#belgian saison

Brewday - Yorkshire Rhubarb Belgian Saison

So in my capacity as @withinthewalls I’ve been helping to organise the Cawood Riverside Beer Festival, namly choosing the beers and doing the design and web stuff. This also lead me as a homebrewer to be invited along to the Jolly Sailor Brewery in Selby (who also run the Jolly Sailor Inn in Cawood) to brew a single cask of something a little special for the festival.

The head brewer Steve asked me to suggest something a little different and from the serious lack of craft Belgian beers from local breweries I thought the tried and tested recipe of my Jörmungandr Saison would be an interesting one to do as a base, and wanting to have a sour beer that wasn’t too extreme for the locals, we decided to blend it with locally grown forced Yorkshire Rhubarb. Helpfully sourced by our local greengrocers Luvfresh in Selby and grown on a farm in Howden just down the road.

The first process I did was taking 4.5kg of the rhubarb and adding 3L of water to the washed and chopped veg. I then added 1kg of sugar and simmered the rhubarb until it was fully macerated, then came the tricky process of sieving the liquid from the pulp. At the end I was left with 5L of colourful rhubarb syrup.

On Saturday myself and a fellow homebrewer Ian assisted Steve with a 50L brew on the Jolly’s Development Kit. Based on my recipe Steve crunched the numbers and adjusted for the increased volume and we mashed with 70.3% Pilsner Malt, 19.6% Wheat and 10.1% Vienna. With three 60g charges of my homegrown Fuggle hops for bittering, mid and late addition. It was a great opportunity to learn some of the numbers and science of brewing from Steve as I’ve always avoided too much maths in my brewing. Nice for someone to do all the complicated calculations that I usually trust to Brewers Friend, lol.

Trying the “Hallertauer Feuergurke”, our Belgian saison with cucumbers and chilis we brewed for the contest. Smells like you opened a jar of pickles :-D

Os inquestionáveis novos rótulos da Cervejaria Dogma ;)

texto: Cilmara Bedaque e divulgação fotos: Cilmara Bedaque e divulgação Já falamos aqui no Lupulinas sobre a nova Cervejaria Dogma que nos chamou a atenção pela união de três micro-cervejarias bem conceituadas no meio cervejeiro brasileiro. Continuando seu plano de lançamentos, a Dogma apresentou duas novas colaborativas com a cervejaria californiana Modern Times. São a Modern Dogma, uma Imperial…

This saison is brewed in Tourpes, Belgium. It's a city that sits very close to the French border (hence the French name of this Belgian brew). Traditionally, it's a Christmas beer. The translation of the name is roughly equivalent to "season's greetings." If you make it to the end of this review, however, I'll explain why this winter brew makes a wonderful summer treat. 

I enjoyed this liquid magic in a snifter, poured from a growler. It was a gorgeous honey gold color with substantial cloudiness from the yeast. Lacing on the glass was minimal, but still present. 

This beer smelled like dried apricots for the most part, although that was accompanied by a faint banana scent (which is characteristic of Belgian yeast). It made me want a tangy cheese... Pass the feta, anyone?

For a high-octane brew (the abv is a whopping 9.5 percent) the mouth feel was still very clean and light. There was also a pronounced tingle with each sip, but I think that was due more to the beer's spiciness than its effervescence. 

Apricot fruitiness stayed prominent in the taste, but was accompanied by the biting spiciness I noted in the mouth feel. Coriander was one of the detectable spices. After the spicy fruit blast, the saison finished with a lemon tartness. The lingering taste was herbal and dry. 

This beer would pair fantastically with curry or Mediterranean food— namely lamb and tzatziki sauce. In terms of seasons, this brew would be satiating year-round. The spiciness makes it compelling in cooler months, but it's so light and refreshing that I'd gladly bring it out to the pool with me. 

Fellow beer geeks, bottoms up where Avec Les Bons Voeux is concerned. This is a delectable beer!