Crab Saison

Saison 6.5%
Bottle conditioned, in 375 ml champagne bottles.
Release date 1 April 2013.

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Brewed on: 12.1.2013. Bottled: 26.2.2013 and 23.4.2013

Summer is here!

What do you drink with Cromer Crab and seafood? Saison! This Belgian farmhouse style ale is flavoursome and refreshing with a tartness from the yeast to give it an edge that compliments good food.

Design

Designed to accompany Cromer's famous sweet crabs that are landed on the beach here from Easter to the late summer or autumn. A glass of this will grace your table or picnic. This has a light addition of traditional Contintental hops, allowing the malt and the yeast to work together to produce an easy drinking pale ale with a slight Belgian twist. For this reason it is my wife's favourite. If treated like a white wine, drunk in small glasses and perhaps accompanying food then ladies should find this a lovely drink. Its strength is 6.5%, which is only half that of a white wine so there should be nothing there to frighten anyone. The half champagne bottle size (and a few full champagne bottles) makes an attractive presentation, set off by the quality Belgian cork and exposed cage with Poppyland's distinctive red caps, accentuating the artisanal origin of this beer. The third bottling has the addition of a little apple fruit into the secondary fermentation which gives a very slight alteration in the flavour profile.

Poppyland Crab Saison

6.5% second release (with apple) bottled 23.4.2013

A couple of kilos of Norfolk apples, purchased at Gressenhall's Apple Day last October, went into the secondary femention (kilderkin). They have given this Crab Saison a wonderful subtle apple-kick and have boosted the carbonation, so there is a very satisfying 'pop' as the cork comes out of the bottle (tasted 18.6.2013).

It has a hazy amber colour, with a decent white head. A fresh fruity aroma greets the nose, suggestive of a barrel-aged beer (which this isn't). You know this is going to be classy. The first taste is striking: alcoholic, yeasty (in a nice way), a bit wild, with a slight sour twist on the tongue, then mildly appley; then the malt and perhaps last the hops. It is interesting and complex and the mellow apple skin and hop flavour lingers on the tongue. This is the most mature, and the best edition of the Crab Saison, so it demonstrates how Saison is a 'biere de garde', meant for storage, as it just improves with several months maturing. I am certain this will have many fans. Maybe I should enter it to the CAMRA Bottled Beer Competition instead of the Dandelion Saison or On the Edge. Yes, I will: four bottles under corks. Unfortunately there were only 40 litres of this. Oh well, that's the nature of small breweries like Poppyland.

This beer is produced without the use of any finings, filtering or pasteurisation and it is bottle conditioned, so all the flavours of the ingredients are preserved for your enjoyment. Serve cool and avoid disturbing the natural yeast deposit if you prefer a clearer drink.

Martin Warren, The Poppyland Brewer
18.6.2013