Freestyle #14: Blonde Saison

Reviewed from notes. This was on tap at Vignola’s, Portland ME.
This was poured into a pint glass.
The appearance was a fairly nice looking golden bronzed yellow color with a decent half finger white foamy head that dissipated within less than thirty seconds. There’s a decent light lacing that slides into the beer.
The smell has some light pear and apple with a fairly decent floral hoppiness that ends up adding a slight touch of spice and some pepper and clove.
The taste was mainly sweet and spicy through a nice light maltiness that added a fairly decent grainy to breadiness to intermingle throughout.
On the palate, this sat about a light to medium in body with decent carbonation indicating a light harshness, but nothing overly done. It was good for the style and for me.
Overall, I had a couple of these so that I could get a good feel for it that night. In my opinion, I say this was a well worthy beer to have again.

On tap at Monks Cafe. Aroma is very fresh with lots of nice fruit esters, pear and apple being most dominant, good floral notes from the hops that also add a touch of spice and some pepper and clove phenolics. Pours a cloudy pale straw yellow with a pillowy white head. Head recedes fairly quickly. No lacing or legs. Flavor has light malt character upfront, grain and bready. This is quickly washed away with an assertive but moderate bitterness. The bitterness brings in a nice floral and spicy noble hop character which balances nicely with the esters and phenolics from the yeast. Esters are pear, apple and a hint of banana. Phenolics are clove and peppercorn. Finish is dry and bitter with a nice spicy phenolic character. Mouthfeel is medium light bodied with medium high carbonation. There is a low hop astringency and allow alcohol warmth. A very enjoyable clean Saison. The yeast is phenolic and estery but not sour or funky at all. The hop character is refreshing and a nice addition to the yeast character.