REVIEW 40: YARDS SAISON

COUNTRY OF ORIGIN:  USA

BREWERY:  Yards Brewing Company

STYLE:  Saison

ABV:  6.5%

PURCHASE:  Draught (60-oz. pitcher), $10.00.

SERVING:  Said pitcher, poured into chilled pint glass. Solid 1 1/2" head from the tap. Roughly a standard inch from pitcher to glass, even with a slow pour. Decent, but not standout, retention.

APPEARANCE:  Translucent golden-orange. Glowing, almost. Visually appealing at the very least. Okay lacing, if inconsistent; the lacing only seemed to hold near the top of the glass. 

BOUQUET:  Subtly lemony with soft spice essences, seemingly pepper and coriander. A bit malty and a bit yeasty. No hop aroma at all, but that is to be expected with a saison. 

PALATE:  Medium body with light carbonation--again, indicative of the style. At the forefront, this is somewhat tart and puckery, traits which subside by the relatively dry finish. Zesty citrus tones are sustained throughout. Aftertaste is mainly toasty, a little too much so but still amiable. Said aftertaste is also significantly citrusy--mainly in the form of lemon rind--yeasty, and spicy--as with the bouquet, in the form of coriander and pepper. 

MUSINGS AND METAPHORS:  Wanna know what goes through my mind when I drink a saison, a.k.a. "farmhouse ale?" Imagery of beer being painstakingly brewed by peasants on European farmhouses of olden times*. You know, fields of endless grains. Lemons (and other citrus fruits), untouched by man-made chemicals, freshly plucked from rows of trees by migrant farmhands. In my experience, very few of these beers have that "obviously macro" feel about them.

Solid offering from Yards, as most of their beers are. That said, it doesn't come close to matching Hennepin (from Ommegang), or even the Farmhouse Ale from Smuttynose, as far as American saisons go.




GRADE:  B

*I'm not gay.