Bouteille 33cl, bottled 17/10/2016. Dorée, col blanc épais très actif. Arôme au nez fin citronné, avec une touche de levure arrivant bien en rétro. N’offre pas le côte hennuyer de saison, retrouve un grains pils assez basique. Palais est de dominance sèche, très belge, houblonné noble virant sur un léger citornné et touche verte. Effervescence trop haute et qui enlève du caractère des houblons. Le tout reste monodimensionnel, centré sur les grains et un relent houblonné citronné.

Bottle from Bierhalle Deconinck. The saison in this series of new Siphon beers, with very frothy, dense, foamy, egg-white head, remaining closed for most of the time and leaving a thick rim of papery lacing all around; clear and pure golden blonde robe with deeper ’old gold’ tinge. Aroma of isoamylacetate (banana-flavored bubblegum), white pepper, camomile, straw, powder sugar, sweetish cooked turnip, white bread crumbs, Granny Smith apple, raw rhubarb, green gooseberries, cheese spread or even young abbey cheese, butter, faint hints of vanilla, soap (probably the wheat), grass, pancakes, pineapple slices, whipped cream, dried wormwood and, alas, a whiff of DMS (the sulfuric smell of overcooked cabbage), something I am very sensitive to and have met all too often in - especially Belgian, I hate to admit - beers. Crisp, fruity onset, the expected banana ester of course mixed with fainter hints of sweetish melon and apricot on the one hand and sourish gooseberry and rhubarb on the other hand, highly attenuated with a sharp, very minerally carbonation effectuating further sourishness, light and coarsened, but still smooth mouthfeel, made slicker by the wheat, which identifies itself as a soft, lightly sourish ’soapiness’ in the middle along with cereal-like ’barleyness’. The banana ester continues on top of this and phenols gain a certain strength in the end, but remain subtly spicy and clove-like rather than turning medicinal or chemical. Dry finish, grainy and cereally, bit soapy, with a firm dosis of grassy, spicy and leafy hops, providing a quenching, drying, appetizing bitterness that lasts quite long over the remainders of that cereally malt sweetishness. Some phenols keep lingering in the background but elegantly so. Quenching, packed with flavor and in terms of pure flavor, not that far removed from some of Dupont’s standard ales, this is a saison ’pur sang’: dryish but still juicy, bright and foamy, crisp and rural at the same time. Siphon clearly understands what this style is all about, even though this is clearly a Saison Dupont epigone - with a tad too much of the old banana ester perhaps, but that is easily forgiven in a beer as technically correct as this one - apart from that DMS whiff, that is.

Imported from my RateBeer account as Siphon Blinker (by Siphon Brewing):
Aroma: 7/10, Appearance: 4/5, Taste: 8/10, Palate: 4/5, Overall: 15/20, MyTotalScore: 3.8/5

7/I/17 - 33cl bottle from Bierhalle Deconinck (Vichte) @ home - BB: n/a, bottled: 17/X/16 (2017-23)

Clear dark blond beer, huge creamy white head, pretty stable, adhesive, leaving a nice lacing in the glass. Aroma: dry, bit dusty, some citrus, almonds and cookie dough. MF: very lively carbon, medium to light body. Taste: little bitter, grassy, grains, bit sourish, some citrus. Aftertaste: dry finish, bit yeasty, very bitter, bit floral, pears, earthy, bit dirty.

pours unclear blonde, extremely big white head. Smell is bit spiced. Some lemon features. mild bitterness. Taste is bitter, intense, overcarbonated as fuck. Some lemons, decently yeasty (saison yeast). Ok beer in general, just way to damn much carbonation.

15/10/2016 draft sample @ Bles Bierhappening Hazy yellow with big white head. Nose is wort, some spices. Taste is very refreshing : grains, citrus, some spices, bitterness. Nice

F: big, white, good retention. C: pale yellow, hazy. A: malt, grassy, floral, straw, hint of basement. T: malt, quite earthy bitter on the palate, dusty, cellar tones, grassy, medium body, good carbonation, good balanced for this style, sample @ Zottegem Beerfestival 2016.

Bottle from the brewers. Hazy colour, white foam. Very bitter and dry, grassy saison. Bitter lemon peel, dry finish.

Draught Very good, whipped eggwhite-like head over fully cloudy yellow beer with an orange sheen. Fresh yeast, green herbs, pale malts. Very fresh-smelling. Bitterish, spicy. Again yeast but in the good way, no byproducts. A little bit of restsugars in the background, lemonpeel. Gristslick, obviously. Quite refreshing, medium carbonation. Excellent light beer, and for once, the moniker "Saison" is not usurped.