Stone Saison

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

Rated Aug. 2014. 12oz bottle pours with a clear gold body that supports a near white head. The aroma is full of esters and saison notes and such like apricot and apple fruitiness mixed with big flowery and herbal notes. The taste is big on flowery lavender blended with sweet ester fruitiness as it gets herbal and a bit peppery toward the finish. A saison I guess. Too heavy.

Aroma: 9 | Appearance: 5 | Mouthfeel: 6 | Flavor: 5 | Overall: 5

12 oz bottle. Pours hazy yellow gold with a big rocky white head that retains well and laces the glass some.

The aroma is sweet bready malts, lemon peel, soapy spices (lavender and chamomile) and some musty yeast.

The flavor is sweet bready cereal malts, lemon, soapy spices, and a fairly bitter peppery finish. The mouthfeel is medium bodied with low carbonation.

Overall, kind of odd with the sweet lemon, soapy spices and a bitter peppery finish.

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

Pours a hazy golden-yellow with a foamy head that settles to a partial film on top of the beer. Foamy rings of lace line the glass on the drink down. Smell is of malt, grain, spice, yeasts, and herb aromas. Taste is much the same with herb and yeast flavors with very heavy pepper in the finish. There is a mild amount of herb bitterness on the palate with each sip. This beer has a lower level of carbonation with a slightly crisp mouthfeel. Overall its too spicy, starts of nice but takes a nose dive in the second half.

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

After 3 attempts, I think brewing anything even resembling a traditional saison may not be something they have the ability (or motivation) to do. At one time, Saison Du Buff was actually my favorite saison, though it's never been anything like the traditional style. As the style has exploded and many great saisons have been had, it's dropped, but is easily the best theyve done. Matt's Burning Rosids was a decent beer, but nothing saison-like about it. This beer is in that same catergory. It's an overspiced beer that has more character of a wit than a saison. I was hoping for maybe a hopped up farmhouse beer and got a heavily spiced lemon and lavender belgian brew. It's nice as a summer seasonal, but is just not fitting the style. From them, I'd hoped for more.

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

A cloudy golden colored beer with a big frothy textured white head rising above. There's some hang time on that head. A thin ringlet is left. A dank yeasty and bready nose. A fair amount of pepper and lesser spices in a wheat, bread tasting. Light, effervescent.