Saturday my wife and I and along with a few friends went down to Great River Brewery http://greatriverbrewery.com/ for their special tapping of their Saison Farmhouse Ale. As usual they had a golden keg tapped at 1PM and had their festivities until 6PM on Saturday. Besides their special tapping they offered a ham for some sandwiches. They do a great job previewing each seasonal beer they make.
The Saison is a light drinking beer, that is true to the BJCP style guidelines. There is a noticeable fruitiness with noticeable peppery spiciness. It is amber colored with a slight haze to the beer. I am not a big lover of Saisons but this beer is within the style and would be acceptable to your typical Saison Drinker.
We walked a block down to the temporary flood wall to look at how much area was under the flood surge of the Mississippi River. Normally it is a little over two block walk to the river. After we did our sightseeing we went to Front Street Brewery http://frontstreetbrew.com/ for a few beers, lunch and a planning meeting for the ladies' Big Brew Day brewing session.
Front Street was a lane of road away from being in the Mississippi, which would of not been the first time the river had invaded the brewery. This time thankfully the temporary flood wall was holding. We all ordered a beer, unfortunately they were out of their most consistent beer the Raging River Pale Ale, what a shame it would of went nicely with what was happening with the flooding.
Some of us went with samplers and some ordered the Brewmasters' Special an ESB. The beer does meet the broad definition of an ESB, but is not a very good example of one. It was as cloudy as a hefewiezen normally is and with that much suspended yeast it did affect the overall flavor. Hopefully the beer will clarify as it sits in the serving tank.
As I have said before we try to give every chance to Front Street but they seemingly leave us wanting more each time we go there. I hope they will figure it out some time soon. On the positive side they have updated their menu and have included some really good new items to their classics.
QC Beerguy
Made the same stops in reverse order. Agree on Front Street's ESB. I was so excited because it is a favorite style of mine. Visually, it was perhaps the ugliest "professionally" made beer I've encountered. Just mud. Taste wasn't objectionable, but nothing like what I'd hoped. Front Street has many great things going for it: Food, ambience, service. But their beer is nothing special. Their true-to-style Hefe is the saving grace.
ReplyDeleteOh, and I LOVED GR's Saison. I've been waiting for them to brew a style that I could sink my teeth into. Sorry, but chocoloate blond ales and 9% ABV made-up styles just weren't doing it for me.