Herevana #184 – Garage Project – Tsuyu Saison (2022)

I’ve started to number the Herevana beers posts – so #184 is a Garage Project Garage Project / Coedo / Stone Tsuyu Saison, which is made in Wellington 🇳🇿, and is a Saison / Farmhouse – Flavored and it comes in at 11.6% ABV

I’ve been keeping this back as a share bottle, but sometimes there is just too much temptation, and sometimes you have to overcome your willpower and give in. I’m still on holiday too, and it’s such a nice day that it deserves something.

11.6% is about 3.1 standard drinks in New Zealand. I’ve got some Spring Onion Dip for a change of pace from a cheese. I’m not sure I’ve made the right choice

I most certainly have not made the wrong choice of beer, the aroma on this would be enough, I could happy sit that back down and that’d be enough. Of course not enough enough. The colour in this beer is such a bright plum hued golden orange and although a lovely head at first it fades and the glass sits almost still.

I went to take a sup, and that is such a big brilliant sweet aroma, plum sugar sweet that I stopped to enjoy it a few moe times.

There’s Quite complex array of flavours in this, you get a generous amount of plum over a slightly woody middle bit, and a light sprinkle of bitterness. It’s a stop and think kind of beer.

There’s quite a dryness too, not unpleasant, but noticeable as it sits to once side from the other flavours and layers in this. This is quite a ‘dense’ beer, there’s an awful lot of flavour and scale in this, amongst the nuance and the little twiddly bits this is quite strong and big.

The Pdubyah-o-meter rates this as 9 on the arbitrary number scale. The colour, the aroma, the presentation, there’s nothing not to like about this. The initial excitement of the flavours and the tastes leads you to stop and question a few things, where you discover that this is quite a big beer to climb, and perhaps not the beer to start the afternoon with, alone. I guess I could have saved it, then again I guess I could have had cheese and not some weird dip thing as a side accompaniment.

Music: A colleague has loaned me some original vinyl – so from 1969 Pink Floyd. Soundtrack from the film ‘MORE’ Music of it time, a bit psychedelic.

Herevana beers are those I drink at home, I’m not at some beer festival, like, for instance, Beervana, but am just in my kitchen, usually, dining room table, sometimes, or outside, occasionally, where I can take an average picture and write in real time about the beer that I’ve invested in, both in a monetary and emotional way.

Philip himself.

Named after the gentle ‘plum rain’ that falls in Japan as the ume harvest ripens, Tsuyu is a new take on the Saison style. Brewed with New Zealand Motueka, American Simcoe and Hallertau Blanc hops, Tsuyu is aged in freshly emptied New Zealand Chardonnay barrels and infused with ume plum and red shiso leaf. The result is a complex and fascinating fusion of East, West and South. Kanpai! Originally brewed in Japan in collaboration with Tokyo’s Coedo Brewery and US West Coast brewery Stone.

Art by: Tim Gibson.

Brewers Notes.

Saison / Farmhouse – Flavored

The Flavored Saison, or Flavored Farmhouse Ale, is a refreshing, highly-attenuated, moderately-bitter, moderate-strength Belgian ale with a very dry finish with a clear flavoring element. Typically highly carbonated, and using non-barley cereal grains and optional spices for complexity, as complements the expressive yeast character that is fruity, spicy, and not overly phenolic. It features an harmonious marriage of the additive and beer, but still recognizable as a beer. The additive character should be evident but in balance with the beer. (For example: fruits, spices, herbs, vegetables, coffee, honey, chocolate, maple sirup, chilies, nuts, vanilla, liquor – BUT not including Smoked malt, barrel-aging or a Sour element resulting from the brewing process).