Most experts agree that Battlecat, our majestic brown tabby, is the most ferocious cat in the whole wide world. Like the saison, the style of beer I’ll be haranguing you all about today, she was born in a barn and she’s in my refrigerator a lot. She’s also got something in common with the two particular saisons I reviewed this morning: A badass name.
First, a word about this style: The paradigmatic saison is the Belgian classic Saison Dupont, a dry, peppery and effervescent ale that’s one of my maybe fifty or so favorite beers of all time. Those characteristics — dry, peppery, effervescent — are at the heart of what it means to be a saison, so naturally plenty of American brewers ruin it by not letting the yeast — single-celled animals essential to the production of beer and not unlike our Battlecat in their single-minded voraciousness — ferment the beer to dryness, or by heaping in loads of coriander or cardamom or lavender or whatever they can possibly use to mask the naturally spicy esters the yeast produces as a natural byproduct. I hate that shit. It might be the most annoying thing in beer.
Got it? Great! I’ma drink some beers now.
Ryan and the Beaster Bunny is a saison produced by the nomadic Danish brewers of Evil Twin Brewing. Evil Twin are new arrivals in the Texas market, but I was already familiar with them through another channel: their Brooklyn bar Tørst, maybe the best place in the world for a hardcore beers enthusiast. Ryan and the Beaster Bunny follows the traditional saison blueprint to a T, pouring an only slightly hazy straw yellow with a light, fluffy head. It’s tart but not, like, sour, tart, with a melon-like base and a crisp black pepper bite. It’s good. It’s a good saison.
Apex Predator is also a saison, but it’s a very different take on the style. Its brewer, Off Color Brewing, is a small Chicago outfit also responsible for creating the best Berliner weisse I’ve ever had. Apex Predator pours a cloudy straw yellow with, well, a light, fluffy head. “Fluffy” is the word I’d probably use above any other to describe this beer; it feels somehow both light and full on the palate, probably owing in large part to the flaked wheat in the recipe. “Fluffy” is also one of the three words I’d use to describe Battlecat. The other two, fittingly, are “apex predator.” Anyway, this beer’s nothing so much as an explosion of fruit flavor, with orange, pineapple, and grapefruit all vying for the tongue’s attention. Hops, not traditionally a featured part of the saison profile, play a double role here, enhancing the fruity flavor and capping it with some subtle bitterness. If you’ve ever tried Prairie Artisan Ales Hop Saison, that’d give you an idea what to expect from Apex Predator, but in any case: This is out there. This is a winner.
tl;dr: Ryan and the Beaster Bunny and Apex Predator are good-ass beers. Drink the first if you want the classic saison experience, or the second if you want you socks blown off by a beer you’ve probably never had anything like. Drink either all year long; a good saison is crisp enough to refresh you during the summer, strong enough to keep you warm in the winter, complex enough to pair with all manner of traditional fall foods, and, well, spring seasonals suck.
lady snow says: I slept through all the beer!
Battlecat says: rowr
Grade: Saisons are great.
make it snow is an alot of beer who couldn’t write this feature last week because he was on vacation, but at least he brought some beer back to review. make it snow has drunk at least 2000 unique beers in his life, and in the process of writing this review he drank a Ryan and the Beaster Bunny, and then an Apex Predator, and then another Ryan and the Beaster Bunny. This is his most seasonally appropriate review to date. His cable package does not include the Big Ten Network.
Well, I just put what I tried on the next post.
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Finally round 3. This is a Leinenkugel Harvest Patch Shandy with a scroll on the bottom that says “A shandy inspired by the autumn harvest with notes of nutmeg, allspice and clove.”
Help me Jesus.
C’mon, you laughed when you read Harvest Patch didn’t you?
Me too.
Ok, cloudy as the others, very flat head in comparison. A spicy nose.
It tastes like a pumpkin beer. It’s not, it’s not good. At all.
Like over sweetened pumpkin soup. This can was a little on the flat side so I won’t hold that against the brewer but I will hold them to this abomination.
Harvest Patch Shandy!
Never again!
Put that on the bottom of your can and smoke it.
The brother said it tasted like it was strained through Grandpa Leinenkugel’s underpants.
That’s perfect.
‘Harvest Patch’ isn’t that slang for ginger crotch?
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Lebowski is way tastier than Leinenkuegels.
I would think she smells of…. fresh petunias…
Always liked her and her freckles.
Not really sure what petunias smell like, but that sounds about right.
Round 2. This is a Leinenkugel Cranberry Ginger Shandy in a 12 oz can. The saying at the bottom of the can goes like this “A refreshing Shandy-style beer that’s perfect for crisper days out here”. Fucking Wisconsin, man.
It’s a deeper red than the Ginger shandy but has the same cloudy nature. Not as frothy of a head.
It’s got a berry-citrus nose to it and it’s really sweet. I like the tartness of the cranberry to offset the ginger but it’s too light and all that’s left is the sweetness. It’s a tasty glass but too bubbly to slam in multi-pack sessions.
I would drink another one right now and probably regret it later.
C+
“I would drink another one right now and probably regret it later”
So, like a redhead female?
Buffalo burgers, corn; grilled in the husk for me tonight; you?
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We ordered a pie.
Meatball and garlic.
It was tasty.
Leftover buffalo chili. Let’s hope there is good Donks pre-game synergy in this fine, lean meat.
We had a pie too. That kind of night.
I can make a combination here.
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OK, here goes the first one. This is a 12 oz can of Leinenkugel Ginger Shandy “Inspired by our prohibition era ginger ale”.
Cloudy pour, pretty fierce head. Strong citrus aroma. Sweet. Not too sweet. Definitely a ginger lemon aid.
The brother said “Are they trying to make this not taste like beer?”
It’s OK. I could drink one or two.
Not a session beer.
A solid “C”.
Thanks.
Leinenkugel’s brand is pretty much built around shandies, so if you don’t like them (I don’t) you won’t find much of theirs that you like.
On the whole, I’d consider them about a “C” brewer.
I made the mistake of trying their Snowdrift Porter last year. That was by far the worst porter I’ve ever tasted. It was ridiculously artificial and chemical tasting.
You know what? That’s what I was getting as a finish on each one of these things. A lingering artificial taste. I think they use the sweetness to hide it.
Diabolical!
I’m not that big on shandies, but Schofferhoffer makes a good grapefruit one if you’ve never tried it. For that matter I don’t like grapefruit either, but that’s a pretty palatable beer.
Fierce and Troublesome are the beers that made Off Color my go to for a Chicago beer with an uncommon style, but Apex Predator is still probably my favorite of theirs. It really does have a bite to it that I don’t find among many farmhouse ales and I’m happy a bar not far from my apartment has it on tap all the time.
They have an Applewood Smoked Wheat Beer out now and every time I go to my corner liquor store, it makes drink me eyes at me. I’m going to take her home sometime soon.
I saw that that exists, but I didn’t spot it any of the bars we went to! I love smoked beers and would drink the hell out of that one.
I’m not even sure it’s on tap anywhere. I read that they actually had to make their own applewood smoked wheat since no one actually made it.
Seriously though; did you see how the Applewood Smoked Wheat Beer dresses??!?
At the wedding reception. Wife driving. Switched from Lagunitas to Guinness for obvious reasons. Have already told one guy that once you get your drink at an open bar you move. You do not turn around, lean against the bar and start talking,
I am going to punch someone tonight.
Open bar? Lagunitas and Guinness available? What is the big problem?
*Wedding I attended before the last one had no drinks, was a religious sermon (hinted how hellish it is for gays to marry and anybody living together was condemned outright as going to hell), etc.
We will still hold one up for you not to get the police called.
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“not to get the police called”
Now let’s not be hasty.
Dude! You ever had a cop around an open bar? May as well dump the good stuff down the drain.
Aren’t saison’s really expensive and low in alcohol? That sounds like hustlin’ backwards. Also, I don’t think it’s a premium malt beverage without a number in it like Colt .45 and Olde English 800.
MD 20/20. Yup, that logic checks out!
Balls; that’s just good college corm logic.
or dorm logic….
Maybe a Top Ramon enhancement recipe is in order.
This review is probably on a different website.
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One of these days, I’m going to do a Beer Barrel just on malt liquors. A taste-test of sorts.
Just bought a couple of new IPAs, will post later.
Saisons are great. I’m also really into gose styles. “Farmhouse” can mean many things, but I’ve found a few reliable ones around here.
Yeah, I was going to get more into the huge variety of beers that breweries put under that “farmhouse” umbrella, but it got to feel like too much of a digression. The way we’ve decided this is the appropriate catch-all term for everything from a saison to a low-alcohol grisette to some beer that just has a bunch of spices thrown into it to all manner of different sour beers can make it hard to know what you’re getting without doing some research.
There’s a local brewery down here (in Tarpon Springs) that specializes in saisons and is supposed to be fairly well acclaimed internationally. It’s called St Somewhere brewing. If you guys are that into saisons and want some shipped to you, let me know and we’ll work something out.
We may have to talk next time I get paid. I’ve heard really good things about St. Somewhere.
Check out their website and let me know. They’ve usually got at least three or four varieties available at local shops. I want to say they usually run in the neighborhood of 10 to 15 per bomber depending on the variety. I’ll just have to figure out how to pack it so they stay safe during shipping. We can talk bottle-swapping if you’ve got any good locals near you that don’t distribute down here.
I’ve also been given the “opportunity” of sampling three different Leinenkugels. One is a Cranberry ginger shandy, another is a ginger shandy and the other is a Harvest Patch shandy that promises notes of nutmeg, allspice and cloves.
Every one of these scares the shit out of me.
I will sample them later and drop my takes on them here.
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I was gonna say, “I think you posted this in the wrong thread,” and then I thought again. There is no “wrong thread” to post this picture.
Wonder Woman’s bondage fetish knows no bounds.
*Sorry.
Great stuff. You are correct, your cat has a truly badass name. She’s beautiful as well.
I’ve had a few saisons and really need to sample more of them.
Thanks, man. I’ll tell her you said so!
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Awesome writeup! I haven’t seen these out here on the West Coast, but I’ll keep my eyes peeled.
Also, Rikki’s cat and your cat would probably get along really well. They could probably not give a shit about anything and catch animals together happily.
I think Evil Twin is available in all West Coast states, although maybe only scattered. Off Color is probably still only in Chicago, but if you want to try something like the Apex Predator, I’m pretty sure Prairie, mentioned above, is shipping its Hop to California, Oregon and Washington.
Evil Twin is here in Colorado too. I’ve “reviewed” a couple of theirs in various posts. I don’t remember specifically the Apex Predator, but remember liking it.