Best beer in years: Anchorage Mosaic Saison

I don’t issue that title lightly. After 20 years of drinking craft beer and imbibing thousands of different beers, how could I? What Anchorage Brewing presented with its Mosaic Saison could represent the confluence of every flavor I now find enticing.

Mosaic Saison combines the grassy, earthy Mosiac hops with brettanomyces and barrel aging. Aged in foeders (giant oak vessels), Mosaic Saison includes two strains of saison yeast and two brettanomyces strains. I couldn’t claim to pick out the strains but the influence of the bretts pushes the brew into unique territory.

Bretts sometimes require a little time to develop, so drinking this saison nine months after its release gave it time to develop. Were it less excellent, I could attribute that to the age but in our bottle, time aided the brett in its evolution of the flavors.

The use of Mosaic means the hops have not faded as some varieties surely would have. Released in 2012, Mosaic has quickly become a popular go-to hop for its wide array of flavors and its ability to complement other hops. 

My initial diagnosis would be “complex as hell.” The Mosaic hops lend some grassy, lawnmower characteristics not always present. This saison isn’t a Belgian brew layered with bruising West Coast hops; it’s supple and seductive. The yeast strains produce a brilliant tart and slightly sour bouquet. All types of tropical and passion fruits will arise when this saison crosses your palate. It’s hard to miss the orange, lemon, mango and others as they each take a bow. The tartness never lets up[ and it shouldn’t , not with wild yeasts so an important part of the flavor profile.

I drank Anchorage’s Mosaic Saison with Nancy and other people. The verdict was overwhelming – great beer. I would go one further and arguable call this my favorite ever. After almost two decades of saison tasting, this one came off as unique but also uniquely approachable. It couldn't taste less similar to classic saisons like Saison Dupont or Ommegang Hennepin, but Mosaic Saison shares the rustic character and rough edges of any good saison.

I found this bottle in a Pensacola liquor store, leading me to wonder how many states it crossed where Anchorage brews aren’t sold. As long as they don’t appear on Tennessee shelves, I’ll be hunting down anything I can from this brewery. But I pledge not to forget how Mosaic Saison changed my view of a favorite style.