Saison de Peche
Brewery: New Braunfels Brewing Company
Style: Fruited Mixed Culture Saison, 28C (Wild Specialty)
Package: 500ml Bottle
Purchased: Provided by NBBC for review
Packaged Date: Blend 3, June 2018
Consumed Date: 12/16/2018
Details from the Brewer
ABV:6%
Fresh peaches are hand peeled, cut, and barrel fermented with our 85% white wheat farmhouse hefeweizen base, Blondine. After pressing off the fruit 3 times the beer is blended back together prior to bottling.
Review
Aroma – 9/12
A stone fruit and musty funk note hit immediately. This is at a medium level, but prominent. The fruit component is like freshly pureed stone fruit, skin and all. There’s a touch of earthiness to compliment the must. A bright yogurt note peaks through as well, carrying a bit of acidity.
Appearance – 2/3
Pours a deep gold with light amber highlights. Some small white bubbles form on the pour, but dissipate pretty quickly. Clarity is good, with a slight haze.
Flavor – 16/20
A moderate acidity strikes up front, carrying with it a peach and apricot flavor. This medium intensity fruit character ramps up towards the mid-taste and exposes a more complex skin, tannic character. A touch of cherry comes out, along with some earthiness. Some grainy and doughy malt. Towards the finish, the fruit notes die off, and a musty earthy funk remains. Finishes dry but not austere. Some oak vanilla on the finish.
Mouthfeel – 4/5
Moderate carbonation hits the sides of the mouth. Medium bodied throughout the taste with some creaminess. No real astringency. The acidity on the finish dries the checks some and creates a slight mouthwatering effect. Very low alcohol warmth.
Overall Impression – 7/10
This saison carries a really nice stone fruit expression. The mixed culture’s expression isn’t overpowering with the acidity and brett funk blending nicely with the fruit. The bacteria and brettanomyces do overshadow any Saison yeast character. I would like to see a touch more carbonation in this beer. While it fizzed nicely at the start, it faded quicker than I expected. The wheat seems to really help fill out the body on this, which I like, but I’d love to get a bit more expression of it in the nose and flavor.
Rating – 38/50
This is by no means a fruit bomb, but that’s hard to do with peaches. It’s a balanced, fruited, mixed culture saison. I tend to like wild saisons that use a good amount of wheat in them, and it really showed through in the body here. While some breweries shy away from the term sour instead using wilk, this beer will please sour beer lovers. It might be a bit intense for people new to sours, but the pleasant stone fruit character might help with that. It’s also worth noting I didn’t pick up any acetic acid, or acetone notes that plague a lot of poorly made sour beers. Also, maybe my eyes are getting bad, but I had a real tough time reading the small print on the label back due to the textured paper.
Drinking Note: Note there will be sediment towards the bottom of the bottle. I preferred this beer with about 1/3 of the dregs mixed it. It seemed to amplify the fruit character. More than that brought it some astringency.
