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Hof ten Dormaal Saison

First Taste - Hof ten Dormaal Saison
The first taste of Saison at the kitchen table with Andre Janssens.

When I was in Belgium last fall, I had a chance to try one of the new beers from Hof ten Dormaal.  Despite being an actual farmhouse brewery, this is the first time the brewery has made an actual “saison” style beer.  With the increase in popularity of the style and demand from their consumers, they answered the call.  Soon, it should be appearing in stores around the United States.

This new product release is excellently timed for Hof ten Dormaal who just suffered a catastrophic fire in their brewery.  They need all the attention and funds they can get.  If you’d like to learn more about their brewery fire and the crowd funding site to help the family out as they rebuild, please check out the article I wrote about it at this link.

Appearance: Hazy pale gold, white head, good retention.

Aroma: Yeast, herbal notes, sage, rosemary, light sulfur notes, earthy tones, hints of coriander.

Taste: Coriander, lemon creme, cereal, yeast, herbs.

Overall Impression: This is a very balanced Saison that sits right in the middle stylistically.  Saisons tend to fall into yeast forward, grain forward, hop forward, or herbal forward.  This Saison has a little of each.  I’m not sure if there are enough fine examples of Flemish Saison to know if the Flemish have developed their own style of Saison, but if you put this beer next to Glazen Toren Saison d’Erpe-Mere you can start to see something distinct from their Wallonian cousins.  Needless to say, this is another really well made beer from the family at Hof ten Dormaal.  And it’s a fantastically drinkable at its reasonable ABV.  Check it out and help the Janssens recover from their brewery fire.

Availability: This small brewery is imported into the US by 12% Imports.  Check your local bottle shop to see if they deal with a distributor that works with this importer.

5.5% ABV

You can read more about Hof ten Dormaal, including my beer reviews, on my page dedicated to them.

Hof ten Dormaal Saison

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