Our last brewview focused on St. Lawrence Brewery’s St. Vincent’s Dubbel and now we’re back for some more. And, we’re back with something pretty awesome. We have a saison from Eviltwin Brewing that started in Denmark and has made its way to America. But, their approach is completely different than other overseas breweries. They are brewing their award-winning beer at some of the best breweries across the country using their established methods and recipes. Well, wouldn’t you know it, but there is plenty of room at the massive Two Roads Brewery in Stratford for beer production from other companies? So, let’s look deeper into Ryan and the Beaster Bunny and Eviltwin Brewing and why they just might take over America, one brewery at a time.
Beer: Ryan and the Beaster Bunny
Brewery: Eviltwin Brewing (and here’s their site in Denmark)
Style: Farmhouse Style Ale. Traditionally, these are seasonal brews (that’s where we get saison, meaning season in French) that were given to farmhands to quench their unending thirst. Because they were given to farmers and workers on the farm, they were often lower in ABV content. The beer needed to be light and refreshing, but also satisfying. What is great about the Farmhouse Ales is that the farmers used local ingredients from the farm or nearby to make their brews, so this created an enormous amount of variety, having no Farmhouse Ale the same. You’ll often taste spicy notes, herby notes, and even some “funkiness” to these Farmhouse Style Ales.
Color and appearance: Ryan and the Beaster Bunny pours out light to medium golden. In terms of head, it’s not too frothy and actually settles pretty quickly.
Smell: You get hints of ginger, a fresh/clean/grassy smell, and citrusy notes…specifically, lots of lemon zest.
Taste: Hops, alcohol, and bitterness hit at first, but that quickly settles down to an herby and floral end. You definitely get the higher ABV in the drink, but it’s not overpowering at all.
IBUs: 20
Background: Eviltwin Brewing started in Denmark and quickly racked up major awards and was in high demand as an import. When you look at some of their beers like “Even More Jesus Porter,” “Hipster Ale,” “Imperial Biscotti Break,” “Yin,” and “Yang,” you can see that Jeppe Jarnit-Bjergsø’s clever names make them larger than life. Due to the high demand of his beer in the states, Eviltwin Brewing contracted breweries across the country so they could get their much-loved brews in people’s hands even sooner. Again, like we had mentioned in our intro, they bought some brew space at Two Roads to produce Ryan and the Beaster Bunny. According to the bottle, this Farmhouse Style Ale was created on Fanø, an island off the west coast of Denmark. Conceived there, brought to life in Stratford, CT. Gotta love that amazing journey from half way across the world.
Pairing: The high ABV might make this less sessionable for some, but we could drink this whenever we’d like, even without food. If you’re pairing it with food, we’d suggest a nice burger, some ribs, pork belly, or really anything that has some substance and fatty content. The play on the fresh, clean taste of the beer with the heavier food play nicely off of each other. Or, pair it with some nice and spicy thai, or even some meat and cheese plates.
Thoughts: While this saison has a higher ABV than we’re used to, we still really enjoyed it. That being said, this beer definitely has its time and place. You’ll especially like this brew if you enjoy the heavier and “thicker” bodied beers. This is a hard one to find, so if you do spot it, make sure to try it and see what other Eviltwin Brewing is in the store. We got four different styles from them and, believe it or not, there were still about 10 other kinds that we could have tried.
Found at: Port Chester Beer Distributors
OmNomCT 
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