Review: Brasserie Dunham Saison du Pinacle Réserve Batch no. 6 Vrai

Last month I finally got to visit another one of Quebec and Canada's best breweries, this time Brasserie Dunham in Dunham, Quebec. While I didn't go on a personal tour like I did at Unibroue, I got to try many of Dunham's various brews at their brewery taproom with Alex and his wife. It was an absolute blast! I wanted to buy all the beers they had available but seeing that I had very limited space for beer in my luggage, I had to settle on two beers, so one of them is this one - Saison du Pinacle Réserve Batch no. 6 VRAI, a hoppy saison, which was bottled on April 28, the day before my birthday!

Appearance: La Saison du Pinacle started out foaming the second I opened the bottle, while not quite a gusher.. it's never fun to lose out on every sip of amazing beer. The saison pours heavy, cloudy golden/orange with an off-white frothy head. The head isn't going anywhere! I poured the beer about 15 minutes ago and the foam hasn't moved one millimetre! 

Aroma: The first thing I notice is the typical barn yard musky aroma you see in a lot of saisons lately, especially in Brett-based saisons. For a saison, it's hoppier than usual but for it being a "saison houblonnée", I expected more bitterness.. but I do get a bit of a hint of cascade pine bitterness. The hoppy aroma is more so a fresh cut grass scent. Also notes of lemongrass and a bit of tart notes reminiscent of kriek here and there, but don't think it's supposed to be as this isn't doesn't appear to be the regular réserve aged in wine barrels. A saison with aromas from all over the spectrum.

Taste: Yep, there's definitely some Brett in there, and I'm still not used to beers brewed with Brett (which I say every single time I review a beer brewed with Brett). It's a heavy barn yard flavour that actually pairs well with the hops, giving it a true "hoppy saison" theme to it. A bit of a lemongrass flavour, light amount of bar soap and for the most part - musky and bitter. A bit of a bitter/metallic aftertaste. There's also a hint of creaminess in there somewhere.

Overall Thoughts: Bitter, Bretty and interesting. While this isn't the kind of saison I would drink on the patio in the summer, it's something I would drink again and bring to a bottle share.