Buckwheat and pixies

My opinion of beer labels showing pixies, sprites, gnomes, fairies and trolls is well-known among readers of this blog, I assume. Still, allow me to summarise my general thesis on the matter here for the uninitiated: they are stupid.

The makers of tonight’s beer, Sara, have unfortunately never received these sage words of wisdom, by the look of it. Nor, for that matter, has the Brasserie de Silenrieux thought much about their online presence, which has the catchy web address: http://users.belgacom.net/gc195540/

Of course, marketing doesn’t really matter if the taste is there -- a maxim of many small Belgian brewers, I suppose, given the often alarming disparity between comical efforts outside the bottle and exceptional product within.

Though the aforementioned website shows it to be dark in the glass, Sara actually pours straw blonde. The mouthfeel is somewhat thin and fizzy, and overall it is quite light and refreshing. Most intriguingly, it offers some pleasant and gentle fruity notes: grape, strawberry and Galia melon.

The name “Sara” apparently comes from sarrasin, the French word for buckwheat, from which this beer is made. Silenrieux also makes a beer from spelt called Joseph, which tasted more like the liquid leavings from a wrung sock. Sara is thankfully different, and despite bad labelling and an ugly URL, the beer itself is worth having again.