{"id":1932,"date":"2011-03-07T00:01:05","date_gmt":"2011-03-06T11:01:05","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/philcook.net\/beerdiary\/?p=1932"},"modified":"2011-03-23T00:33:39","modified_gmt":"2011-03-22T11:33:39","slug":"8-wired-hopwired-saison-yeast","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/philcook.net\/beerdiary\/2011\/03\/07\/8-wired-hopwired-saison-yeast\/","title":{"rendered":"8 Wired ‘Hopwired’ (Saison yeast)"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"8<\/a>
8 Wired 'Hopwired', Saison yeast edition<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Just when we got a couple of kegs of the ever-delightful Hopwired back in at work, I heard that Hashigo had a keg of an experimental Saison-yeast variation. Which sounded like a prime opportunity for ‘Science!’<\/a>. I jokingly suggested to Dave that we should pour some pints, brave the Liquor Ban<\/a> and meet halfway for a side-by-side tasting. He found the good plan buried in my nonsense, and brought a little-wee-flagon of the Saison-edition in to me at Malthouse. Bloody marvellous.<\/p>\n

And what a fine experiment it was. Hopwired is a fantastic show-off of both brewing know-how and flavourful local hop varieties. Here in the Little Country, we’ve made passionfruity Riwaka hops, lemon-limey Moteuka hops, white-wine-grapey Nelson Sauvin hops — just to pick three that you’ll find in Hopwired, nicely heaped into a big bowl of fruit salad and then thrown, with some vigor, into your face. In a surprisingly-enjoyable way.<\/p>\n

Saisons are, generally<\/em>,\u00a0light-but-complex, summery ales descended from Belgian farmhouse brews — and one of their unifying features is a certain funk<\/em> brought on by the particular yeast used. It’s a difficult thing to describe; it’s a bit of a “know it when you see it”<\/a> situation. Think of that distinctly woods-y, barnyard-y, slightly-too-real<\/em> scent that the outdoors produces on occasion.<\/p>\n

In Hopwired, the yeast softens that hurled-fruit-salad aspect off somewhat, and insinuates oodles of that musty, funky character. Perhaps because Hopwired is a good deal oomphier than the bones of a Saison would ordinarily be, that charmingly-freakish side is firmly in check, though; it doesn’t obnoxiously overwhelm things at all. There’s a wineyness in there too, which was vaguely reminscent of that in Dogfish Head’s stupidly-lovely\u00a0‘Midas Touch’<\/a> — it didn’t really taste like actual<\/em> wine; more like what I wish<\/em> wine was. Altogether a worthy beer, very<\/em> worthy as an experiment, and a fascinating<\/em> side-by-side. I’d almost always opt for the original ‘vanilla’ Hopwired myself, if it were down to one or the other, but this was cracking good fun.<\/p>\n

\"8<\/a>
Diary II entry #71, 8 Wired 'Hopwired': Saison yeast<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Verbatim:<\/strong> 8 Wired ‘Hopwired’: Saison yeast 7\/3\/11 wee flagon gifted from David @ HZ. Experimental batch of the back-on-our-taps-too Hopwired. Smells like Science! Definitely changes the nose; musty + funky, softening off the fruit. Similar things happen in the face. Not scary-funky, just good old-fashioned James Brown funky. Hints of winey \/ sour flavours, but not too much. Really rather fun, though I would almost always be in the mood for the original.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Just when we got a couple of kegs of the ever-delightful Hopwired back in at work, I heard that Hashigo had a keg of an experimental Saison-yeast variation. Which sounded like a prime opportunity for ‘Science!’. I jokingly suggested to Dave that we should pour some pints, brave the Liquor Ban and meet halfway for … Continue reading 8 Wired ‘Hopwired’ (Saison yeast)<\/span> →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[3],"tags":[26,6,14,12],"class_list":["post-1932","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-diary","tag-belgian","tag-pages","tag-nz","tag-pale-ale"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":4640,"url":"https:\/\/philcook.net\/beerdiary\/2012\/07\/11\/8-wired-saison-sauvin\/","url_meta":{"origin":1932,"position":0},"title":"8 Wired ‘Saison Sauvin’","author":"Phil","date":"July 11, 2012","format":false,"excerpt":"This'll make three posts in a row from that neglected mid-to-late-2011 patch of the Diary that I've resolved not to let rust completely. 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