Jack D'Or
Pretty Things Beer and Ale Project in Cambridge, Massachusetts, United States 🇺🇸
Farmhouse - Saison Regular Out of Production|
Score
7.12
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Jack D'Or is a saison americaine: a belgian farmhouse ale with American hops. Dry, bitter, and contrary, this is a beer for all seasons. Available year round, for fun times and happy days. Cheers!
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Appearance - 8 | Aroma - 6 | Flavor - 6 | Texture - 6 | Overall - 6.5
Draught. It was like a saison, but with way too many hops poured into it. I thought it was decent but not for the style.
Appearance - 8 | Aroma - 5 | Flavor - 7 | Texture - 8 | Overall - 8
Notes from January 2010 First Batch picked up at PH Provisions in Boston I believe. Bottled in November 2008. Paid just under $6 back then. Poured into a wobbly Duvel Tulip(oh noes!) that I also picked up in Boston for $2 at another establishment. *sigh* I had this a couple times on tap before & wasn't blown away by it. Add in the homer atmosphere I was drinking it in, & great people behind it, I was torn. I brought a few back with me anyway, figuring the time in the bottle & change of scenery would do it some good. It wasn't long though, before Pretty Things invaded my neighborhood & the novelty of having out of state beer to share with friends was gone. Big yeasty whiff right off the bottle before I even start pouring. Touch of bubblegum, touch of vinegar. Golden, apple juice color. The yeast, just barely disturbed. A bit darker then when it was when fresh. A netting of bubbles surround a whitewash-colored head. Sticky, gritty, lace. Smell is wintergreen-like hops, macerated lemon & orange zests, a touch of honey, & lots of nostril clearing, aerosol-like alcohol. Taste was so much better, & so different from what I had on tap. A light oat-y cereal sweetness upfront, followed up with a lightly herbal, leafy green hoppy middle. It ends on dry crackery malt with a mild trail of steel-y hops. Not very phenolic. I can't complain much though. Dry is good. Coating, but not greasy. Warming in a soothing, non-irritating way. Sane amount of carbonation. A solid saison. :)
Appearance - 6 | Aroma - 9 | Flavor - 9 | Texture - 6 | Overall - 8
Bottle from Kris Wines enjoyed at home. Orange golden colour with nice white head. Aroma is orange fruity, lots of sasiony yeastiness and spices. Taste is same, fruity and peppery. Very drinkable. Nice and spritzy in the mouth. I liked this a lot. Perfect drink to start the session.
Appearance - 6 | Aroma - 7 | Flavor - 7 | Texture - 8 | Overall - 7
Bottled sep 2010, blonde. Maltaroma with grassy hops, vanilla and leather. Grassy, slightly herbal hopflavor. Well balanced. Some distant ctrusfruit.
Appearance - 8 | Aroma - 6 | Flavor - 6 | Texture - 6 | Overall - 6
Bottles and draught upon debut.
Pours a brilliant golden-bronze with fiery copper hues and a good clarity. White head atop is large and slowly recedes to cover.
Hops are pretty prominent in the nose and decidedly American which contributes citrus rind and very light pine. I think the reason Belgian saisons work so well is because the noble hops used don't overpower the yeast character, but rather complement it. Not so much here. Not that it's some crudely done, all hops monstrosity. It's pretty well-done on the hops, to be fair, but I still think they overpower instead of complement. Bread and honey and biscuit from the malt underneath forms a good structure and pepper, apple, light clove and nectarine emanate from the yeast. No alcohol or flaw.
In the mouth it's the same, with more bitterness than I'd care for and even more malt than the nose suggests. More like a vaguely Belgian-American hybrid hoppy pale ale than any saison I'd ever encountered from Belgium. Carbonation is high, with good attenuation and maltiness, but too much bread, biscuit, clove and orange for my liking.
Appearance - 8 | Aroma - 7 | Flavor - 7 | Texture - 6 | Overall - 6.5
Bottle. Creamy white good mostly lasting head. Yellow colour. Moderate malty and hoppy aroma. Strong orange notes. Moderate bitter flavor. Average moderate bitter finish. Oily palate.
Appearance - 8 | Aroma - 7 | Flavor - 8 | Texture - 8 | Overall - 7.5
Bottle, 650 ml, from Svijet Piva. Shared with JFK10000 and Miro B. Pours golden with white head. Fruit, citrus, barn, yeast, spices. Medium bodied. Bitter finish. Good stuff.
Appearance - 6 | Aroma - 6 | Flavor - 7 | Texture - 6 | Overall - 7
Older bomber from biergenot.be, cheers Davey! Thin but stable, egg-white, moussy head breaking quickly in the middle, over a warm, deep golden coloured beer with light orange hue, clear initially but misty with small yeast bits here and there as the bottle progresses and ending in a milky haze, with calm fizz dying out after a while. Aroma of buttermilk, persimmon, smokey overripe papaja, something sulfuric (probably yeast autolysis), dried lemon peel, fermenting hay, candied lemon, old sherry (the onset of oxidation, I presume), apricot, tomato, clove-like phenols, old cheese, mouldy orange, chicken spices, cigarette tobacco, toasted bread, mango, dry white wine, gin, old dry wormwood. Fruity, sweetish onset, some ’Belgian’ banana and gooseberry but restrainedly so, sourish undercurrent effectively balancing out this sweetness, hints of papaja and orange, softish carbo, slick and smooth malt body, caramelly with a bittering toasted edge in the end, enhanced by a spicy, leafy hop bitterness, yielding floral aromas retronasally and leaving a mildly but sufficiently bitter coating in the back of the mouth; caramelly malt sweetness lasts the longest, but there is a gin-like alcohol flavour far away at the back as well, which should not be this apparent in a 6.5% ABV beer, yet does not become wry anywhere; a lemon candy-like flavor lingers too, doubting between sweet and sour. Past its prime, that much is clear, but since 6.5% saisons should be able to survive some years of cellaring, this shows too many signs of autolysis already, with a less pleasant sulfuric effect as a result; I can, however, vividly imagine this being very crisp and quaffable when young (and more ’lively’ hoppy). Flavor is acceptable though, but, as with so many ’new generation saisons’ even in Belgium itself, I fail to see how this is a saison and not an ordinary Belgian blonde - it seems the difference, if any, has completely faded due to craft beer experimentation. Decent beer, but I think more carbonation and an overall ’drier’ profile would have make this qualify as a saison much more.
Appearance - 10 | Aroma - 7 | Flavor - 8 | Texture - 8 | Overall - 7.5
Poured from a bottle dated Nov. 2015. Aroma is nice with some pear and stone fruit notes with a bit of tropical fruit and citrus. Light pepper and other phenolic notes with a bit of grain. Pours a slightly hazy, bright yellow gold with a medium sized, thick white head with good retention. Medium to medium high lacing with faint legs. Flavor is slightly sweet with some light grain notes and a bit of cracker. Moderate bitterness with a bit of grass and woodsy hop notes. Light phenolic spice notes of pepper and clove. Some pear, citrus and tropical fruit with a bit of stone fruit as well. Mouthfeel is medium light bodied with medium carbonation. Low astringency and low alcohol warmth. Overall, a very nice clean Saison. One of my favorites and I?m sad to see it go. Clean yeast with nice grain notes.
Appearance - 6 | Aroma - 9 | Flavor - 9 | Texture - 8 | Overall - 8
Pours golden from a bottle, some lacing. Aroma of cloves, citrus. Flavor full of yeasty spiciness, more cloves (in a good way), definite barnyard. Well-balanced, good beer.