The Bruery Saison de Lente

Brewed By: The Bruery in Placentia, California 

Purchased: 750ml bottle bought at West Lakeview Liquors in Chicago, IL; 2012

Style/ABV: Saison/Farmhouse Ale, 6.5%

Reported IBUs: 35

It's about time I popped this blog's Bruery cherry. The Bruery are based out of Placentia, California. As with many craft breweries, The Bruery began as a homebrewing adventure when Patrick Rue, his brother Chris, and his wife Rachel brewed their fast batch of beer. Patrick Rue continued to homebrew during his first year of law school, until he decided that he had a passion for brewing beer. The Bruery opened up in 2008, and since then, they have built a reputation around their experimental, and wild ales brewed with a Belgian flair. To read more, check out the Breuery's website.

The Bruery Saison de Lente

Today's beer is part of the The Bruery's spring seasonals. The Saison de Lente, available between March and May, is described as a light blonde and hoppy ale with a wild and rustic Brettanomyces character. Clocking in at 6.5% ABV and packing 35 IBUs, this is The Bruery's take on a Spring-seasonal-ish Saison. Let's glass this up and see how it stacks up.

This one pours a cloudy/hazy golden orange color, with really vibrant, bright, and radiating orange tones. If you rush to pour this one, you get all head. Even with my incredibly gentle pour, I kicked up 3-finger's worth of white, fluffy, Belgian-funk head. There's solid head retention, and the head clings to the glass nicely, leaving lacing. There's some nice small to mid-sized bubbles streaming upwards in this, and this just looks the role of a Saison.

Since this is a Spring seasonal (releaesd between March and May), it reasons that this is probably a 2012 bottle. So this one has had almost a full year to funk up inside the bottle. And funk indeed. I'm getting that "butcher shop" aroma, and a ton of chalk. I'm also getting leather, barnyard, and some soft/mild/pleasant band-aid. There's a transition from the Brett to the Belgian yeast, with a touch of wood, and then I get big clove, coriander, and some peppery spice. There's also zesty citrus on the nose, with some lemon, lemon grass, zest, and stale orange.

This is light and refreshing, without being crisp, and still maintaining some creamy density. You get barnyard, hay, and clove up front, with nice Brett funk, and some lemon grass. The middle is cut with lovely hop bitterness, which is still bright and assertive almost 10 months later. The back end trails off with peppery spice, lemon, and funky Brett dryness. There's a lot of fruity and spicy notes in here, so take your pick. I'm getting coriander, pepper, clove, and lots of apples, pears, tropical fruits, pineapple, hints of melon/peach, grapes, and grains of paradise. There's a hint of elusive smoke/wood/earth on the back end.

Earthy, wild, and complex...this has good drinkability at 6.5%. As I said, this is carbonated well, and drinks medium-light to medium-full, but there's a creamy/smooth density to this. This is champagne-like and dry, and features good palate depth and good complexity. Up front is creamy, grain, hay, barnyard, clove, mild funk; the middle dials up the hops, bitterness, hints of spice; the back is spicy, hoppy, funky, and dry. There's a lot going on here.

Rating: Divine Brew

I'm feeling a Light Divine Brew on this. This is nice stuff, with good drinkability, and a lot of subtle complexity. The funk in this has character, but it is balanced nicely with the hops, Belgian yeast, and spices. The 6.5% has weight, like the body of this beer, but it's still drinkable. Just a nice take. Food pairings...since this one is a tad heavier for a Saison, you could go with the usual gamy meats, or peppery chicken. But I almost feel like this would work well with some chicken friend steak, or fried fish, or something with gravy. Or maybe that's just what I'm tasting. By the way...this was around 10 bucks a bottle, which isn't bad. The 750ml format also means you can throw in the wine stopper, and hit this up the next day. Good stuff.

Random Thought: I really enjoy the 750ml format for bottle conditioned beers clocking in at 4-7% ABV. I know they opt for these bottles due to the fact that these beers are going to continue to carbonate inside the bottle, but yeah.