Pretty Things Beer and Ale Project's Jack D'Or Saison Americain

One thing you can say about Pretty Things Beer and Ale Project's is they are never short on words describing or labeling their booze. Saison beer, French for "season", is a general term that was initially given to low alcoholic pale ales, but since a sporadic revival in the mid 2000's, their popularity has grown yet again, particularly in the USA. Once believed to be possibly first brewed by Vidal Saison and initially used in soaking hair for extra volume, this French and Belgian style of beer got Americanized; or more booze was added to it because Americans refuse to be sober. After all, we did invent moonshine.

Pretty Things took the "Americain" approach and socked enough booze in this puppy to give it an ABV of around 6.4%. This beer is actually a running model of their beer and changes as Pretty Things feels fit; though they are good to update the drinkers on the changes they do. This is batch #2. I mentioned Pretty Things before in an earlier review and since then Dann has been really good about getting back to me; so I give them full marks on that. The label on this beer is, of course, a picture of Jack D'Or, conceived and drawn by Dann, though his wife Martha does the artwork on the bottles. The idea of Jack D'Or as said by Pretty Things is:

"Far away in a small clearing in the woods of New England, ankle deep in the mash tun, he contemplates and perhaps even conjures a batch of beer. For those of you who are new to this, Jack is a grain of malted barley, but more than that: he is the unifying force behind all of the Pretty Things."

This beer has a wheaty scent with citrus undertones. The taste is bitter and hoppy in the traditional Belgian style with a citrus-like, dry aftertaste. P.T. uses Vienna, Pils, and Wheat malts and four types of hops; Palisade and Nugget to name a few and three types of yeast to give it its dry, and deliberate mind you, character. This beer is a nice refreshing taste which is great to sip on after a meal or when you are out whitewashing some godforsaken fence. You don't want to slam these things like it's going out of style, because it isn't. I am not a huge fan of Saison-style hooch but this is not too bad. It runs $6 bucks for a 22oz which is a little higher than your casual boozehound likes to pay but the bottle is clearly "dope as shit".

Other Pretty Things Reviews:
St. Botolph's Town Dark Ale
American Darling Pale Lager

Drinkability: 7/10

Taste: 5/10

Value: 5/10
Curb Appeal: 8/10

Overall: 6.25/10