BBNo - 01|01 Saison Citra

Whenever I used to ask pub owners or barmen/women in London about Brew by Numbers I would universally get the same response and that would be "Oooooooooh! Saison Citra!" Which became tiresome after a while because it's like asking a whole load of people about Queen, only to get "Ooooooooooh! Bohemian Rhapsody!" Not that I don't like Bohemian Rhapsody, love it in fact, but there's more to Queen than that and there's more to BBNo than Saison Citra. However, at the time it was one of 2 beers that I had seen regularly from them, which I later found out was because of their relative scale as a brewery... Small. They've since invested heavily, got some really fancy new kit, and now they have mountains of beer in spaces where once there was only the potential for mountains of beer. Another reason that this may well be so fixed in peoples minds is that this was brewed at The Kernel and we all know about their intensely high standards now, don't we?

It pours like the perfect Saison, a light hazy, golden, body with cloud-like fluff that's so thick and luxurious that you could easily ice a cake with it. It's a single hop Citra but it has a few spices in the brew too so I expected the aroma to be zesty and interesting. I wasn't wrong. Zesty is EXACTLY the word I would use to describe it, so much so that I've now described it as such twice. It smells clean and lemony fresh like an organic cordial or walking into a lemon tree and breaking your nose, though without all the blood and pain (depending on how many of these you drink.) The head seems to want to remain throughout the entire duration of the drink and I imagine it'll still be there when I've finished. BBNo have managed to create the perfect head that is crisp, white and remains constant at exactly 1 finger.

Regardless of what time of year it is (it's winter) when you drink 01|01 you feel refreshed. Were you refreshed before? Well prepare to be EVEN MORE REFRESHED! The citric notes, hop zing and creamy head (it's odd that I actually notice it while I'm drinking it, it's really creamy and actually adds to the beer!) make this an instantly rejuvenating, refreshing, comforting, zingy wonder.

There's a reason people love Bohemian Rhapsody and it's because it's awesome.

Food suggestion: Lime sorbet, treat yourself to all the zingy madness in the world and bask in the worst ice cream headache you've ever had.

Drink this if you like: Similar in its refreshing nature to some of the Lost Abbey wonders but that one's down to interpretation.