Deux Amis

Bottle @ ZZT 2016-1. Hazy yellow with a large white head. Smells malts, floral, yeasty. Tastes floral, fruity, zesty. Medium body, medium carbo.

When I read a few weeks ago that Dupont was going to do a collab with Lost Abbey, my interest was immediately sparked so I purchased this 75 cl bottle at De Caigny and couldn’t wait anymore to open it. Opens with a lot of pressure and ’smoke’ coming out of the bottle neck, but no gushing. Thick, densely moussy, very regular, egg-white, well retaining head over an initially clear, deep and warm ’old gold’ coloured, beautiful beer with fierce, champagne-like fizz piercing through. Very ’Belgian’, tripel-like aroma of banana isoamylacetate (no bubblegum here), pear, straw, egg yolk (as in: a vague sulfuric hint), gooseberry, cava, dried apricot, powder sugar, sweet white grape, damp hay, nettle cheese, melting butter (diacetyl - I should have waited longer), honey, field flowers (buttercups), dough, old dried ginger, crabapples. Spritzy onset, minerally with some fruity esters, banana and peach hints, something apple-like and sourish gooseberry and redcurrant effects, while spicy accents dance around; mouthfeel is supple, perhaps a little less body than expected, but pleasant and more softly carbonated than expected based on the visible sparkles in the glass, but still on the fizzy side. Bready and caramelly malt sweetishness carries the fruity and spicy flavors onwards to a drying finish, where a peppery and very earthy, bit resinous, floral and even slightly tonic water-like hop bitterness resides, providing balance. The typical phenolic profile of the Dupont yeast is there too, albeit more subdued than in most of their regular beers. Minerally flavors keep lingering underneath this floral and spicy hoppiness, and so does a bready yeasty touch especially after the sediment has been added (obviously). So here we are then: two famous and internationally respected breweries joining forces to make this Americo-Belgian saison. The result is surely very decent: nice balance in flavors, looking very attractive and true to style - but then, it’s Dupont, I don’t see how this could have been anything else but a decent saison. I would not, however, say that it is a lot more than decent: in fact, it comes across as a bit ’cleaner’ than Dupont Saison, Bons Voeux and the like, and I personally prefer a hint of ’dirtiness’ in my saisons. Perhaps this cleaner profile should be ascribed to Lost Abbey’s part in this game, but whatever the case, in this form it hovers somewhere between a true saison and a classic Belgian tripel. The bottle is clearly too young as well, I am convinced that this will come out better with at least half a year of cellaring. For now: tasty, pleasant, quenching Belgian, but somehow I cannot help but having expected something a bit less ’common’...

(Keg at Stadin Panimobaari, 20160723) The beer poured golden and clear. Its head was medium sized and white. Aroma had fruitiness, tartness and grapefruit. Palate was medium bodied with medium carbonation. Flavours were Belgian style yeast, spiciness, sweetness, grass, malts and bitterness. Aftertaste was yeasty, spicy and bitter. A pleasant Belgian style brew. I liked.

Draught @ Stadin Panimobaari, Helsinki. Pours yellowish with a smooth head. Aroma of rustic yeastiness, fruits, spices, hints of grass and farmyard. Taste is smooth, farmyardy and earthy with some funky rustic notes, grass, citrus, hay and ripe fruits. Finish is smooth, slightly rustic and farmyardy with some fruits and grass. Pretty balanced rustic saison.

Bottle. Pours unclear blonde, OK white head. Smell is banana yeast, and very intense. Taste is intense banana as well, and rather intensely bitter, too. I expected more, but this is just way to much one-dimentionnal banana yeastyness to me .

4 oz pour on draft at ChurchKey. Clear golden yellow with off-white head. Aromas of herbs, spice, light citrus. Tastes of citrus, floral notes, herbs, light funk. Medium body with a dry finish. Nice.

Draught (7%) @ Namur Beer Festival 2016. Aroma has grass, fruits and yeast. Flavour has some yeasty tones, grassy hops and fruits. Refreshing!