The Bruery Saison Rue

The Bruery. Orange County, CA: http://www.thebruery.com/index2.html

Description: Saison Rue is an unfiltered, 100% bottle conditioned, Belgian/French-style farmhouse ale. This is a beer of subtlety and complexity, with malted rye, spicy, fruity yeast notes, biscuit-like malt backbone, and a slight citrus hop character. With age, this beer will dry out and will become more complex with rustic notes of leather and earth from the contribution of a wild yeast strain. Being a Saison, Saison Rue is ambiguous unto itself as it is a different beer when fresh and when aged. We hope you enjoy it in all of its incarnations. (ABV: 8.5%, IBU: 30, SRM: 9, Release: All Seasons, Format: 750 mL bottles)

http://beeradvocate.com/beer/profile/16866/42434 BA score : 91

My thoughts: The Bruery is a fairly new company but already it has set the bar as one of the best craft brew in the US. I was lucky enough to visit their tasting room and their Saison Rue is one of their many award winning beers. Saison Rue, for those who don't know, is a farmhouse ale and based on my none extensive research, in the past it was brewed by farmers as a very weak pale ale around 3% ABV, but things have obviously changed since. The beer pours in a nice golden color with a nice size white head of foam. You can definitely smell the earthy notes with a hint of that bready, biscuit like malt. It's a bit dry but it's balanced extremely well with a subtle hint of fruity sweetness. It's light and easy to drink yet there are a lot of characters you can pick up, everything balanced out nicely, from the rustic note to the citrus to the hop. Crisp and bubbly too. I can see why it won so many awards. Highly recommended if you willing to spend 10.00 on a wine size bottle beer. I shared it with a friend but after tasting it, pretty sure I can kill it myself since it's so drinkable.