This is perhaps my least favourite Nøgne Ø beer, though still it’s not bad, Saison is a light golden straw with a dense head that collapses as soon as it arrives.
The aroma is all peaches and pears, bananas and spice, and the first mouthful is crisp and bitter, heavy with runny honey and dusted with some serious spiciness.
Pepper and a pinch of chilli, then cardamom and tamarind with some mint on the side.
Enveloping this is a bread dough of a yeast, warm, rund and homely, it fattens out this beer and provides a plump body over which the hops are floral and sweet with just enough lemon zest and a healthy dose of resinous earthiness that should leave a tongue tingling finish.
And there’s where I got disappointed as there’s a great big sugary sweetness that washes across all of this and so, instead of a really dry finish, you get a slightly cloying, drunk to much squash finish.