Brewery: Brekeriet
Country: Sweden
Size: 33cl
ABV: 6.5%
Price: 28kr
Systembolaget: –
When I plan my beer tastings, I usually start planning them about six months in advance. In fact I have just begun planning the November tasting and it’s early May right now. I try to put as much thought as I can into each event just so I can get the right balance of beers. Sometimes I also find a limited edition beer that I know I will want in six months time so I will buy it and hold it for a bit. That was the story with the Lusse Lelle. Brekeriet only produced 10000 bottles and I had missed it year before. I heard it was quite unique so I was determined to get some this time. I literally had to fight people in my local Systembolaget to grab some bottles, as it sold out completely 7 minutes after the shop opened. I held it from early November until mid April when I slid it into my easter tasting and I’m so happy I grabbed it while I could because it was definitely worth the wait.
The colour was vibrant yellow, the same colour strangely enough as the saffron infused lusse katt pastries. When the bottle was opened it was hyper fizzy. Every bottle exploded with foam but I’m not sure if this was just because they were stored for six months or if they were just this way in the first place. The beer was cloudy and the head disappeared rather surprisingly fast for its explosive opening. The beer describes itself as a saffron sour and the aroma was exactly that. A tart saffron smell emanated the glass, making the mouth water. I know saffron is expensive so I was a bit wary about how much I would be able to detect in the beer but it really came through strongly. The taste followed the smell almost identically. A saltiness accompanied the saffron sourness, along with a minor tone of citrus peel and lighter malts. It really pulled the cheeks in and made the mouth water. The aftertaste was rather short but a mild lime peel note crept in there.
I love coming across taste combinations I havent tried before. There are so many beers that are just clones and copies of each other so to try a saffron sour was really interesting. If you don’t like saffron then this is not the beer for you as you might have already guessed. For me though I thought it was a rather lovely sour with a lovely spiced twist to it. It was a shame that the number of bottles was so limited but I think I will be ready to try to pick up a few new ones this year if it’s released again.