Review - Boulevard Brewing Tank 7

One of the items I brought back from my trip to Portland was Tank 7 Farmhouse Ale from Boulevard Brewing. It is so-named because when the brewery was experimenting with farmhouse beers, the right combination of ingredients came together in tank 7, a piece of equipment known for being highly tempermental.

Tank 7 has a bright golden hue and leaves a fine lacing in the glass. It has a spicy phenolic aroma that is appropriate for a saison. It is not as carbonated as most farmhouse beers, but this might be from the fact that the bottle is stopped with a cork, a method that tends to allow carbonation to escape with time. Its flavour is spicy with the barest hint of banana that lingers on the tongue. Excessive banana flavour in beer is something I tend to dislike but this is just the right amount, a bare hint that is very understated. There are also flavours of sweet fruit, as opposed to citrus fruit, and less dryness than is typical with a farmhouse beer, but this never sacrifices the satisfying quality on the palette that for me is at the heart of this style of beer.

Im not sure what the local availability is for this beer, but if the saison is your thing then I would definitely recommend Tank 7. It very impressively walks the line between uniqueness and upholding the conventions of its style.
Rating: Very Good