A saison by Dubuisson. This I quite simply had to try.
The very concept of a saison is so far removed from the brewery's Flagship(*) that I was very curious as to what the people in Tourpes (°) consider to be a saison.
*) Bush beer in all its incarnations.
°) home of that other saison.
But by the beard of Saint Arnoldus, you'd think that a brewery of Dubuisson's scale would at least have their brewing process under control!
I am seriously not exaggerating here when I make the claim that this beer is an impossible pour.
Not "difficult".
Not "only with a steady hand and the patience of a brewer".
Just, you know, "not at all".
A careful attempt to extract the beer from its bottle by pouring it gently into the glass yielded (and I reiterate my utter lack of exaggeration here) a foot-high head, frothing atop a measly quarter-inch layer of golden beer.
Further attempts to coax the beer into the glass in a civilised manner failed miserably and I was ultimately facing a Tantalos torture in a fancy glass: 2% of beer and the rest all foam.
What little actual beer remained was almost completely desaturated by its titanic efforts to produce such ample head. More's the pity, because that little bit I finally got to coat my lips with actually tasted pretty good: a refreshing, if flat, crisp and hoppy flat saison. Also: completely flat. Such a shame.
Regarding the rest op the presentation:
Can we finally be done with (nay, outlaw outright as of now and for ever more) this vacuous and vain pseudo-mysterious kack about "3 malts and 3 hops and 3 yeasts"? Can we just have nothing meaningless on the label at all, if nothing meaningful can be found worth mentioning?
Like "Well water". Now thàt I want to know.
3 hops means nothing(*) and it is demonstrative of the abysmal quality of labels the world over that I'm already quite happy not to see inanities like "carefully selected hops" here.
The label has that new-black retro vibe thing going, and the story goes that the brewer came across the old label (*) and was so charmed by it, he decided to resurrect (also*) the beer.
*) wellll...."resurrect"....Surfine was actually a Spéciale Belge in the 1930's, a beer style which conjuncture has demoted (°) to High School Unpopular Kid status so "resurrect" can quite literally be translated here to mean "shred the original recipe, brew saison instead and call it Surfine".
Authentic? Probably.
Only probably not the way you expected it to be.
Surfine reminded me most of those chinese puzzle gizmo's.
Frustrating, no fun, and ultimately ending up in the trash.
Except Surfine ended in the sink because I didn't want a foot-high head of foam on my trash.
Such a low down dirty shame.
Greetz
Jo
The very concept of a saison is so far removed from the brewery's Flagship(*) that I was very curious as to what the people in Tourpes (°) consider to be a saison.
*) Bush beer in all its incarnations.
 |
| Named Scaldis in Murka because of other resident people and beers also called Bush |
°) home of that other saison.
 |
| View from Dubuisson's driveway. (Not really though) Also, note the absence of anything resembling the river Scaldis. Just sayin' is all. |
But by the beard of Saint Arnoldus, you'd think that a brewery of Dubuisson's scale would at least have their brewing process under control!
I am seriously not exaggerating here when I make the claim that this beer is an impossible pour.
Not "difficult".
Not "only with a steady hand and the patience of a brewer".
Just, you know, "not at all".
A careful attempt to extract the beer from its bottle by pouring it gently into the glass yielded (and I reiterate my utter lack of exaggeration here) a foot-high head, frothing atop a measly quarter-inch layer of golden beer.
 |
| Like so. Ok, so I exaggerated about my lack of exaggeration. But not much. |
What little actual beer remained was almost completely desaturated by its titanic efforts to produce such ample head. More's the pity, because that little bit I finally got to coat my lips with actually tasted pretty good: a refreshing, if flat, crisp and hoppy flat saison. Also: completely flat. Such a shame.
Regarding the rest op the presentation:
 |
| AAAAAAARGH! |
Like "Well water". Now thàt I want to know.
3 hops means nothing(*) and it is demonstrative of the abysmal quality of labels the world over that I'm already quite happy not to see inanities like "carefully selected hops" here.
 |
| (*) AKA Jack Shit. Drawing by andie200 |
The label has that new-black retro vibe thing going, and the story goes that the brewer came across the old label (*) and was so charmed by it, he decided to resurrect (also*) the beer.
*) wellll...."resurrect"....Surfine was actually a Spéciale Belge in the 1930's, a beer style which conjuncture has demoted (°) to High School Unpopular Kid status so "resurrect" can quite literally be translated here to mean "shred the original recipe, brew saison instead and call it Surfine".
Authentic? Probably.
Only probably not the way you expected it to be.
 |
| °) do I really have to start my "Bolleke-becomes-APA" lamentation again or am I making myself clear already? |
Surfine reminded me most of those chinese puzzle gizmo's.
 |
| "Can only be enjoyed by throwing it as far away as possible and having a hissy fit" |
Except Surfine ended in the sink because I didn't want a foot-high head of foam on my trash.
Such a low down dirty shame.
Greetz
Jo
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