The weather is heating up, which means the seasonally adjustable brewing team at Bruny Island is back, like a 19th century Franconian version of SL2, on a saison tip. In the past 18 months, whenever they've headed in this direction it's typically been with other yeasty elements at play, from the deliciously judged Brettanomyces character in Beautiful Ugly to the "Cop a load of this!" of the likes of Saison d'Entrecasteaux. But here it's just a Belgian saison yeast, left to do its work alongside ingredients sourced from across Tasmania, including red wheat from Bruny Island itself and Ella, Cascade and Galaxy hops from Bushy Park.
The result is that this "Tasmanian saison" is arguably the most normal variant they've released to date – and that's no bad thing. It still has the rustic edge found in most of Evan Hunter's beers, working around floral, fruity, spicy characters and some honey like malt sweetness, with a finishing dryness that's more earthy and peppery than the intense, gripping denouement found in some of Bruny's more out there saisons of recent times.
Published December 19, 2018 2018-12-19 00:00:00
