Farmhouse Ale Fest: Trinity's Saison Rendezvous

Trinity Brewing hosted their annual farmhouse ale festival, the Saison Rendezvous yesterday. For many, it was a who's who of funky brews, with many of our favorites bringing out the big guns. For the first time, Trinity closed down their whole brewpub to make room for the increased attendees and breweries. This was a great call, as even when it was in full swing, there were nary a line or even the feeling of claustrophobia that can accompany many beer festivals. We want to thank Jason and his crew at Trinity for creating an environment that was perfectly suited for the occasion!Walking straight in, we ventured upon Cigar City who had brought their American Sour Ale from their Humidor Series. Being that we can't get enough of anything slightly resembling Sour Patch Kids in liquid form, that was our first taste. From there we wandered and found a delicious one-off from Ska Brewing, a small batch saison that Thomas their head brewer cooked up on their pilot system. Thanks to a healthy amount of the Bavarian Mandarina hops that were recently featured in their Mandarin Modus, the murky glass had a very pleasant, yet funky appeal.We found our friends from Paradox Beer Company in the back of the warehouse. While they were pouring a couple of their new favorites, Scarbs and Airman snuck us a taste of their Skully No. 9, the next Colorado Wild IPA in their lineup of hopped sour, barrel aged tastiness. If this is any indication of how this new style is going to progress, we're excited to see what's next. The wheat-laden character of #9 helped intertwine with the hop notes, all while balancing out the sourness. This beer is extremely new, as they said it went into bottles on Wednesday, but it should be in stores within a month.Meandering back out to the front, Gordon from Trinity caught our ear, and we decided to taste some of the in house offerings. Our hands-down favorite was the Hopped Toddy, a spiced, hoppy amalgamation of awesomeness that was concocted by their very own Johanna Murphy in her first brew! Much like a hot toddy, the beer had a bright flavor of hops, mixed with a very herbal clove character, and a residual sweetness helped round out the whole thing. Great job!Next we jumped across the aisle to Backcountry Brewery, and talked with Alan Simons their head brewer and Adam Dunbar their Front Range Rep. They had two offerings, an imperial saison and "Brett is a douche." Brett is a Douche instantly caught our eye, and subsequently pleased our palate. With their Imperial Saison (9.6%ABV!!) as the base, they then added Brettanomyces to help finish it off. What you get is a slightly acidic, very drinkable beer that has flavors of pineapple and a slight funk factor. Keep your eyes on our Meet the Brewer series, as these guys expressed interest in being a part of it this year. We'll be announcing that schedule hopefully very soon!We were only able to be there for a couple hours, and with the sheer amount of beer, we could have easily been there the whole time. Some of the favorites we were overhearing from other people included Pikes Peak Brewing, Odd 13, 12° Brewing, Dry Dock (with a familiar John Schneider manning the taps), TRVE (who had a tasty beer, "Crossover" which Black Fox collaborated on), Crooked Stave and Prairie Artisan Ales.We hope everyone had as enjoyable of a time as we did, and we hope to see all the same faces at Colorado Springs Craft Week's Crafters' Festival on May 2nd!