Goose Island Gillian

Goose Island Gillian is a Saison/Farmhouse Ale brewed with with Strawberry, Honey and White Pepper. This is then partially aged in wine barrels. The smell of this beer is pretty crazy intense, lots of strong funkiness and white pepper! It’s so potent it really crosses into a place where it is almost unpleasant. Notes of strawberry came out as it warmed, but it still didn’t smell great. Getting the strawberries and honey right away, but thankfully not too much. I was expecting a huge burst of white pepper after smelling so much, but that blends into the beer quite nicely. Add a dash of oak from the wine barrels (I am not sure what kind of barrels are used, probably a varying selection of white wine barrels) and you have one odd saison. I took me a while to open my mind and palate to this one, but I have to say I really did enjoy it in the end.