Amsterdam saison (or, to concisely explain the concept to Anglo-Saxons: ’farmhouse ale’), from a bottle bought at the Mitra shop of Lelystad. Thick and densely moussy but regularly shaped, egg-white head, very stable and remaining closed for a long time, over a hazy warm amber coloured beer with salmon pinkish tinge. Aroma of fresh orange peel (clearly the Cascade), straw, unripe peach, lightly toasted bread, peanuts, lemon orchard, jute, unsugared muesli, dry leaves, red apple, raw turnip, sweetish field flowers, hints of nectarine, sourdough, honey, redcurrant, old cookies. Mildly estery onset, juicy fruitiness of peach, some pineapple and dried banana sweetishness with a souring, gooseberry-like edge, medium carbonated, minerally aspects, smooth and supple, lean mouthfeel, creamy due to the oats, bit resinous too. Caramelly and even lightly honeyish malt sweetness in the middle with ongoing fruitiness on top, deeper sourish grainy note of spelt but subtly so, dryish towards the finish with more and more phenols (old cloves - luckily no medicinal or chemical side effects), some bready yeastiness but subduedly so, minerally side flavors and a drying, softly bittering, dried citrus peel-like hoppiness with floral and spicy aspects to it; after all this, a glow of warming, whisky-ish alcohol lights up, but only to accentuate the flavors rather than pulling them apart with wryness. Elegant and ’clean’ interpretation of the style, technically completely flawless (which always scores high in my book) but lacking a bit in ’rural roughness’, attenuation and hayish or floral hoppy character to qualify as a true, authentic saison - which it clearly isn’t. I guess the aim was to imitate modern American farmhouse ale (which is often far removed from what I as a Belgian see as ’saison’) but, more than anything, I actually find its cleanness, creaminess and relative sweetness very reminiscent of French bière de garde, hadn’t it been for the New World hop kiss. Whatever: this is an enjoyable and well-made ale for sure.

Good dense, light-cream head, fed by fine carbonation in faintly hazy orange-amber beer. Citrus, yeast, esters, bit of fatty acids even, banana. Same impression in the flavour. Fusels, yeast byproducts; bit spicy, sharpish. Light sourness, again fatty acid-likd. Bit caramel, certainly warming up. Bit of oxydation too. Medium bodied, good carbonation, slick to oily feel. "Farmhouse ald". Which is pretty much as saying "anything". Which is a good description of this beer.

Bottle, 330 ml, from Bierkoning. Shared with JFK10000. Pours hazy orange, large white head. Fruity, citrus, hoppy, spicy, smooth, sweetish, bitterish finish. Medium bodied. Liked it.

Bottle at home. Hazy darker golden with fizzy off white head. Light spicy yeast, dried apricot, sweet malts. There’s quite some alcohol, almost like calvados with some sweet apple and bitter herbs. It’s medium sweet and bitter with a surprisingly full body. Decent saison.

Bottle at De Goudse Eend, Gouda, Netherlands, Saturday 24th October 2016 Orangey gold with a haziness, very perfumey, really soft carbonation, quite a floralness to this. Good bittersweet balance, easy drinking for the abv. Good. A7 A4 T7 P4 Ov13 3.5

Draft at Kimchi Festival 2016 (second day). Slightly hazy amber with white head. Sweet malts, big floral notes, honey, apples, flower petal parfume. Light sweet and bitter. Bitterness overpowering sweetness. Medium body, soft carbonation.

On tap at Kent Beer Festival 2016. Hazy amber colour lasting cream head. Some saison yeast and funk on the aroma. Spicy hop. Touch of earthy sourness in the mouth. Some caramel sweetness then a spicy hop finish. A bit too muddy earthy for me.

Dark blond with light haze. Aroma and flavour have some wet wood and bready yeast. Quite gassy. The more I drink it the less I like it.