750ml bottle pours a clear, bright orange with one ring of white head. Nose is neat, tons of plum, some funky cheese, sugary, Belgian yeast, candy, apples. Flavor is acidic, plum, candy, grassy, grainy. Medium bodied, tart finish. Great nose, weird flavor.

Bottle 4396 from 9/28/2011 thanks to my girlfriend. Pours with a hazy golden hued body with a large, just barely off-white head. Good lace and retention. Aromas are grassy and herbal with immediate dry hop character. Biscuity, bready and lightly caramel malt character. Yeast character is a touch funky, banana esters. Mild grape tannin and over ripe plum. Juicy and bright citrus zest. Flavors show a bit of a husky, tannic, astringent malt character (tannic extraction). A bit sharp, bright citrus, tannin, plum, bubble gum and banana esters. Medium to light bitterness. Grassy. Medium phenols. Not much plum character to be honest. Lively bubbles, dry, tannic in the finish. Light bodied. The least flawed beer that I have yet to see come out of the Hermitage operation.

Like the last Almanac beer, the fruit flavors are integrated into the background. Sadly, this beer isn’t as good (at least for me) as the Summer 2011 release.

Bottle from the Arden BevMo in Sacramento, CA. Pours hazy orange gold with a 3 finger foamy off-white head. Aromas of belgian yeast spice and non-light fruit. Head is in the way. Med plus body. Frothy carb. The flavor is quite strong in terms of fruit - suggesting plums that are not fully ripe. Or maybe that’s plum skin. Though with time the unripeness seems to mellow, allowing some wheat aspects to come out. Then there’s something like lightly sucking on a plum pit. So it’s really quite dry, and seems more bitter than 29 IBU. And the yeast is ever present. Finally there’s a rising earthiness. Probably there all the time, but took me a while to get it? A really good saison.

Draft. Amber beer with a whitish head. Malt and spice aroma. Spice and malt flavor with earth, light esters, and light plastic. Medium bodied. Spice and fruity esters linger with malt and light plastic.