Winding Road for 7 Km Rye Saison

From Ontario's cottage country comes Winding Road for 7 Km Rye Saison. It's brewed in Gravenhurst by the Sawdust City Brewing Co. and came in a silver 473mL can with a sticker for a label. This little 7% beaut was left in my fridge by a most excellent and generous guest after a New Year's Eve beer and cheese soirée--clearly the social event of 2014. On New Year's Day, still a bit groggy and cheese-bloated, I decided to conduct a co-review with the truly remarkable Sequin Brown, with whom I had somehow never written a review previously.

According to Sequin Brown [and occasionally paraphrased by yours truly], Winding Road had fast flowing bubbles, which were inviting. She described its colour as brassy and "Rock and Roll golden". Aroma-wise, there was a bold, homey, almost concord grape overnote--in fact, upon tasting, she elevated that to "an incomprehensible grapiness". She also noted that some "not quite caramel" was hidden within. The beer had a crisp mouthfeel and was "extremely flavourful, bright, and a little bit mischievous", and was described as "a sultry lighthouse" and showy and loud, like a trumpet.  It had a clean finish with no aftertaste and isn't particularly sessionable.

Sequin Brown determined that Winding Road for 7 Km was worthy of 7 Km out of 10.

In my own estimation, I found Winding Road to be a chipper, slightly hazy golden ale that was seriously fizzy. It poured with a mammoth amount of durable white head. Its aroma was floral, with a gently perfumed yeastiness. It had a bright and sunny mouthfeel with some champagne-like dryness. The flavour had lots of yeast, in a Belgian fashion, and there was ample taste, but it didn't "pop" as much as I'd hoped. There wasn't much of the classic rye spiciness that I was pulling for. To its credit, the 7% alcohol was subtly buried. All in, it was certainly a nice enough little beer.

Rating: 7.0 out of 10.