Midnight Snack: Relic Brewing "Hiver"

My life is glamorous, to say the least.

I'm powering through the first seasons of Arrested Development again so I can (finally) watch the latest season. I grabbed the trusty coffee mug out of the cabinet in my hotel room (Extended Stay, motherfuckaz) and went to town on this beer. What beer? Relic Brewing "Hiver," their newest French Style Saison.

A murky kind of orange fills my mug. It's hard to be 100% accurate on this though, as I'm drinking it out of a goddamned coffee mug. But it looks murky enough. I must have looked quite the horses-ass as I sat there and turned on the flashlight on my phone and got all up in there trying to all scientificish on the color. 

The lemonyness called out in the label, is wicked prevalent in the nose, as the grains. It's like a rye, but its not a rye. It smells good. I would burn the Yankee Candle version of this. I would burn it so hard.

It would replace my current favorite.

My first sip of this beer is extremely overwhelming. Everything on the label is on point. Lemony and earthy, complex and interesting. The first thing I would have compared it to is Night Shifts Bee Tea, I swear to god I want to say there is honey in this. I know I'm wrong and that I should shut up, but still. The earthyness is really there. In talking to Mark about it he explained the "Spelt" malts to me, as it wasn't something I was familiar with. He was able to best liken the characteristics of this beer to a rye, and I now can totally understand why. There's a light spiciness there, which is prevalent from start to finish, and a noticeable dryness. It mingles well with the hops characteristics that aren't so much citrus as they are lemon. Does that even fucking make sense?

Think honey lemon cough drop. Less bad, more betterer. And less honeyer. Not the beer, just the specific hops tones. Am I making any sense?

Let me make me more dumb for you. Do you like Saisons?

Excellent, because this beer is an excellent representation of the style. Its clean, crisp, and now that I'm thinking about it, kind of weird to be drinking when I'm looking at my car and there is a light dusting of snow on it. The sexy dance of the malts and hops, makes a fantastic saison.

Do you like Rye beers? 

Good, because even though this isn't a rye it does have similar characteristics on a much more lesser intense scale of intense

Do you trust my judgement?

...Well, the jury is still out on that one.

Does Finn love the Flame Princess?

Yes, I think he does. Well, maybe not love, but I think he is in heavy like. But I also think he is torn between his initial (and unreciprocated) love of Bubblegum Princess.

And I bet you're wondering, what does this beer pair well with?

Actually, while discussing this with Mark from Relic, he encouraged saving this bottle for a holiday dinner, but I was so geeked, I just had to share it with all of you.

And I totally did eat a box of Mike & Ikes.

*This bottle was provided to me before it is available to the public. It will be available soon though*

**Can't even untap this shit, cause it ain't on there**

***Attention everyone! Why go to a banana stand when we can make your banana stand?***