Destihl Saison de Ruisseau

I have had 5 Destihl beers on this blog, though I've tasted many more, and all of them are due to the generosity of my brother Kevin, and the love of his life, Laurie, CFO of the Desthil Brewery, who will be my sister-in-law tomorrow. They've been kind enough to sprinkle me with samples, so much that there wasn't a great need to buy others that are available in our local market. There's a few I haven't gotten to yet, and that's not out of their lack of generosity, but my laziness. I returned the favor by ordering up a keg of their mango IPA for the Acadia Cafe, but never took notes on it. Just had a few over the week or so it was on, and happily served some pints.

So, here I am in a hotel room in Bloomington, IL, with their wedding tomorrow. I made my first visit to their original "gastrobrewpub" in Normal, IL earlier tonight and was well satiated by a dish of Wiessenheimer Chicken, pairing it with this beer I am about to write on, as well as a glass of their tripel. My sister Patti has the Weisenheimer hefe weizen to go with a different delicious chicken dish, and her main squeeze Tom had a burger and fries to go with "the closest thing to a Michelob Golden Draft", which was the Normal Blonde Ale. He saw our meals, though, and wished he's taken a chance on something more like it.

I have a growler here in the hotel room, ready to crack open, because I do not review beers had in the company of others, in a busy brewpub restaurant, only when I have time to really reflect and consider the brew in solitude. We've gone over this. Why did I choose this one? Because I liked it enough to want to drink at least half of it alone in my hotel room, and because it wasn't $48 like some of the other promising offerings available. Perhaps I'll return and procure those in bottled form, before I leave the Normal/Bloomington area. Slightly less at about $18 for a 375 ml (as we discovered in an earlier post).

Okay, enough, let's open a growler and drink it up. But first: I snagged this off of BeerAdvocate: "We curse daily at this beer because it takes so long to ferment, but it's worth the wait, despite our emotional scarring. This Belgian-style Saison has golden/light copper color, light body, medium hop bitterness, flavor & aroma, medium-low malt flavor & aroma and spiciness from added coriander. Fruity esters dominate the aroma while complex alcohols, acidity, low Brettanomyces character and clove and smoke-like phenolics from Saison yeast. 26 IBU. 6% ABV."

Closer inspection reveals that this beer has been on BA since 2008 and there are only 3 reviews. Either it comes along rarely, or the Bloomington-Normal BA contingent is inactive, to say the least. I peeked on the Destihl website for more information, only to find that it's where BA stole the info from.

Wasn't I going to drink it? Oh, yeah....

Hazy, dark amber appearance, slim white head.

Malty aromatics, rustic, slightly sweet and fruity, with brett looming over the whole affair. Wild and funky.

Tartness controls the flavor from first sip, brett is in full control. Nicely spicy, too. Abundant fruit and malt at play, but the sour is in command. And, me, I'm loving it. Yum, digging the brett, the fruit, then funk, the malt, all of it working. Low bitterness, medium body, definitely down able. Tops in my book.

Destihl does the Belgian styles and sourness well. This is one of their best that I've tried. And I intend to keep trying.