Ballets Of A Feather


Brewery and Country of Origin: High And Mighty Beer Company of 108 Cabot Street, Holyoke, MA, 01040, USA

Date Reviewed: 6-12-13

If you're a fan of Belgian beers, you may already know that a lot of the population of Belgium (about 40%) speaks French. Because of this, many Belgian products have French sounding names, including the beer style, Saison, a style of Belgian origin which, if you read our review on Boulevard's farmhouse seasonal, means season. Of course, you could have probably figured that out without the help of Google Translate, but we just like to make sure. Well as for this review, even though this particular beer is made by High and Mighty, an American brewer, it clearly has a French name. Pas De Deux (dropping the "i") means steps of two (dieux is the plural form) and generally refers to a type of duet in ballet, where two dancers move in harmony. Literally, steps are reciprocated. Many of the world's greatest ballets include a pas de deux between main performers including The Nutcracker, The Black Swan, and Don Quixote. The dance is even featured in the animated movie WALL-E... of course that was done in space with the help of a fire extinguisher, but still. At this point, we're not really sure why High and Mighty decided to give this beer the name they did, but it's a good spring time beer, given its style, its light and airy presence, and floral as well as herbal aromas and flavors. See? Just like a spring ballet... ish.
Date Sampled: 6-01-13 At: Local 149, 149 P Street, Boston, MA 02127, USA
Beer Style: Saison/Farmhouse Ale
Alcohol by Volume: 4.50%
Serving Type: Keg, 12 oz Tulip Glass
Rating: 3.04

Look

Pas De Dieux pours choppy like with a high amount of carbonation action, producing a full, fairly thick, inch tall foam head with a medium high density, a fairly good level of retention, and a slightly creamy texture. The beer has a deep golden color with a mostly bright shine, with some haziness caused by the inclusion of very fine unfiltered sediment. This beer has moderately full lacing.

Aroma

Spicy herbal hops headline this beer's aroma, which is below average in terms of strength. There are some traditional wheat like characteristics as well as some clove spice and a light weak malty undertone. This beer is mostly hoppy with a good amount of clean and crisp bitterness throughout, and some slightly fruity secondary notes. There is no alcoholic tinge in the aroma.

Feel

This is a light bodied brew with a very dry finish and a clean and crisp feeling throughout. This beer has a medium amount of carbonation, a low weight, and a matching viscosity, giving this beer a light and whispy overall feel that is refreshing in the summer. This beer is cooling with no alcoholic bite, and a lingering dry closing.

Taste

The medium low strength flavor is bitter overall with herbal, somewhat spicy, and floral hops blanaced somewhat with a fair amount of pale malts offering very little, but noticeable sweetness. There are some fruity banana as well as slighty citrusy notes. This beer finishes with a short lingering bitter aftertaste with a dry effect.

Our Take

To be honest, we got this beer after we had tried a sample of it as a suggestion for "a light bodied beer that is light on malt, fairly hoppy, and just great for summer." Needless to say, the waitress made a great pick as far as the season's concerned. Perhaps too good of a pick. Unfortunately, this beer has some was lacking in terms of any prominence in flavor, a weakness which was further made apparent with a less than average strength aroma. Of course, with this style you shouldn't expect any real strong or bold flavors as it's not typical for a proper saison, but there should be at least some substance there. Aside from that though, this beer did have some good hoppy and fruity flavors coinciding with what this style merits. Also, this beer's light and airy stature, easy to drink character, and spring like feel make this a great late spring time beer. And Pas De Dieux went very well with the buffalo pork wings that were served with it.