Cigar City Brewing - Cucumber Saison

Like anything else in this world, beer goes through trends. Whether it's hops, breweries or styles of beer, trends happen. As far as styles go, saisons have seen a huge boost lately. And for good reason- they're awesome! However, as a style, saisons are pretty straight forward. No strange yeasts, no strange brewing techniques and no strange ingredients. That is, until Tampa Bay's Cigar City came along.

Cigar City, most notable for their famed Huhnapu's Imperial Stout, has been making waves in the craft beer scene for quite some time now. They're known for creating some of the most awesome beers this county makes, but one of their stranger beers is what caught my eye recently. It's a saison brewed with...cucumber. This I had to try!

Cucumber Saison pours a hazy golden color with a one finger bone white head. I didn't notice a lot of lace from this beer, but I did notice a ton of carbonation racing up the sides of the glass. The smell was, I suppose as you would expect a cucumber beer to smell like- full of cucumber. In the background, I picked up some wet wood, dill and honeydew, but the highlight was absolutely the cucumber.

The taste, not surprisingly I suppose, is largely cucumber as well. The flavor is full and rich, never feeling artificial, but definitely overwhelming any of the other elements in here. Alongside the cucumber, I picked up some sour pickles, grain and wheat, but it was definitely hard to find them among all of this cucumber. If you're a fan of cucumber, this is an absolute must try. It's refreshing, light and flavorful. But if you're not looking for cucumber, there's really not much else to be found in this beer. I didn't get much of the "saison" in this, but the cucumber was phenomenal. Nice work, Cigar City.

Final Grade: B

Top 250 Beers Tasted: 128