Brew Review: The Bruery Saison Rue

This is one of those beers my great friend Steve (Summer of Beer) sent me a few weeks back. The Bruery is a Belgian-styled Brewery in Orange County, California that is making some very interesting stuff.

I've previously done a Bruery "parallel tasting" and this adventure is more on my own. Ask requested on the bottle, I poured ever-so-slowly into a tulip glass. It is described as a "Belgian-style ale brewed with rye and Brettanomyces (yeast)".

The first batch of several of the Bruery's beers I guess were overcarbonated, this one included. My hand was steady and my pour slow, but the bubbly stuff still got the best of me. Be forewarned on these at least from the early batches that a lot of impossible to prevent head is coming your way.

After using several top secret measures to get that head down, it's tasting time. I'm not getting a whole lot in the nose although that may have to do with the death of the perilous piles of head. I got too caught up in putting out that fire and forgot to take a few whiffs. Poor form for any beer nut.

Right off the bat I get a taste that reminds me seems like something of a trademark. Hard to describe, but you know it when you taste it from particular brewers. The Bruery has its own unique taste that runs through most of the beers, and this one carries it. Its sort of pleasant and perhaps a bit peachy and light.

I can definitely taste the carbonation here, its sort of bitey on the tongue as I take the first few sips, this beer is also still a bit cool, that seems to wear down most of the time as they warm up.

Color is deep golden, just as described, and with a hef-like cloudiness thanks to it being unfiltered. There's something visually awesome about an unfiltered golden ale, and the Bruery hits it here.

I'm starting to pick up the brett just a bit, as this has some definite sourness and the faintest hint of that really delicious brett aroma that drives me wild in certain beers (think Orval, which no joke I can spend a night joyful just sniffing the bottle).

As saison is a wide-ranging style, this successfully can be classified as one without reminding me in the faintest (as of now) of the classics like a Saison DuPont or an Ommegang.

There's a certain sweet and sour thing going on here, with sweet dominating on some sips, sour tartness on others.

Overall I'm enjoying this. It's not a raver, but its worthy. Like almost everything I've had from the Bruery, this one forces you to slow down and figure it all out. Sometimes I'm in a rush to enjoy what I'm drinking at face value, and this beer puts the brakes on that a bit and says "hold up, you won't enjoy me at that rate, slow down, let me warm up a bit, there ya go, better, huh? Yeah now what about me is it that you like, and it shouldn't be obvious". And yes, I have conversations with all my beer.

Another thing I want to point out: while listening to a homebrewing podcast recently, the hosts were discussing how the people at Lost Abbey, Russian River etc. are on a whole nothing "taste" plane, that they were somewhere beyond the nuts and bolts of the craft and untethered in their deep understanding of brewing and creating new tastes from this. I'm not sure the Bruery is at their level, but it says something to see how they've gone about some of their initial beers.

This is ambitious stuff. A tripel with rice and thai basil? An outlier saison with rye and brett? This is some unusual stuff. Yeah it's sort of crazy for crazy's sake, but it works which is the mark of talent and someone finding their way and trying to ascend to new heights.

I've yet to find that Bruery beer that I'm absolutely in love with, but its a young brewery and I like where they're going.