Gollum's Lair

Happy Saison Day!

Earned the Saison Day (2024) badge!

There is enough of an herbal and salt element to almost view this beer as a hybrid sour + fruited gose.

Still had one more can from the Fall 2023 batch for Cellarmaker's 10th anniversary. About six months since canning, and that strong espresso streak when fresh has turned super chill. Coffee flavor is present but less forward. Mellow, deceptive 10.5% ABV.

It has been a few months, so the coffee is fading just a bit, but that underlying fruity floral Ethiopian roast profile is there, and the hit of roast aroma when cracking the can pops. Reads a little sweet now, still a great brew. Canned 2024-01-22.

Riwaka killa

Dankness redux

West Coast collab with McIlhenney for Week of Dankness. Effortless melding of dank hop fruit, light resin, and an almost biscuity malt backbone that finishes crisply. Canned 2024-04-15.

Hop fruit cream, bright citrus and shades or nelson grape and diesel, juicy mouthfeel with a DDH zing. An easy drinking 8.5% ABV. Collab with North Park for Week of Dankness. Canned 2024-04-15.

It's that time of the week... #TrIPATuesday. Pine, earth, resin, assertive malt backbone, with some brighter hop fruit elements, including shades of strata strawberry. One of those triple IPAs that drink like a triple but are deceptively easy drinking.

Crisp dank hop fruitbread. Week of Dankness, Tax Day can.

Gonna need more cowbell. Tax Day canning.

Fleshy peach drizzled with honey, in wild ale format. Good name and bottle label.

Has aged pretty well. There is still a fairly intense nuttiness on the nose. Palate includes gentle caramel, almond, a little maple. Not really pineapple left to speak of. Quite mellowed out at this point.

With the passage of time, mellow fruit, herb, and tree. Light funk. Deft balance among these elements. This is Release No. 6.

Compared to older Prairie entries, these newer (relatively speaking) batches are not up to the task. Reminiscent of flat cardboard.

Big whiff of bakery vanilla immediately upon cracking a cold bottle. Mellow bourbon brownie on the palate, somewhat less overt vanilla now, regular sparks of rye spice.

Batch No. 1, bottled 2018-06-29. Another nearly 5 year old Casa Agria saison that has aged gracefully. No adjunct, but the brighter lemon and sweeter pear fruit traits inherent to this style are present. Bright crisp minerality, light oak and acidity.

Not exactly traditional Flanders style, but the battalion of berries (blackberry, cranberry, raspberry) lends tart jam to the sour brown that is still going strong almost 5 years later. Batch No. 1, bottled 2018-06-07.

Blend No. 1, bottled 2018-05-23. Captures a grisette flavor profile well but with the addition of gentle strains of cherry (primarily) and grape (more subtle, but shimmers in and out toward the finish). This has aged gracefully.

Fortunately not an infected bottle from this year, but definitely "over the hill" as compared to this particular beer and other Prairie beers from earlier years. Barrel character is best captured in the nose now, as the palate runs flat.