After reviewing Great Lakes Brewery’s excellent 25th Anniversary Belgian Saison, which included lots of references to their No Chance With Miranda Saison, I thought it was the right time to dig into my pile of beers waiting review, and finally put some thoughts down about Miranda’s older sister, No Pants With Miranda. So first off, to recap somewhat: Great Lakes makes No Chance With Miranda, which is a lovely saison. I’m fairly certain their Anniversary Belgian Saison is a variant of, or “based on” No Chance. Mike Lackey, one of their brewers is known for trying unusual things, and so some time ago, he decided to make an “imperial” saison. Which of course, is a non-existant style. At any rate, this is the outcome. A 10.6% abv saison. If you read the No Chance With Miranda post, you’ll know the story on it’s name. I’ll let you work out this one on your own……
No Pants With Miranda — Great Lakes Brewery
From a 650ml Project X bottle with only a neck-hanger, No Pants With Miranda pours a tawny brown, with some copper tones showing in the centre. About 1″ of head drops to a fairly dense layer of foam that leaves a good bit of lace on the glass. Aroma is crazy, sort of like a Belgian-style quad, but different, if that makes sense. There is a heap of sweetness to the aroma, caramel and even toffee, perhaps a touch of rum. There are lovely spices, ginger, a bit of clove, with coriander and black pepper. There is also some citrusy notes, but they are more like candy, like a lemon drop. On the nose, this is like an amplified, extra sweet saison. The taste confirms this, immediately spicy and hot with the alcohol followed by the candied citrus zing, a big shot of brown sugar glides across the palate, finishing in a lingering sweet finish, with a nicely warm feeling from the 10.6% abv. Tastes are many and varied (again, like a good Belgian strong dark ale), but include ginger, lemon, spices including clove and pepper, heaps of sweet malts that show caramel and molasses, a touch of drying hops if you look for it, and a whole lot of heat from the alcohol. The body is medium, maybe even leaning towards heavy, though there is a fairly generous carbonation which is nice and small and champagne-like. Every sip I notice something different, one sip I get lots of citrus, the next, lots of clove, the next is all sweet chewy malts, and occasionally —as it warms— jammy dried fruits. Untappd.com has this listed as a Saison/Farmhouse Ale, as does Ratebeer.com and BeerAdvocate.com, and I know Mike was trying for an “imperial” saison when he made it, but I would strongly argue in favour of this been categorized as a Belgian Strong Dark/Quad. Just my opinion though. Whatever you want to call it, it is a lovely big old beer. Maybe not as appealing as it’s younger sister on a hot summer’s day, but it certainly would go down well later that night with a block of cheese and a loved one.
Buy This Beer
Good luck. Possibly occasionally at the brewery retail store, located at 30 Queen Elizabeth Way (Gardiner Expressway and Royal York), but call before you go, it’s probably not there. A better plan would be to befriend Mike Lackey and hope he offers you one.
Drink It With
Tough call, aside from some obvious cheese pairings (that in a minute). Carrot cake, with a rich cream cheese icing would go great. The depth of spices in the cake, and the earthy quality of the carrots would stand up very well with the sweet, citrusy and complex beer. Potentially a game fowl stew, again fairly rich, would benefit from the spices in the brew. For cheeses, go big. Very old cheddars, parmigiano, Beemster XO, etc. A less aggressive blue could work well too, but too much salt would, I feel, detract from the sweetness. Just a touch could offer a great juxtaposition.
About The Brewery
Independently owned by the Bulut family, we produce our beer as it was done hundreds of years ago by using an open fire, copper brew house built in Germany in the early 1900’s.
Our small-batch brewing process allows us to carefully blend only the finest all natural ingredients to produce our award-winning beers. Our water, hops, malts and yeast are selected from local producers and those afar on the basis of but one criteria; quality.
