Pretty Things 'Field Mouse's Farewell'

With my first day off this week it coincided with the first day of the new school term, convenient that huh!  A great friend and colleague of mine has moved onto other pastures in work, so i needed to get him some appropriate presents, bottle shaped ones.
This meant a dash to the Cardiff beer shop, and of course i had to get a few bottles for myself.
I finally got the one i had been promising myself, a Cantillon, also a Flying Dog Old Scratch, Goose Island 312 Wheat, Sierra Nevada Southern Hemisphere Harvest, Traquair House Ale and a couple of others.
The Sierra Nevada bottle was quite a find i thought, but alongside it was a even more interesting one, a Pretty Things 'Field Mouse's Farewell'.

I needed to do a little research. Pretty Things are gypsy brewers, they rent out the facilities and time at another brewery to do their magic. I'm still a little unclear on some of the details, like bottling, distribution and storage. It sounds very romantic breezing in, brewing, and leaving but their must be a lot more to it than that!

Anyway, the beer.
 A lovely bottle, beautifully presented label and it has a nice wrap over the cap, giving you the details 'Bottled May 2011 Batch 2'.

'It's our late spring seasonal beer. Mostly inspired by Nord Pas de Calais "biere de garde" and Wallonian saison styles, this rustic ale of 7% alcohol is chock full of different grains: Rye, Oats, Wheat and Barley. We wanted to brew a beer made of what a mouse would eat.'

 Pretty Things website 

As they say, a Saison style ale, 7%, and 1 pint(US) 6 fl oz. The only other Saison i have had is the gold standard one ' Saison Dupont' which was amazing. 

I paid £ 6.89, which yes i a lot but i suppose when you consider its relative rarity in this country, import costs, and that most US bottled beers seem to be smaller than this in my experience i was happy to pay it. Was i right?

Orange gold, a little hazy, nice white head. Aroma is a little floral, certainly wheaty, herbal almost.

A nice mouth feel about it, earthy and a little sharp, it has a bready grainy taste which is then overtaken by the lemon and spice. There is not much sweetness here, certainly it leans into the hop bitterness camp more. Strange in that the strength starts of by reminding you of a lighter Belgian beer, avoids the sugar, then skims along the border inviting bitterness and teasing sharpness.