From tap at The Commons, Portland. Aroma is spicy Saison yeast, malt, herbal notes, spicy notes, with a mild floral touch and citrussy notes. Flavour is moderate to medium sweet and lightly bitter. Body is medium. Decent ’Farmhouse’ effort, lacks some refinement, fairly sweet.

30.03.2015, 0,75l bottle shared with friends @ home:
Nice creamy mediumlasting head. Aroma is slightly fresh floral, flowers, dried fruits, yeast, hay, banana, light malts, minerals, citrus peel, grass. Taste is slightly dry floral, wet hay, flowers, light malts, minerals, yeast, wet grass, paper, bark. Medium bitterness, slightly dry and watery mouthfeel. Fair enough.

On tap at restaurant, Portland, Oregon. The colour is clear straw with a small off-white head. Fruity aroma of phenols, spices, grass, hay and lemon. The flavour mirrors the aroma. Has a slick mouth feel, medium body and a light bitterness. A fruity and well-balanced saison. Nice one.

Bottle shared in MV with the fam. Pours mostly clear yellow-gold, effervescent, with a creamy, white head. The nose has some doughy wheat bread, sourdough, lemon meringue. Light-medium sweet flavour, with low bitterness, a little straw, very slight acidity, mellow alcohol warmth. Light to medium bodied with lively carbonation. Finishes with a bit of warmth, some pear, white grape, melon, more sourdough. Pretty clean and drinkable.

On Tap very pale light hazy golden. with a thin wispy white head. Light farmhouse yeast flavors and a light cereal grain malts.

American saison (or ’farmhouse ale’ as they tend to call it - thereby including bière de garde and modern, often ’wild’ American elaborations) from a 75 cl champagne bottle bought online. ’Papery’ lacing, medium thick, regular, egg-white, moussy head with good retention, atop a pale straw blonde beer with slightly greenish hue, initially seemingly clear but actually already bearing a very diffuse haze, perturbed by strings of vivid carbonation. Aroma of garden weeds, withered nettles, hay, banana, rucola, unripe gooseberries, raw spinach, old stale lime juice, dandelions, soap, gypsum, pear, chalk, pineapple, dust, bubblegum, dried lemon peel, hard green apple. Very fizzy in the mouth, hugely overcarbonated, difficult to drink and numbing the taste buds, souring an otherwise estery sweetish and sourish onset of banana, gooseberry and pineapple; this overly sharp carbo quiets down as the bottle stands open for a while, of course, but still remains quite pointy till the end. Supple mouthfeel, light and slick, unsurprisingly coarsened a lot by the overcarbonation. Sweetish cereally and sharpish grainy middle, soapy too, with some white candi sugar sweetishness on top, along with the esters and spicy phenols; ends in a drying, very grassy and hayish, floral hop bitterness, no real New World hoppiness (apart from that lime-like touch) but more of a classically European - including Belgian - hop profile, pleasant and earthy, going down with juicy cereal traces and the last remnant of the banana ester, which is there from the beginning but does not overpower anything and fits well into the whole; something weirdly gypsum-like lingers in the finish which I did not find all too pleasant. Still, all things considered, very convincing as an old school Belgian blonde ale, I must say; light (and pale lager-like in its malt profile), crisp, fizzy and estery in the right places, with an earthy, weedy, spicy hop finish, this can qualify as a saison - it is clear that the Dupont example has been taken quite literal here. The banana annex bubblegum ester sweetness is unnecessary for me - I have had this one time too many in actual Belgians - and the overcarbonation bothered me at the start, but otherwise I could have been told I was drinking some rural Belgian blonde and would have believed it. If this was the intention, mission accomplished.

Bottle at Culmination Fest 16: Poured a hazy yellow with a white head. Aroma is floral and yeast esters. Taste was barnyard funk with esters, and citrus.

750mL bottle, from Spring 2016, drunk 7/16/16.
Big, lasting, white head tops a sparkling, peach-nectarine-golden with light copper tints and a good clarity.
Very lively yeast in the nose shows pretty straightforward white pepper, nectarine, apple, a touch of bubble gum and nuttiness. Fresh though and quite charming, even if not every single note is quite the pinnacle of saison brewing. Spicy/peppery hops show respect to tradition, with a big honey-caramel kick on the finish as the malts enter the picture. No alcohol or flaw.
Malty, with lots of honey, light caramel and a big bready character. Tons of carbonation, though mostly tight and natural make for a lighter perceived body than what it actually is and as the carbonation settles and the beer wears on, I do think it gets just a bit too malty and sweet. Still, there are plentiful enjoyable esters and phenols to behold with soft, spicy hops lingering and no alcohol or flaw.

On tap at OIBF’16. Clear golden colour, white head. Aroma of a classic saison, light yeasty, dry, lemon, lemon peel, floral, malty, straw. Flavour follows, light to medium sweet, lemon peel, lemon, floral, malts, straw, dry soft bitter finish. Light bodied. Tasty.

Draft at Oedipus International Beer Festival. Clear golden with a white head. Aroma of saison yeast, light citrus, grassy notes, light malt and grain. Flavour is light to moderate sweet and bitter. Light to medium bodied with soft carbonation.