Waxwing (2023)

Floodland Brewing in Seattle, Washington, United States 🇺🇸

Farmhouse - Saison Regular Out of Production

Score

7.68

ABV: 7.2%

IBU: -

Ticks: 5

This is as close to recreating the original 2017 Cherry Field Blend as we've come. That beer had more Montmorency than Balaton, and from two sources we can no longer get fruit from, and this has that ratio reversed. The culture in the original Cherry Field Blend was something that didn't get propagated and so while it's difficult to recreate that beer exactly, I went back and reread all of my notes and did my best. This reads a bit more red and less copper than that one, but it's not too far off. The beers in that first harvest in 2017 were all pretty young beers, I had just gotten my liquor license at the very end of February and so I brewed furiously through March and April to get enough beer. The beers were a bit lower hopped because I knew I needed them to turn faster, and so the best replacement for them in our modern recipes is to simply age the beers longer.

We've been working on a new wheat saison recipe for the last few years which has yet to see a blend, but this beer is made mostly from well-aged barrels of that beer. That beer was somewhat inspired by the Wildflower collaboration we did years ago. There was a day drinking that beer with my wife and some family on a deck in Ballard where I swore it tasted more like a natural wine than a beer. So I recreated a beer not based on how that beer was made, but based on how it tasted in my memory.

Cherry beers remain mostly hugely loved from people I talk to... I think you either like these or you don't. If you do, you'll dig this. I somewhat regret making another cherry beer so soon after Brouwer's because that was so good, but I had the idea to do a lower fruited one in my head and couldn't get past it. After working with these Balatons so much every year since 2017 I'm thinking we'll take a year or two off from them so I can regroup, so this may be the last Waxwing for a while, and more likely it's the last Waxwing we'll ever make. I have other ideas I want to work on rather than chasing the memories of the beers I made 7 years ago, but I didn't want to cut the cord without letting all of you who love the cherry beers have one last bottling.

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8.8

JAbrams72 (12812) ticked Waxwing (2023) from Floodland Brewing 1 year ago

LCI—catching up on some old checkins 7 Feb. Cherry, tart, floral on the nose, a bit light, but elegant

Tried from Bottle on 22 Feb 2025 at 19:08

7.9

BeerPlace (11108) reviewed Waxwing (2023) from Floodland Brewing 1 year ago

Appearance - 8 | Aroma - 8 | Flavor - 8 | Texture - 8 | Overall - 7.5

750ml (thx, Josh!) @ Sales Force. Appearance: nice rose-purple with a white head. Aroma: complex semi-sweet cherry, cherry peats and skins, some sophisticated funk. Taste: a lot of cherries, some sweetness, lots of cherry peats, tart. Overall: bold and nice, but a bit too tart.

Tried on 02 Oct 2024 at 04:22

8.2

Oakes (33770) reviewed Waxwing (2023) from Floodland Brewing 1 year ago

Appearance - 8 | Aroma - 9 | Flavor - 8 | Texture - 8 | Overall - 8

Slight haze, pale pinkish colour. Thin head. Decent cherry aroma, especially montmorency. On the palate, it's got a nice buggy note, with a soft cherry character, and there's a dryness to the finish. Solid.

Tried on 02 Oct 2024 at 04:16

8.1

mcberko (47797) reviewed Waxwing (2023) from Floodland Brewing 1 year ago

Appearance - 8 | Aroma - 8 | Flavor - 8 | Texture - 8 | Overall - 8.5

750mL bottle, pours an opaque dark pinkish red with a small pink-tinged head. Aroma is rich, with lots of deep cherry piths, some wild yeast, and oak in good cohesion. Flavour has plenty of deep cherry piths, cherry pie, some cherry skins, oak, and a nice mixture of wild yeast. Tart cherry pie, oak, and wild yeast in wonderful cohesion on the finish. Excellent.

Tried from Bottle on 02 Oct 2024 at 04:15

8.4

pictoman (9831) reviewed Waxwing (2023) from Floodland Brewing 1 year ago

Appearance - 8 | Aroma - 8 | Flavor - 9 | Texture - 8 | Overall - 8.5

Poured from 750mL bottle (bottled Sept 28, 2023). Hazy orangey red with off-white head. Loads of cherry, well balanced, solid.

Tried from Bottle on 02 Oct 2024 at 04:12