Round Corner Brewing, of Melton Mowbray, has launched Saint Cloud, a 5.2% ABV Belgian-style witbier, as its third Market Edition beer of 2023.
It’s a cloudy ale with a thick white foam, and deliciously fragrant. The Belgian yeast strain used provides fruity esters and phenolics, while orange peel and freshly-milled coriander provide citrus characteristics.
The brewery has used New Zealand Wai-iti hops, which add to the lime characteristics of the beer. The beer is delicate, while also quite complex and incredibly drinkable, says the brewer.
The name Saint Cloud takes inspiration from the brewing powerhouse of Belgium, as Round Corner Brewing doffs its cap to the incredible Belgium brewers and beer styles. It is named for its cloudy white appearance and after the patron saint of hop pickers and brewers, Saint Arnold of Soissons.
Round Corner Brewing has a history of creating wheat beers, its most recent being Witchery, a cherry wheat beer, and before that Zomba, a hazy lavender witbier. The latter beer was country winner for the United Kingdom in the wheat beer/Belgian-style witbier category at the 2022 World Beer Awards.
This latest beer follows three two Market Edition beer launches in 2023. These include the return of two popular beers, Mainland, a 5.2% ABV New Zealand pilsner, and Shimmering Pond, a 5.6% ABV hazy Vermont IPA. Alongside these two was an off-plan creation called Casa Melton, a Spanish lager which had Spanish orange zest added in the whirlpool.
“This is a lovely style of beer to be launching out as the weather gets warmer and we come into spring,” said Round Corner co-founder and head brewer Colin Paige. “So, for this we wanted something which was delicious, thirst-quenching, and refreshing, and this Belgian-style witbier ticks all those boxes.
“It’s ever so slightly tart from the Belgian witbier yeast that we’ve used. It’s quite low in bitterness, and this yeast delivers a lot of gentle phenolics, which is a little bit of pepperiness. There are also some lovely esters, which are like Wrigley’s Juicy Fruit Chewing Gum characters, which is just fantastic. We’ve added orange peel and coriander seed, which we mill fresh at the brewery, and that gives us a strong lime character, alongside quite a lot of New Zealand wai-iti hops which are limey, too.
“As a brewery, we really enjoy making a beer like this with botanicals and using different yeast and managing fermentation a bit differently to drive the characters we want. It’s also 50% wheat in the grist, which can make brewing days sometimes challenging. We also have about 5% oats in the beer, which adds a nice smoothness to the palate. So, it’s a very different style of beer to make, but something we have done well previously.”
Chief executive and co-founder, Combie Cryan, added: “We’ve also packaged this beer into 440ml cans, which is something we last did around a year ago. Our usual can size is 330ml, however we’ve been re-assessing our options and thought internally about what our customers would like.
“We think, with Saint Cloud, it fits a 440ml can quite nicely with its easy-drinking characteristics. Over the coming year we’ll be looking at offering a small range of cans in this size, which will be interesting for new and existing Round Corner Brewing customers to try.”
