Dandelion Saison

Saison 6.3%
Bottle conditioned, in 375 ml champagne bottles.
Release date 19 June 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

Take a good saison and make it even better. That is the intention here. Forty litres of the popular Dr Rudi's New Zealand Saison has been given a twist in the secondary fermenter by the addition of fresh dandelion petals and the exciting Japanese Sorachi Ace hop. My thanks to Chris and Louise for their field of dandelions on their smallholding at Sidestrand and for help in picking them. The result is a summer sensation with tart, fresh flavours the just yell to be drunk on the terrace in the sunshine.

Poppyland Dandelion Saison tasting notes

6.3% bottled 13.5.2013

Dandelion petals (from a large carrier bag of flowers) steamed for a few minutes plus 100g Sorachi Ace dry hops, then steeped for 10 days prior to bottling.

Served cold from the freezer (30 minutes), it had a moderate white head with a variety of bubble sizes and the lacing lingered nicely. The second pouring had a better head. It was hazy pale with an orange-amber colour and a clean aroma.

It was delicious: sharp and dry with a strong but gentle bitterness, a slightly floral, orange-peel citrus flavour that lingered on the tongue. This would be a really refreshing daytime drink on a hot day. From its origins as Dr Rudi's New Zealand Saison, the addition of dandelion petals and dry-hopping with Sorachi Ace has developed the flavours in a modest way but that has rounded out the hops and produced a really notable ale that I am sure will delight the connoisseurs. The dandelion has been subsumed into the beer very nicely and is not obtrusive but it is certainly there.

This would go well with interesting salads, fish dishes, white meats, white cheeses. I wondered about olives but I found that they tended to dominate the beer, so stick with light to moderately flavoured foods.

Will I do this again? Definitely! Next time, twice the quantity.

Customer feedback

This is the review by Simon Williams of the Campaign For Really Good Beer, posted 22.7.2013:

This is quite delightful.
It's a Saison from Cromer brewed with dandelion petals and dry hopped with Sorachi Ace, and it positively sparkles with life.
The smell is pickled bitter lemons and meadow flowers, and the beer fizzes in my glass, its large fluffy head like an enticing cloud.
As you take a mouthful you are immediately struck by the bitterness, it's knife sharp and steely clean with the Saison yeast adding a soft spicy bread dough to the light honey of the malts.
Sorachi Ace is a big punchy citrus hop and here it's bordering on huge.
Great hits of fresh lemon rind, melon and lime juice slice away at your tongue.
But underneath there's a subtle and rather lovely earthy soil-under-your-fingernails outdoors flavour that I'm guessing is the dandelions doing their work.
It's bitter, almost to the point of sourness, and leaves a finish that's palate cleansing, refreshing, crisp and entirely satisfying.

Link to CAMRGB website.

"August 22, 2013 - somewhere in Central London. Oh yes, we were in the best beer bar in England, I remember. Bottle shared by Ang - and thank you whoever put this one in the DB, it’s been sitting on my iPhone for over half a year now waiting to be entered. Green bottle. Hazy gold with an initially large but quick-diminishing fluffy/creamy off-white head. Aroma is attention-grabbing - very spicy, dry, and pungently floral, like crushed marigolds - dandelion? okay ... really nice stuff. Wow - taste follows, but it has a lot of clover sweetness and some barnyard funk - mostly about the dry, floral yeast - some alcohol with building pungency. Thick, astringent, solid low-level carbonation - medium bitter finish but that spiciness really coats the back of the palate. I know I never will, but I would love to have this again - solid, off-the-beaten-path stuff. Huzzah dandelion!" HogTownHarry (Ratebeer)

"Rake. Bottle shared by Ang. Cheers matey! Light haze on this gold beer. Small pale cream coloured head. Palate is light and airy. Nice mild carbonation. Good floral sweetness. Nice tangy fruits in good balance. Light semi dry finish. Tasty and a bit different." madmitch76 (Ratebeer)

"Bottle thanks to Ang. It pours golden yellow with a thick white head. The nose is hay, spice, earth, floral, grapefruit, dough and citrus. The taste is grapefruit, orange, tangerine, apple, pear, hay, floral, spice, light tartness and a good deal of bitterness with a dry, faintly tart finish. Medium body and high carbonation. Interesting, well-balanced and very drinkable. A very well-accomplished beer!" Scopey (Ratebeer)

See this link to a comment from @AlcofrolicChap

Another photo courtesy of @AlcofrolicChap

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