Brasserie de Blaugies Saison d'Epeautre

Wow, it's been entirely too long since I made a post. Sorry for that. Anyway, every once in a while I like to get a beer that Julia wants. Both of us are big fans of the saison style, so it tends to be what she picks out. This time she chose Saison d'Epeautre, a belgian saison brewed with spelt. I'm not terribly familiar with it, but apparently it's a type of grain that's a wheat and wild grass hybrid. To me that just screams saison, so I'm excited for a taste of it.

The cork exploded out of the bottle with excessive force when I opened it. Hopefully it didn't dent my ceiling when it hit it, so be forewarned if you pick up a bottle. Immediately on opening I was greeted with a wave of grassy funk. Unsurprisingly, the beer grew a substantial pillowy white head floating on top of its staw-colored body. This beer really has a sort of bitter grass aroma that you only find in a Belgian saison, but with a little sweetness that comes through around the edges.

The first taste was strangely clean. A touch of grass, and some wheat. If this is what spelt tastes like consider me very intrigued. In the back of the mouth is a not quite peppery mild spice sensation. There isn't a lot of the funk, horse blanket, or similar flavors that I was expecting from the aroma. In fact this beer is extremely mild and clean. Perhaps there are some delicate fruit flavors, like peach or apricot, but they are hard to pick out.

In the mouth the beer is light bodied, and very highly carbonated. It's also quite dry. There is a little feeling of warmth in the throat, but I feel like it's more from the prickly carbonation than from the alcohol content.

All in all, this was an interesting brew. It's extremely drinkable and refreshing despite its lack of the expected saison flavors. It's hard to determine if there's any brett influence in this beer although I can only assume there is. I probably will not come back to this beer again, but it was worth a try, and more importantly makes me want to look into spelt. The intensity of the grassy funk aroma must come from that since it doesn't come through nearly as much in the flavor.

- Adam

Three Floyds Robert the Bruce

After a long day of working through editing a song I'm mixing at work, my ears are tired, my head is in a fog, and I've probably gone at least slightly insane from listening to the same musical phrases over and over again. I don't do editing this in-depth normally, but this project really calls for it. Needless to say, my reward for a particularly long and annoying day is treating myself to a rather special beer. This is one of the beers I received from a guy in Indiana as part of a Beer It Forward on Beer Advocate.

Not being much of a history buff, I know Robert the Bruce mostly as that slightly wimpy future king of Scotland from Braveheart. This offering from Three Floyds is expectedly a Scottish Ale, and promises to be malt-forward, sweet, and fairly easy to drink.

As one could imagine, the aroma is decidedly malty, with very present caramel and fruit scents. At first I believe I detected caramel, apple, raisin, bread, possibly fig, and a mix of other less distinguishable additions blending together to make a complex and fairly forward blend. It has a deep brown color with hints of ruby around the glass, and a thin off-white head of about one finger that dissipated to a dusting within minutes.

The flavors of the beer match the nose. A round sweetness is present up front, developing into a smooth caramel explosion. In the back of the mouth the fruit flavors become more pronounced, with a slightly apple-like finish. There's a decent amount of substance to the beer as well, with the flavors coming through strongly. The hops are mostly muted, with just a touch of bitterness in the back of the mouth that you almost have to concentrate on to detect. The malt flavors linger for minutes after swallowing as well, allowing you to continue enjoying the brew between sips.

The beer is well carbonated, with just a slightly forward prickling sensation, and a body that's on the heavier side of medium. It coats the mouth thoroughly, and leaves just a touch of warmth as it goes down.

This beer really hit the spot for me today, and allowed me to unwind as I drank it. Something about the blend of malty flavors and smoothness just made it easy to relax. As I continued through the glass, I felt like I was noticing a bit of an alcohol flavor right when swallowing that could have been hidden a bit better, but overall it was very easy to drink. I don't know that this is something I would want most days, but it was certainly worth having once.

- Adam

DuClaw Black Lightning

DuClaw is another relatively local brewery that I enjoy somewhat regularly. Their Misery wheat wine was one of my favorite offerings, but I also enjoyed Black Jack and Serum. When I saw that they now have some more offerings available in 6-packs, I jumped at the chance to try them. Black Lighting is labeled as a Black Ale, which really doesn't say all that much. I interpreted that to be along the lines of a Black IPA, but with a Pale Ale as the base instead.

Upon pouring, I was greeted with the scent of caramel, toffee, and roast. There doesn't seem to be a ton of hop quality to the aroma, but still there seems to be some balancel. Maybe a little bit of citrus poked through, but I was having a hard time picking it out. The beer is black with a dense coffee-foam like head, a tan color, and it clings stubbornly to the side of the glass.

The first sip provided a light and smooth roast taste, along with a more substantial bitter backbone than I expected given the rather malty smell. It's almost as if they took a creamy stout and just dialed all the flavors back a bit. It's almost delicate in that respect, and although it would be disappointing if I was looking for a big stout, in this case it seems pleasant. There's a touch of caramel around the sides of the mouth as well. My garlic-laden pasta dinner brought out some dark chocolate flavors, although maybe that's also just the beer.

The beer has a moderately light body and a somewhat airy feel in the mouth. It's fairly well balanced between dry and wet, not really leaning towards one side or another. There's a little bit of coating as well, but not too much.

Overall this beer is pretty well balanced, and enjoyable for what it is. It's not the best thing that I've ever had, even from DuClaw, but it goes down easily. The only thing that really strikes me about it though is that since it basically tastes like a weak stout, I have a hard time finding the real target for this beer. Normally these "black ale" variations have a decidedly hoppy character, but that's mostly missing in this beer other than the peppery bitterness. It certainly was worth the money for the 6-pack, but I can't see myself seeking this one out again.

- Adam