Troll Saison Daù

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

750 ml capped bottle. Poured a slight gushing and unfiltered cloudy golden-orange coloured Saison with a generous two fingers slightly beige soapy foamy head that had a very long retention and tons of micro bubbles. Sustained carbonation. Great lacing. The aroma is moderate malty, juicy and aciditic fruits, citrus, herbal hops, notes of honey. The flavour is moderate malts, yeast,, heavy fruity, citrus, grapefruits, spicy, anise, coriander and a peppery touch. The mouthfeel is sparkling, fizzy and bitter. This light to medium bodied Saison has a dry fruity and heavy bitter finish. A very refreshing and a pleasant bitterness for this Saison from the Italian Alpen in the South Piemont.

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

I seriously thought this beer was Vietnamese based on the word Dau. Turns out to be Italian. The bottle seemed to be made of a very thin glass. Hazy orange with almost no head. The aroma was peppery, spicy, and a little grainy malt. The flavour was slightly skunky in that saison type of way.

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

Bottle at O’briens. Pours with a slightly cloudy, pale yellow body topped by a medium thick white head with a good amount of lacing. Wow...the aroma is full of spice...coriander, ginger and lots of pepper. The flavor is similar with more ginger notes and less pepper notes. Not as intense as the aroma. Light bodied, crisp and smooth.

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

The beer looked quite clear before I popped the cap, but when I did the beer was well carbonated enough to actually start to foam out of the bottle. A careful pour yields an initial four-fingers of head which quickly grew to an additional three-fingers in height above the rim of my glass (quite a structural masterpiece as it has not actually run down the sides of my glass. The beer, now very hazy from all the stirred up yeast, is a bright, yellow, straw-gold color while the head is just off white in color. I wasn't expecting it, but am definitely happy to report that the aroma smells quite funky; initially I thought for sure it was Brettanomyces, but upon further inspection I am not sure it just isn't the choice of interesting spices. Woody, sharp, funky, lots of woody pepper, slight lemon zest, hints of sweet ginger, the aroma is actually quite piquant in character.

Quite light feeling, but with an ample, zesty carbonation, the beer is light and airy as it crosses the tongue, but at this point does not feel overly carbonated for a Saison (that 5 minute rest seems to have made the carbonation manageable). The spice notes, while present, are not as omnipresent as I had thought they would be. The spices are one of the biggest parts of the flavor profile, but somehow the individual spice notes are not overly noticeable. Woody black pepper, lemon zest, and a bit of biting ginger and piquant pepper in the finish are all fairly noticeable. The beer has a nice malt character to it that provides a touch of sweet grain, and a chewy, somewhat grassy, cracker like grain character towards the finish. This is eminently quaffable, as one would expect from a beer of this strength, but it still has lots of character & flavor that keeps it interesting.

The second pour even has more sediment to it; it is much more murky, picks up some yeasty flavors that provides a hint of texture and a bit of a yeast bite, but the overall effect is fairly minimal. The ginger and pepper seem to provide the most influence here, but it is hard to divorce the two to see which is contributing to the interesting piquant flavors here. The woodiness from the pepper is a nice, noticeable addition though.

I really like the levels & combination of spices used here; they are evident, but not overwhelming and all together they seem to boost the naturally funkiness of the beer (even at first making me thing that there was Brett here). I really like the use of coriander here, they seemed to have used it subtly and of a quality that did not contribute that green, stalky, earthy note that is found in lots of beers that use coriander. A fantastic, low alcohol (which is staunchly traditional) Saison, the likes of which you can no longer get commercially until now. This is so drinkable that a 750ml is really not even enough. I will say that the time it has spent in the bottle has probable muted the spice effect quite a bit, which is perfectly ok by me.