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To celebrate our brand spanking new and extremely shiny tanks, we sat down with Eric Hulme of Tender Greens who had recently completed the one week Introduction to Practical Brewing program at UC Davis. We had Eric come for a brew day and get his hands dirty while we chatted about what sort of beer might be fun to brew together. After thinking about our relationship, as well as Tender Greens strong ties with the Farmer’s Market, we decided on Saison with some sort of local farm product as saison is often referred to as a “farmhouse ale”. We have been aware of the parallels between Craft Beer and Artisan foods and we wanted to foster a deeper relationship with a business that has been supportive of us, and that we truly respect. We additionally hope to get the brewery more in touch with the land around us. We settled on a French Saison yeast and a classic Saison malt bill with an addition of 350 pounds of local cherries after primary fermentation. The fruit acts only as an accent and was never meant to play a central role in the character of the beer.
The saison has been dubbed Schot in Het Donker, or Dutch for Shot in the Dark. This hints at the fact that this is our very first brew with a Belgian yeast strain! This beer is a true departure for our very West Coast roots but this is exactly what we wanted. Tom keeps saying that it just took a chef to get Rob to brew with Belgian yeast! The finished product is a dry, fruity, slightly spicy beer with a mellow but prominent yeast presence. Notes of pear, apricot, cherry, earth and pepper are apparent and make this beer beautifully refreshing for a summer’s eve!