Backlog. Dark pour with minimal head. It smells of caramel, dark fruit and sherry. Oxidized. Flavor is sweet and malty with caramel and lots of oxidation. Low carbonation. It’s too old and did not age well. It’s not as bad as the Gouden Carolus that I poured down the drain a couple days before (flat and oxidized all too hell) but it’s not very good. Come on, brewers, put a date of some kind on your beer. Also 3 of 4 beers I’ve opened from the same store in Dayton have been bad. Outdated. I could tell they had other questionable bottles in the store and I tried to avoid them. I would not buy beer there again except maybe newer looking cans. I’d stay the hell away from imported bottles and maybe all bottles and would make sure they’re dated. If not they could be very old and improperly stored. Still, putting dates on bottles/cans isn’t that hard. At this point I’m inclined to hold brewers responsible for low quality if end up with outdated product because they failed to do so.

I consider myself more of a quadrupel or a dubbel fan but this is pretty fine. I opened the 750 ml. bottle and poured a distinctive orange-amber body into a tulip glass. The well developed white foam stayed a long, long time.I could see strong carbonation rising from the bottom of the glass.The scent is fruity, maybe white grapes, and a slightly floral caste.I get a taste of a yellow plum sweetness, dough and a touch of yeast. Only slightly bitter as a follow I think this would be a good summer brew served at a fairly cold temp. Best Saison I have tasted.

Bottle at BeerDig 2011 on 03/06/2011. Mostly clear copper body with a small tan head. Sweet fruit and light spice aroma. Sweet sugary fruit flavor with belgian spice. Medium light body with moderately high carbonation.

@Pauls new condo Tasting-750 bottle shared by dmac-dissipating offwhite-amber. A-banana, lt med malt. T-lt/med malt, some spice.

Bottle at Paul’s tasting. Pours reddish amber with off white head. Nose and taste of banana jolly rancher, candy fruit, baked bread and yeast. Medium body.

Bottle. Pours a dark orange with large frothy off white head that lasts awhile leaving sticky lacing along the glass. The aroma is an earthy yeast and citrus. Medium mouthfeel with a sweet fruit and light caramel malt with nice light spice finish. A good saison from De Proef.

750 ml bottle into tulip glass, no bottle dating. Pours very hazy very dark reddish brown color with a small 1 finger foamy off white head with good retention, that reduces to a small cap that lingers. Decent spotty lacing clings on the glass. The cork hardly popped when I opened it, probably pushing 4 years or more in age. Aromas of caramel, toffee, molasses, prune, raisin, toast, pepper, earth, and big phenolic yeast esters. Aromas aren’t very pleasant at all; very stale and unbalanced feeling. Taste of caramel, toffee, molasses, prune, toast, biscuit, raisin, earth, herbal, grass, and light yeast spiciness. Lingering notes of caramel, molasses, toffee, toast, biscuit, dark fruits, herbal, earth, and light yeast spices on the finish for a good bit. Pretty good flavor balance and complexity; but it feels more like a Belgian dark ale than a saison. Flavors were not as robust as I was expecting; no cloying sweetness. Medium carbonation and medium-full bodied; with a fairly creamy and slick mouthfeel that is good. Alcohol is very well hidden with pretty much no warming noticed at all after the finish. Overall this is a pretty solid dark Belgian saison. The aromas were pretty bad, but the taste turned out alright. Fairly enjoyable, if only they dated these bottles.

Grape & Gourmet, VA Beach 750ml ($10): Pours an orange body with a white frothy head. Aroma is not conventional saison at all: actually, it resembles a Belgian Strong Ale much more. Dark fruity aromas make up most of the nose. Taste is pretty sweet, with an intense fruitiness. There is no funk and barely any trace of saison yeast. I had high hopes for this beer, but it turned out to disappoint.

Sampled from a 750 ml corked brown bottle this beer poured a dark orange-caramel color with a medium sized foamy off white head that left good lacing. The aroma was dryish and chalky with light tangy candied golden fruits. The flavor was sweettart candies, chalk and was fairly dry with herbs and pepper underneath. The finish was long, chalky and had lingering pepper and citrus. Medium body. Eh.

Courtesy of Blazer06. Pours murky deep copper with thin tan head. The aroma has notes of sweat socks, berry fruitiness, tannins, sweatier socks and then some spices. The taste is tart fruit skin tannins, tartness and some odd funky chemical sourness. Kinda weird.