Hibiscus Saison - Vintage Brewing Company

Florida9

Illinois

3.68/5  rDev +0.3%
look: 4 | smell: 3.5 | taste: 3.5 | feel: 4 | overall: 4

Lovely shade of pinkish brown. Served with a minimal light pinkish head. Clear. Aroma is floral, with a bit of tart cherry. Flavor starts off sweet and reminds me of a Big Red soda. The it dries out a bit, showing a bit lemon and more of the hibiscus. Finish is quick. Lighter body. Slightly tart. Overall, very drinkable, but this is a very simple saison with very little yeast character.

Serving type: on-tap

08-10-2012 21:05:17 | More by Florida9

WastingFreetime

Wisconsin

3.6/5  rDev -1.9%
look: 3.5 | smell: 3.5 | taste: 3.5 | feel: 4.5 | overall: 3.5

1.050 OG 24 IBUS 6.1%ABV according to the beer menu.

Here we have a Saison brewed with hibiscus flowers during both brewing and the cold-conditioning stages.

Well, it is certainly pink. A bright coral lipstick shade of pink with only the slightest haze, like a faintly clouded semi-precious gemstone. Half a finger of creamy light pink froth decides to disintegrate the moment I jar the glass, talk about lack of head structure! I wonder what color this beer was before the hibiscus flowers were added...

Smells of Hibiscus flower garlands (duh) draped over a very faint psuedo-horseblanket funk and small amounts of wet hay. It also has that "sweet gassiness" I know to associate with a well-made saison. However, the funky smell and taste of Brett. yeast are missing from the equation. (Standard yeast was used to make this) If you can get over the lack of Brett funk this is actually pretty nice to smell. Bonus points for using enough flowers to radically change the color of the brew and yet managing to rein the flowers in enough to avoid being cloying in scent. That's hard to do.

Taste is much like the nose, a sweet grassy more-floral-than-usual saison with a nice dry finish, only made without actual Brett. I wish it did have Brett in it, but we can't have everything we wish for. Such a thing would probably require a separate facility for the brewer to avoid yeast cross-contamination to the other brews. and that was probably not feasible. Anyways, it is light and summery in both taste and mouthfeel. Sort of spritzey like a sparkling wine in carbonation feel. Definitely crisp and refreshing with that dry finish, and certainly it is a very 'summery' beer.

Once I managed to mentally set aside my machismo and man up to the pinkness of this beer, it satisfied.

Serving type: on-tap

07-18-2011 18:40:28 | More by WastingFreetime