“Saison Gratis roams our entire brewery on its way to bottles. After brewing, it heads to our coolship, a large rectangular pan, where hopping occurs while the wort cools. It then lingers with a saison yeast strain while open fermenting in one of our foudres. Finally, it settles down in bottles, where it is refermented with Brettanomyces. Fully rested and ready to drink, fruit notes of orange, pineapple, and clove complement the beer’s tartness and hops.”

Glassware: Teku.

Appearance: There’s always something distinguished about popping a cork on a beer bottle. You just know the contents are gonna be good. Hazy pastel golden-orange pour with a super fizzy head that rapidly disappears. Zero head = Zero lacing.

Aroma: Smells mighty funky for a saison. The brewers put the beer through their coolship followed by an open-fermentation on their house saison yeast strain. Then it’s refermented in bottle with brettanomyces (which is what gives this saison its funky and barnyard notes). Very pleasant fruit accents… pineapple, mango, tangy orange and apricot. The yeast strain offers clove, angostura bitters and a hint of band-aid.

Flavour: Out palates are pulling us in about 1000 different directions. We literally don’t know where to start! It’s quite a fruity number and we dig it coz it’s nicely integrated into the spicy and tangy yeast and then further accentuated by the tart sourness and barnyard funk. There’s no barrel contact here but we still get a flutter of wood as it finishes fruity, spicy, funky and tart. Wowzers.

Mouthfeel: The 6 years its had in the cellar has softened the Co2 a little but it still has a lively effervescence. Mild-medium body and a well buried 7.2% ABV.

Overall: Really complex and craft beer boss level saison. It’s amazing how intricate yet ridiculously drinkable it is though. Man, we wish we had another few of these in the cellar