Cicerone.org

2009-02-15 

Saison D'Erpe-Mere - Imported by B. United International 

6.9% abv

Last night's saison may have been my favorite of the week--and it was from the youngest brewery of the week as well. Kleinbrouwerij De Glasen Toren--meaning "Brewery of the Glass Tower" takes its name from nothing more exciting than the street upon which it is located: Glasen Toren Weg. 

Jackson tells us that this small brewer began production in 2004 under the direction of two homebrewer's. Since they are located in East Flanders (just off the E40 that runs from Brussels to Ghent), their production of a saison breaks with the tradition that such beers be made in the more southerly Hainaut province.

The bottle comes wrapped in paper which appears to serve as label as well since it gives all the essential information, including ingredients, alcohol content and date code.  A traditional label adheres to the bottle as well, although it gives a different alcohol content (7.5%) than that listed on the paper wrapper (6.9%).

Whatever the alcohol, the beer presents a rich palate of flavors including cooked peaches and apricots, cloves, seasoned cedar wood and black pepper. And rather than hitting you all at once, they seem to be revealed at different times during the tasting, in layers.  Really a pretty enchanting beer and one that I will soon purchase again. 

As luck would have it, I had some herbed chèvre and water crackers at hand while tasting and the two made a fantastic pairing.

By the way, the ingredients include: Dingeman's pilsner malt, wheat malt (10%) and some liquid sugar.  Jackson reports the hops as being Target and Saaz in the kettle and Belgian-grown Halltertau Mittelfruh in the hop back. The resulting beer is quite hazy, indeed nearly opaque, but deep bronze in color with a huge and persistant head.