McKenzie Dark Saison

Draught at Kennett Square Brewfest October 2005
Hazy, deep caramel brown colored beer, with some light mahogany and tan/beige tones. Fluffy beige head is moderately slow to recede, but eventually does mostly, leaving fair lacing on the glass.
The aroma seemed to be quite subtle for a dark malted saison. Soft floral hop notes, with fresh cut herbs and wintergreen-like esters. Sticky, yet still mostly dry caramel notes combine with a light, unfiltered graininess to provide light wood notes. Growing lightly vinous as it warmed, but not nearly as much as many of the other American Dark Saisons (Heavyweight, Shed). The fruits remain rather reserved, while a sweet vanilla and choco-caramel malt seem to take over. I didn’t find near as much playful yeastiness and found simply too much sweetness. Soft and balanced sweetness, but malty sweetness nonetheless, which overtook the hop and yeast apparency.
Flavor is a soft, round (with a bit of toasty, grainy brown malts) caramel and graham cracker sweetness, cut with juicy, green herbal/floral hops, though quite reserved on the hoppiness and especially so on the bitterness. A late note of some phenolic yeast qualities attempts to break the sweetness, with some punchy fruitiness (plums, currants, mangoes, raisins) but it’s not enough to break through the malt, in my mind, anyways. Though I keep alluding to being disappointed by the maltiness, I should certainly make note that I loved the ample, well-extracted malt, especially the creamy, soothing texture it provided, but comparing this to something like, La Moneuse Winter, it just comes up short on saison complexity (yeast character). Though to it’s credit, it’s better to be more reserved with your yeast than take the other route, which most American brewers do, leading to meaty, yeast-thick, fatiguing beers.