It is the first Friday of the month and that means it is the day of The Session. Rick Lyke named it this time and chose “The Brew Zoo” demanding we all drink beers with animals on the labels. I forgot this earlier in the week when I popped a Struis with an ostrich on the front. That would have been perfect. A real shoe in for most exotic. Now I have to drink that beer with a goat on it. Do you know how many beers have goats on them? Good lord. It’s about as many as Belgian beers with monks or elves…or German lagers showing lassies with costume malfunctions. Goats…jeesh.
So I will have to see where I go with this month’s choice or choices for reviewing after work. I have to think about this and get back to you. The photo above has nothing to do with it. I just felt guilty after promising reviews of the growlers I brought back from Grand River the other week – but plans got hijacked last Friday evening after work when BR and Paul from Kingston showed up. Click on the picture. They were that good.
The Actual Beastie In Question: Bam Bière by Jolly Pumpkin. I have never had this one before or anything by this brewer but, as far as I am concerned, the lack of hordes of folks making tiny batches of farmhouse ale thoughout the villages and hamlets of North America is one of the faults of the culture.
Plenty of BAer love but is it a saison or bière de garde? Just farmhouse ale we are told…hmmm… The brewer says:
An artisan farmhouse ale that is golden, naturally cloudy, bottle conditioned and dry hopped for a perfectly refreshing balance of spicy malts, hops and yeast.
It’s only 4.5% and, ok, I admit it – dogs are rarely in the zoo. But who cares? I didn’t pick the topic. And what do I think?
[Ed.: give him a moment, would you?]
Well, this one could do with a cage or maybe just a shorter leash. An explosion of froth out of the 10.00 USD 750 ml bottle leaving me scrambling for a number of glasses to collect it all in. It was worth the scramble. In the mouth, this is like a subdued cousin of Fantome – white pepper and cream of wheat but also lemony like a Belgian white. Straw ale under a massively rocky white meringue head. Hoppy with astringent dried out hops leaving a lavendar. Dry with under ripe strawberry. The nose reminds me of poached haddock with only white pepper that I had as a child but that should mean nothing to you. Fabulous. A cross between straight-up Fantome saison and Orval?
Good doggie.
Paul of Kingston – September 7, 2007 1:55 PM
I have seen the future and it is Grand River Mild.
steve sullivan – September 8, 2007 11:58 AM
http://sullicom.blogspot.com
I like this “Brew Zoo” thing! Also, per your mention of the number of monks, etc. on labels, when I was just learning to drink beer in the 1970s in suburban Chicago, Old Style (for better or worse) was the beer of choice. Didn’t much matter if it was in bottles or cans, but we usually wound up with the latter. The label artwork looked as if it had been rendered with a dull brown crayon or a stick, but if you looked at the little Bavarian village scene, there were two things you could convince yourself that were there – especially as the night grew longer. First, there was a frog on a rock. Second was a monk relieving himself. It’s been a while since I’ve stooped to an Old Style, so I don’t know if they’ve changed the label. I can only hope not.