OK, continuing to follow up on things in here, BotW finally started stocking Ommegang's Ommegeddon, originally pointed out by RDH. He hadn't tried or reviewed it, but brought it to my attention as a new release. I'm not exactly sure what style this beer fits into. Ratebeer.com calls it a saison, and beeradvocate calls it a wild ale. It packs a respectable 8% ABV, but it cost me a hefty $12.69 for a 750 mL bottle. That's about twice as expensive as their regular offerings.
The beer pours a light hazy yellow. It's not as cloudy as I'd expect from a bottle conditioned beer, even after swirling the yeast into the glass. It also doesn't have as much head as I'd expect.
The smell of this beer is nice and complex. I smell fruit, notably lemon, orange, apple, and maybe peach, along with an herbal character. I actually enjoy the smell a little more than the flavor of this beer. It's on the sour side, somewhat reminiscent of the Jolly Pumpkin wild ale, although not quite as sour. The fruit character doesn't come through the sourness as strongly as I had hoped based on the smell. The herbal character, presumably from the dry hopping advertised on the bottle, hits mostly in the finish. It's not like typical American hopping that I often describe as citrusy (grapefruit, usually), or floral. This is more grassy and, uhh, something. I can definitely see how the confusion arose as to how to classify this beer. It does remind me both of a saison, of which I've had a number, and of the Jolly Pumpkin wild ale, which is the only wild ale I've tried. I think the combination works well and adds depth. I like this better than the Jolly Pumpkin, and just a hair better than the Southampton Saison, my current favorite in that category. Correspondingly, I'm going to give this [img]/images/graemlins/heart.gif[/img][img]/images/graemlins/heart.gif[/img][img]/images/graemlins/heart.gif[/img][img]/images/graemlins/heart.gif[/img]. On the downside, this is a pretty steep price to pay for a beer that doesn't floor me. Looking at just some other beers I've give ratings of 4 or better, I could get a 750 of the La Fin Du Monde or any Unibroue beer, Southampton's Grand Cru or Double White, two half liters of Weihenstephaner's hefeweizen, a four pack of Old Rasputin, or two 22's of Middle Ages' Kilt tilter for less, and Allagash's Curieux, which I gave a perfect score and may be my favorite beer ever, I can get for $1 more, I'm not going to be buying this again. This is a great beer for people who love saisons or who are looking for something different, but it's too expensive for me to want to buy again.