazen Toren Saison d'Erpe-Mere

Aroma: 8 | Appearance: 8 | Mouthfeel: 8 | Flavor: 8 | Overall: 9

750 ml paper-wrapped bottle, Cardinal Pub & Bar, Stavanger. ABV is 6.5%. Pale straw colour, huge white head. Pleasant aroma of spicy saison yeast, some fruity hints too. Spicy and fruity notes in the flavour too, with decent herbal hops. Very good beer.

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

Well well well. A pleasant (because it was an unknown) surprise at a local taphouse. Fruity, hoppy, and spicy all rolled into one tasty package. Tropical fruit, melons, banana, a good dose of hops, and light spice (more in the aftertaste) in the nose and flavor. This will be revisited over the summer.

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

sampled on 8/28/10. 750ml bottle with mitch. pours a slightly hazy medium yellow color. huge head. aroma is fruity, spicy. taste is fruity, spicy, yeasty. lots of carbonation. body is medium/light. mouthfeel is full. aftertaste is sweet.

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

Sampled on 8/28/2010. This saison pours a slightly hazy yellow gold color from a 750ml bottle. Very large sized pillowy foamy white head, with long lasting retention and good lacing. The aroma is peaches and apricots, herbal and spicy. A medium bodied saison. The malts are fruity and sweet, with touch of apricots and peaches. The hops are herbal and earthy. Very lively carbonation, I mean very lively carbonation. Nice balance. Light herbal flavors and spiciness throughout. Mouthfeel is full and round. Finish is clean and smooth. Aftertaste is slightly sweet.

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

In my continuing saga of tasting potentially wonderful beers after mistreating them horribly ... this one has been sitting in the fridge for a year, after sitting in a closet for almost a year. It still is quite drinkable, much to my pleased surprise. It very bubbly and effervescent on the tongue -- it geysered when I opened it. The aroma is a bit dusty with hints of apple. It has a chunky bitterness, more than I expect from a saison [but again -- we have beaten up this poor bottle].

Aroma: 10 | Appearance: 8 | Mouthfeel: 8 | Flavor: 8 | Overall: 8

Bottle: Poured a deep cloudy yellow/beige color ale with a huge foamy head with great retention and loads of foam sticking to the glass. Aroma is quite spicy which is probably coming from the yeast strain used by the brewer. Taste is a mix between some deep semi-sweet Belgian malt, some fruity ester and a spicy finish from the yeast with some light funky notes as well. Body is full with limited filtration with some great carbonation. Very well done overall but I still think this is a notch below the Dupont.

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

Hazy yellow colour, mediumsized white head. Earthy, fruity and slightly sour aroma. Flavour is dry, earthy but at the same time very refreshing. Quite nice Saison. Lots of herbal things also lurking in the background.

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

PP 12-hour Belgian Beer Fest...Pours wtih a cloudy yellow body topped by a medium thick head with some lacing. It’s sweet and grassy with a touch of yeastiness and a nice underlying maltiness. It’s light bodied, crisp and a touch dry.

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

Another lazy Sunday afternoon, another mixed cheese plate, and another Saison. On the deck this time? This "typical specialty of the province of Hainault". Well, with all due respect to the good folks in the province of Hainault..., I was a bit underwhelmed with this one.

"What's the problem?" Only in that this beer never really seemed to get out of 1st gear for me. More like a basic Belgian Golden Ale stuck in neutral than a Saison putting the pedal to the metal, as it were.

Now, this is not a bad beer, by any means. Looks good in my Augustijn glass, with lots of lacing, and yet without the head getting too out of control out of the bottle. And it's not a bad drinker -- enough interesting things going that I never really got bored of this at any time.

But..., there just wasn't much complexity to this, either. No complex malt notes, nor anything special going on, spice-wise. Very calm and noncommittal in the aroma. Seemed to me the the house yeast used for this beer (there's tons of it in the bottom of the bottle if you want to try to culture it) just didn't have much in the way of character. Not a dull and workmanlike American ale yeast strain by any means. But compared to it's fellow Saison yeast strains, from both sides of the Belgo-Franco border? This one's a snoozer.

Even with the beer at damn-near room temps, it never seemed to find it's own way, or say anything particularly notable IMO.

For the price ($10.99/750mL), I'd say this beer is not really recommendable. Give it a try if you can find cheap and/or splitting the cost with a few other folks.

Music: Hammers Of Misfortune's "The August Engine"
//TB

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

This saison pours a cloudy gold with a big bubbled head. Herbal and almost musty aroma. High carbonation tingles the tongue. Ripe bananas can be found in the flavor. It's a bit more bitter than I expected.