Klaas Bier Saison Atacama
Brasserie du Pays Noir in Landelies, Hainaut, Belgium 🇧🇪
Farmhouse - Saison Regular Out of Production|
Score
6.55
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Een klaasje teveel op, laat je rijden.
www.klaas.beer
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Appearance - 8 | Aroma - 6.5 | Flavor - 6 | Texture - 6 | Overall - 7
Towering fluffy, irregular white head over darker clear golden beer. Spicy nose, indeed some chili, bit dusty, capsaicine. Sweet, chili. And something not unlike coffeebeans.Chili remains very restrained, making it more capsicum. At least medium MF, quite spritzy carbonation, faint hint at acidity. Spicing restrained and result far from bad, but neither very exciting. Txs to Stef!
Appearance - 4 | Aroma - 7 | Flavor - 7 | Texture - 4 | Overall - 6.5
The first commercial beer from a hobby brewer in Anderlecht (Brussels), brewed at Pays Noir; apparently the brewer, Nicolas Vermeiren, wants to infuse Belgian traditions with modern craft brewing techniques and ideas, something many (mostly young) brewers in Belgium are occupied with these days, but in itself this is as good an approach as any other, of course. This first 'Klaas' beer is supposed to be a saison spiced with woestijnkruid, which literally translates as desert herb. This is not a specific plant species of course - so, being passionately interested in botany, I am left wondering what exactly has been used here... Could it indeed be true that he did manage to get his hands on actual desert plants from the Atacama desert in Chile? From what I read, some of the relatively few plant species that manage to survive there, in some of the driest circumstances on our planet, are indeed 'consumable' in some or other way and offer culinary potential, such as the 'rica rica', a vervain-related shrub with small aromatic leaves that occurs elsewhere in dry mountainous areas in South America as well and has been used in tea for many generations in some of those areas... Opens with slow gushing, but manageable enough if given a bit of time. Initially enormous, bath-foamy, egg-white, loudly crackling, uneven- and rather large-bubbled head filling the glass even with careful pouring, collapsing, yet remaining stable and leaving behind patches of plaster-like lacing; misty straw-golden blonde robe with very fierce sparkling rushing upwards everywhere throughout the glass, becoming cloudy beige-tinged with sediment. Aroma indeed dominated by spice, reminiscent of yarrow, dried ginger, gale, cardamom and even (vaguely) paprika powder, but who knows, it could well be rica rica; other impressions, overruled by this spice rack effect, include drying white bread, soap, unripe pear, completely green banana, dried apple peel, clove-like phenols, baking soda, white pepper, breakfast cereals. Fruity notes in the onset but restrainedly so (for a saison at least), hinting at classic 'banana' isoamylacetate but not over the top and combined with hints of green pear, peach and pineapple, sweetish yet in a subdued manner; the flavours, however, are brutally breached by this very strong overcarbonation, filling the mouth cavity with fizz (it has been a long time since I had this degree of overcarbonation in any beer, coming to think of it), as well as adding sourish effects and minerality. Slender malt core, white-bready and cereally with indeed a hint at dimly spicy spelt, with the banana ester lingering about until that expected wave of spiciness comes up - in a rather complex way, that is to say, containing floral elements (gale, yarrow) as well as paprika- and peppercorn-like spicy notes, leading me to think that this 'woestijnkruid' is a mixture of perhaps less exotic spices that I have encountered before in other (even Belgian) beers and indeed some or other South American herb. As this spiciness fills everything up retronasally, the fizzy carbonation effect remains active till the very end, even accentuating the wheaty soapiness that lingers along with a dash of earthy, floral hop bitterness, connecting with the spice mix. Ends dry and evidently very spicy, in a herbal, aromatic but also rather astringent way, contributing more (wry) bitterness than the hops. I have never been a great enthusiast of overly spiced ales - see the many, many Belgian Christmas ales for example - and this certainly is one... I also remain skeptical about the use of an actually Chilean herb here, but whatever plant species (and whichever parts of it) was applied, way too much of it went in here, dominating the palate rather obnoxiously in both aroma and (bitter) taste. Dramatically overcarbonated as well, not sure if this has anything to do with the spices, I guess not... I do have the feeling that Mr. Vermeiren knows his basics, though, a genuinely fine saison lies hidden beneath the overwhelming distractions of the spices and the overcarbonation, so I will keep an eye on this project, that might become the next 'hip' thing in Brussels micro brewing if it all works out well - never mind the stiff competition already going on there, then...