I learned the truth

The blog's birthday rolls around again. Today I'm marking 17 years of writing about beers, and wondering if this was the plan. Regardless, I haven't yet run out of beers to write about so we continue.

As always, it's an excuse to open something special, and this one is accidentally special, having been stashed away in 2018, wrapped in its LCBO paper bag, and forgotten about. And what a fine bottle too: that lovely ship's decanter look that shrieks class. It's from the fancy brewery in Niagra-on-the-Lake, The Exchange, and is called ∞: Peppercorn Rye Saison, one of a number of variants in the Infinity barrel-aged series. Wine barrels have been employed, though only for two months, and it's 7.2% ABV.

In the glass it's a handsome honey colour, dropped completely bright after almost four years of benevolent neglect, and retains a jolly, jaunty fine white head. The wine is immediately apparent from the aroma, with lots of soft and sweet white grape. I get that it's a dry beer beneath that, but don't get much indication of saison spice or the peppercorns.

White wine forms the bulk of the flavour too, and the high strength adds to an overall Chardonnay effect. A slightly rough dryness pokes through, with an added grass bitterness I'm assigning to the rye. The pepper is... subtle. It adds a very slight piquancy but I think you need to know it's there in order to taste it. I like peppercorns to be a bit more in my face.

Wine-barrel-aged saisons are very much my thing, but this one isn't quite in the top tier. I loved the wine side of the equation -- it's luscious and bubbly and fun -- but there's a lack of complexity which my 17-year trained palate was a little disappointed by. I'm sure I would have enjoyed it more if I'd quit this blog years ago.