The Bar Towel

Split a bottle with my wife last night and I noted a bit of skunk, glad I only grabbed one and have a couple brown bottle 375's still

I haven't tried my bottles yet, but I got an unopened case.. curious to see how they taste. If there are skunked as well, it would rule out the exposure to light thing

spinrsx wrote:I haven't tried my bottles yet, but I got an unopened case.. curious to see how they taste. If there are skunked as well, it would rule out the exposure to light thing

No it wouldn't. "Skunk" is a very specific flavour that is the result of photodegradation of isohumulones. If your boxed bottles taste skunky, then they were exposed to UV light at some point in time.

Wow so many bottles skunked?

Buying your Saison Dupont directly from the sealed case should definitely solve this problem.

I bought one of each Dupont beers the other week. They were all fine, indeed better than fine, except the Saison Dupont. And this is not a case of "this isn't as good as I remember it the last time LCBO had it years ago" as I bought a bottle last year in Belgium so I recall the taste. Very disappointing to wait this long and to pay that price for a defective product.

I've bought from four different LCBO's so far, and all off the shelf with no problems.

My bottles have tasted great so far- looking forward to more becoming available. Between this, Sofie and Bellwoods, there have been some very nice saison options in Toronto this spring!
Ren

Philip1 wrote:Very disappointing to wait this long and to pay that price for a defective product.

Oh no you don't. If the LCBO product is defective, you return it - don't pay for it.

Trust me, they listen to every reason we return things.

Having a Saison now and it tastes great. I got a bit paranoid from the recent posts so I thought maybe best to try it now... pretty sure I bought it from King & Spadina. The bottle I'm drinking has a best before date of 2016.

How does the flavor change if you cellar this for a while?

Grey wrote:How does the flavor change if you cellar this for a while?

As you'd expect, the hop character fades away and the flavours round out, but it's quite stable otherwise, still lively even after a decade. One of things I love about Saison Dupont is its ability to manage both freshness and maturity at the same time, and this agelessness carries forward. In my experience, the odd bottle doesn't hold up as well, but that seems to be the exception. Looks like Belgian deleted his earlier post, but I'd agree that there's no reason to deliberately cellar this given its permanent availability now, but neither is there a reason not to.

Curious about the skunk comments; I'm going to try mine soon. I think genuine skunkiness is actually not that common, so I'm a bit skeptical. Also, notice the description from Markowski's Farmhouse Ales:

A wonderful aroma full of tropical fruits, fresh sea air, and earthy hops on a solid malt background; there is also a hint of cork and even "light-struck" character (in this case it is not unpleasant). Very well balanced with a fruity/spicy finish. World class.

haven't opened my bombers yet, but, in the past, i've noticed a definite difference in taste between certain batches.
some taste crisper/more acidic than others.

Mine have all been delicious and quite crisp.

We should get in touch with the brewer to make sure this batch is not off.

I doubt the batch is off - just some bottles getting more exposed to UV radiation than others, and the sensitivity of some peoples palate. My wife didn't notice the skunk but I did, and that was before it came up in discussion here.

Liked the Saison. The Monk's Stout I didn't find all that impressive.