I can't believe that Torque Brewing is over a year old! I still remember chatting with Torque's VP of Operations Matt while he was the head brewer at Fort Garry, at the time Torque was going to happen, but it was still just a dream at the time. Fast forward to now - Torque's done a great job with just about every beer they've made.
For their first anniversary, they created a limited edition saison aged in French oak wine barrels called Incept1on. I remember trying a sample of the beer for the first time back in May with my buddy Brent who was in town for work, so it's nice to see the beer now in bottle form.
Torque debuted this beer at their anniversary party back in August, but the beer wasn't quite done fermenting yet so they told everyone to not drink it until mid September at the earliest. Well, now it's mid October and I'm finally reviewing it.. being without a camera for a few weeks delayed this review more than it should have. I love saisons and I love all things barrel aged.. so you can tell I'm excited to try this!
Appearance: Pours a cloudy golden straw with a half finger's worth of off-white head on top. The head stays pretty much the same as the beer is savoured, leaving only a minimal amount of lacing on the glass. The beer is also pretty carbonated for a saison, but looks great!
Aroma: It's been far too long since I've had a saison! The aroma of Belgian yeast, lemon and red wine oak barrels pop up first. It's sweet, slightly sour, mildly bready, and has a light oak aroma - much lighter than if it was aged in a whisky barrel.. but every brewery does whisky barrel aging so it's good to see an alternative.
Taste: The beer is quite fizzy in my mouth once it hits my palate. There's a good presence of Belgian yeast that gives off a bready, slightly funky and light citrus flavour to it. I definitely get the presence of the French red wine oak barrels in here - the barrel gives off sour Belgian kriek/red wine notes, a hint of vanilla and a bit of woodiness. There's a light bitter piney hop presence in there that pops up once in a while, and lastly.. This is quite a dry beer for mouthfeel, no real aftertaste popping up throughout the time I'm savouring this.
Overall Thoughts: Incept1on is a solid saison that's not too sweet and has the barrels compliment the flavours of the beer instead of overpowering the flavours like we generally see in whisky barrels. The flavours are subtle but it's a nice beer just to savour.
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