- Steeped Emperor’s Lemon Saison is one of three Moody Tongue beers to start shipping in four-packs this month.
The Reader has been on top of Moody Tongue from day one, though when I say “the Reader” I don’t mean Beer and Metal—I mean our food writer Michael Gebert. He’s thoroughly interviewed Jared Rouben, who left his position as head brewer at the Goose Island brewpubs in early 2013 to found this Pilsen operation. Before Moody Tongue’s launch he spoke with Rouben about “culinary brewing,” which loosely speaking means approaching ingredients like a chef and sourcing them from local farmers’ markets whenever possible. Rouben thinks of beer as food, and he pretty much always puts food in it—pawpaws, green coriander, nectarines, cinnamon, purple raspberries, Padron chile peppers, you name it.
- I got the glass nice and clean, but I couldn’t figure out what to do with the sun.
Steeped Emperor’s Lemon Saison smells so intensely of lemon (albeit without the usual acidity and bite) that I’m just going to have to say “lemon” a bunch of times in a row: Meyer lemon zest, lemon myrtle, lemongrass, and lemon curd. If you keep your nose in the glass till you can pick up something else, you might get beeswax, mango syrup, a bit of resin and pine, something faintly herbal that suggests basil or cilantro, and a fresh yeastiness like pizza dough after it’s had half an hour to rise. Whatever you do, don’t let the words “lemon Pledge” enter your brain. In fact, forget you saw that. You were never here.
In other words, the beer comes on a bit one-note—the herbal lemon flavor is truly bonkers—and whether you dig it probably depends a lot on whether you happen to be in the right brain space for that one note when you pop the cap. I bet I’ll love the next bottle of it I drink.
