Borough Market Earl Grey Saison (#LoveBorough @Boroughmarket) By @SpectreUK

I'm always very grateful when a company sends me a beer to review. It doesn't happen very often at all (hint, hint…), so it would be difficult to get drunk on hope alone! However, this limited seasonal Earl Grey Saison was sent to me by the Borough Market. So a big shout out to all the people there. Thank you! You sent me a lot to read though. Three and a half pages of information about one beer. I could copy a lot of it here, but I don't think you want to read it again. I could photograph it, so anybody else reading this could also read it, but I'm not sure want me to do that either. So I'm just going to talk about the beer…

I've had a few Saison's in the past and never had a bad one. Brewed in the colder months of the year, Saison's are traditional low alcohol fruity spicy pale ales generally brewed in Belgium. This 5.2% volume Earl Grey Saison blasts this beer into the twenty-first century, and why not? Cold brewed in collaboration between by The Beak Brewery and Partizan Brewery, with loose leaf Earl Grey Tea from Organic Life (they even sent me packet in the post), and English Fuggles Hops grown within the Market Hall all added during its production, this Earl Grey Saison promises to be a creation from a cooperative of hearts and minds.

On opening the beer there was a keen smell of Bergamot from the Earl Grey Tea, and a spicy citrus aroma from the Fuggles Hops. This was a murky fizzy pale golden ale, with a particularly excitable head. There was a particularly excitable blogger pouring it at the time also! I do love Earl Grey Tea, so the delightful smell of this beer made me wait a little to drink it. I just couldn't help having a few more whiffs. There's something quintessentially Belgium about a Saison, it's probably the grain and yeast, but the flavour just dances around my tastebuds. Once I was done with sniffing this Earl Grey Saison, I just couldn't stop tasting it. Why do people just send me the one bottle? That's my greedy side coming out there… The Bergamot tickled my tastebuds first, followed by the citrus spicy bitterness from the hops, and then the grain and yeastiness so finish off this Saison into the aftertaste. Pure bliss, especially with a tuna sandwich for lunch!