In review #2: Stillwater Ales Stateside Saison
This Thursday we had the opportunity to head to Alewife and experience 16 Dogfish Head beers on tap. It was a part of Baltimore Beer Week 2010; it was awesome. We started with dinner and a bottle of Allagash Curieux. (tripel aged in Jim Beam barrels, our favorite style with an interesting twist since DFH wasn’t being served til 7pm) The Kobe dog and Smoke burger were good. Elena had reservations about the black bean chili drowning the flavor of the hotdog, but it was still excellent. The fries were on par with Brewer’s Art’s–a feat I wasn’t sure I’d live to see.
7pm rolled around and we started in on the dogfish offerings with 2 glasses of Bitches Brew (the tribute to Miles Davis and his album of the same name) As the night wore on we tried Red & White, Black & Blue, and then decided to try the 18% ABV fort and head home. The fort was supposed to be served in 6oz servings, but we got full 12oz glasses. Not one to look a gift horse in the mouth, I sipped at mine until it was gone and then finished Elena’s. I fully intended to leave at this point, but got sucked into conversations with folks I knew from the Baltimore Beer community on Twitter and ended up having a glass of My Antonia courtesy of Alewife’s foursquare mayor. (I owe you one, good sir.) All in all it was an awesome night filled with great beer and terrific people.
I swore I wouldn't get excited like an adolescent girl at a justin beiber concert, but i did.
What does this have to do with a beer from a completely different brewery? Well, if you’ve ever had a DFH you know that the flavors can be a bit… intense. I was in the store the next day picking out a beer to review this week and looking at all the dark and rich fall offerings made me want to review a bottle of Heineken. Then I spotted this lovely.
Stillwater Artisanal Ales is a local brewery whose name I’ve seen popping up in the events for Baltimore Beer Week and have been meaning to try. I was familiar with the saison style, having brewed one for my first homebrew batch and rejoiced. A lighter beer I could enjoy while nursing my exhausted taste-buds back to health. Saison is style 16C.
Aroma: The yeast shines through notes of grass and a bit of citrus. There are some hints of saison-esque spice (black pepper and allspice to my untrained nose)
Appearance: Stateside Saison pours a beautiful, cloudy, coppery amber. The head started thick, but diminished to a thin layer. There was no lacing left behind on my glass. (though like last time, I’m not totally willing to chalk this up to anything but my innate ability to kill head. [there's a "that's what she said" joke in there for someone] )
Flavor: Much like the aroma, the yeast is the prominent flavor I’m getting. There’s a bit more pepper in the mouth, and the hops kick in as the yeast flavor fades leaving a bitter, dry finish. The hop flavor is light. Malt character is light and toasty. There are fruity notes like cantaloupe or melon somewhere in the middle of the sip.
Mouthfeel: I taste the malt initially and briefly, followed by an intense yeast/fruit flavor. The beer finishes clean and dry with some hop bitterness. Medium to high carbonation. The carbonation level makes me sad I can’t get good a good head or lacing on the glass.
Overall Impression: I really enjoy this beer. I think it’s a much better saison than the Saison Dupont I tried alongside my own. (though the bottle handling was in question there…) There’s a fullness to the yeast flavor that I haven’t experienced in anything but a tripel yet. I’m slightly put off by the bitter finish, but the main flavors keep me sipping. I don’t see anything here outside of the style guidelines. Without a doubt, I’ll be looking for this Saison to share with friends next summer.
score: 42
in other news, we bottled up our 118IBU IPA this week. Pictures of that and a formal review of my coriander-wheat beer to come mid-week.