Origin: Spain
Type: Saison
Color: Amber
Alcohol content: 6,8%
Recommended serving temperature: 10ºC/50ºF
Brewery: Cerveza Son / La Pirata
I have decided to write today about Mayo 15:37, the fantastic collaboration between two up and coming Spanish breweries, Cervezas Son and La Pirata.
This spectacular saison was first brewed in Cerveza Son's nano-brewery down in Córdoba but is now made at Guineu's brewery in Cataluña, as La Pirata does not yet have its own facility. From what the guys from La Pirata have told me, the change in venue and equipment has given what was already a very tasty brewa little bit more consistency and some more body.
The saison is a very elusive style of beer, hard to pin down in terms of its characteristics. Brewed traditionally to quench the thirst of farm workers during farming season (the reason why it is called saison, or season in French), it was a low to moderate ABV beer (after all, it had to allow these farmers to keep working). The profile of these beers greatly varied from house to house or farm to farm. Even now you can find different opinions as to what their common flavor or smell was or should be. Present day saisons generally have a higher ABV but are still highly different from one another.
Mayo 15:37 is a pale and hazy amber colored saison which develops an impressive amount of foam when it is poured.
Its smell is a mix of yeast, herbs, flowers, spices and fruit, where the breadiness of the yeast serves as a backdrop to everything else. The most noticeable however is a citrusy and orange-like smell which is enormously inviting. This citrusy smell can be due either to the hops, or to the orange blossoms added to it. The spiciness nevertheless is probably due to the hop varieties used, Nelson Sauvin and Cascade, both of which have a certain spiciness to them.
The taste is pretty similar to the smell, mixing lemon and orange flavors with other bready ones. You can also find some of the spiciness in the taste although it is overall pretty well masked by the two other flavors described. The bitterness is slightly more apparent here, although it never really goes as far as to dominate the palate, being nicely balanced and controlled by the breadiness of the yeast and ending sharply in a dry finish.
All of this makes for a beer with a lot of character but very easy to drink, with a nice body and consistency and a complex and well integrated taste.
The first time I tried it I paired it with a delicious oven baked salmon filet in a mustard and orange sauce, a slightly lucky combination but a very fitting one which I wholeheartedly recommend. Just like I do this beer, the perfect introduction to La Pirata, a brewery you will be reading a lot about in the future in this blog.
Mayo 15:37 is a pale and hazy amber colored saison which develops an impressive amount of foam when it is poured.
Its smell is a mix of yeast, herbs, flowers, spices and fruit, where the breadiness of the yeast serves as a backdrop to everything else. The most noticeable however is a citrusy and orange-like smell which is enormously inviting. This citrusy smell can be due either to the hops, or to the orange blossoms added to it. The spiciness nevertheless is probably due to the hop varieties used, Nelson Sauvin and Cascade, both of which have a certain spiciness to them.
The taste is pretty similar to the smell, mixing lemon and orange flavors with other bready ones. You can also find some of the spiciness in the taste although it is overall pretty well masked by the two other flavors described. The bitterness is slightly more apparent here, although it never really goes as far as to dominate the palate, being nicely balanced and controlled by the breadiness of the yeast and ending sharply in a dry finish.
All of this makes for a beer with a lot of character but very easy to drink, with a nice body and consistency and a complex and well integrated taste.
The first time I tried it I paired it with a delicious oven baked salmon filet in a mustard and orange sauce, a slightly lucky combination but a very fitting one which I wholeheartedly recommend. Just like I do this beer, the perfect introduction to La Pirata, a brewery you will be reading a lot about in the future in this blog.
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