Explosive yellow head, as a booming mushroomcloud, vèèèèry slowly giving way to foxy-amber beer. Boozy nose, obvious Bourbon with vanilla and young oak, walnut husk. Boozy, Bourbon, brandy, sweet. Vanilla, bit of fusels, raisins, banana, fresh orangejuice. Finish has a slight sourish touch. Medium bodied at least; very slick to oily. Close to overcarbonation (barrel aged, they say?). Get this right: 1) I like this - a lot! But I have questions: 2) how a barrel-aged beer gets close to gushing (and a sourish touch) and 3) a "Saison" (meaning: a Hainaut farmstead quaffing ale) in a BOURBON cask? Seriously? OK, alles moet kunnen , but the logic escapes me.

Bottle. Fuzzy orange color. Aroma of orange, sweet vanilla, yeast and butter. Taste of butter, sweet vanilla, mild booze, malt ester and some grassy spice. Not bat all.

Bottle @ Beerbecue at joes, small sample. Slight hazy amber color, short frothy head. Aroma of caramel, cookie, slight spicy, bit bourbon. Nothing really reminds of a saisonesque brew, except perhaps the spicy yeast. More a belgian amber. Bit sweet in taste, slight cookie and bourbon. Bit weird.

Bottle shared @ Beerbecue with Joes, Caesar and Dutchdrebus. Hazy orange color, full sized off-white head. Smell and taste malts, not a lot of flavor initially, after a while some caramel and sweet fruits. Quite fizzy carbonation. Ok beer.

Bottle @ beerbecue. Amber colour with a large white head. Smells anice, herbs, spices, bourbon, wood. Tastes vanilla, malts, herbs, grains. Weird combination. Not for me. Medium body, medium to heavy carbo.

Bottle 157 / 420. Pours dark, but clear amber to brown. Good white head, but def. not bigger than AVG. Experienced no pop, gushing whatsoever as well, which seems very different than the bottle Countbeer had. No problems here (so far) . Smell is spiced, bit sweet, some oak. Complex ! Taste is sharp bitter, in a very buttery way ( not sure if it’s ment to be this buttery) with a bourbon undertone ( in the buttery aspect ). Some mild oak. Ok body, but too much carbonation for sure. The beer has some bitterness to it as well. What to say as a conclusion ? Well, this beer is completely off in balance. The bourbon absolutely does not match with the beer, which results to ( by combination with other aspects) an off-putting buttery flavor. think of a extreme dyacethyl-case. The undertone might be OK, but a 75 of this, alone, at this price, NO thank you ! I might be able to wrestle myself to a small glass at best, but I can buy many, many other beers for this money that are way better.

75cl bottle @ Shrewsbury Beer Share, Dec 15, courtesy of little miss Haddock below. Certainly the first bourbon-barrel aged saison I’ve heard of. The sweet bourbon elements seem to blend effortlessly with the sweet vanilla saison yeast remarkably well. Sweet funk aroma. I know jeremy didn’t like it but I did. Enjoyable.

Bottle 315 of 420 from De Bierboom, Brugge. Shared with friends at the December 2015 Shrewsbury Beer Exchange Group meeting. Misty dark orange pour, off-white head. Highly carbonated, almost ’fizzy’ in fact: maybe wants another 6 months in the bottle to calm down a little? Anyway the nose and taste were a strange blend of spiced wood and toffee apples with mild citrus notes. Weird, interesting but just didn’t seem to be balanced or finished fully. OK is the best I can say about it.

Sampled @ Gents Bierfestival 2015 Trübes oranges Bier mit einer sehr schönen leicht beigen schaumkrone. Der Geruch ist leicht holzig, reife Früchte, Whiskey. Geschmack nach Karamell, Vanille, Holz, reife Früchte, Bourbon.