Saturnus
Session · 33 cl bottle
Lots of hops, little bitterness, and a clean finish
€5,50
What it is, and what is in it
A session is built around a practical question: how to put so much hop aroma into a beer that you can drink more than one. The answer is to keep the alcohol low — 4.2% — and the bitterness contained, 31 units.
Here, the hops dominate the nose: fresh, delicate aroma, with citrus notes. In the mouth, however, it glides away and leaves no bitter residue: that's exactly the point, the mouth remains clean and ready for the next sip.
Straw blonde color, full-bodied and persistent foam. Top-fermented, unfiltered, unpasteurized, refermented in the bottle.
- Fermentation
- Alta fermentazione, rifermentazione naturale in bottiglia
- Filtration
- Non filtrata, non pastorizzata
- Ingredients
- Water, barley malt, wheat, sugar, hops, yeast.
- Allergens
- Gluten (barley malt, wheat).
What it is like
Color
Biondo paglierino
What the brewery drinks it with
The pairings declared for this beer.
- Pasta with vegetables
- Mushroom risottos
- Vegetable or meat risottos
- White and red meat main courses
The label’s terms, explained
What «session» means
It comes from British pub slang: the session is the long drink, the one where you stay at the bar for hours. A session beer is built to hold that pace — low alcohol, light body, clean finish — without giving up flavor. It is not a watered-down beer: it is a beer designed so that the second glass is as good as the first.
What an IPA is
India Pale Ale: the family of beers in which the hops, in bitterness and above all in aroma, come before everything else. The label on this bottle carries the wording «session IPA», which is the crossing of the two ideas: the aromatic build of an IPA at a session strength. The hops are there on the nose, but the body stays light and the bitterness does not build up.
Hops for bitterness and hops for aroma
The same flower does two different jobs depending on when it goes into the copper. Put in at the start of the boil it gives up its bitter acids and loses its aromas, which evaporate; put in at the end, or after fermentation, cold, it gives up its aromatic oils and almost no bitterness. A beer that is very aromatic and only lightly bitter is made that way: plenty of hops, but almost all of them late.
Wheat in a barley beer
Alongside the barley malt, the recipe contains wheat flakes. Wheat carries more protein than barley, and it is the proteins that hold up the head: a beer with wheat makes a denser head that lasts longer. It also gives a fuller sensation in the mouth. It is a cereal with gluten: that is why it appears among the allergens together with barley.
What IBUs are
International Bitterness Units: the laboratory measure of the bittering substances the hops have given to the beer. An industrial pale lager sits around 10-20, a pale ale between 30 and 45, a modern IPA often goes past 60. It is not a scale of taste: on a dark, malty beer the same number is perceived less, because the sweetness of the malt offsets the bitterness.
What it says on the bottle
The mandatory label information, transcribed from the label of the size on sale.
- Ingredients
- Water, barley malt, wheat, sugar, hops, yeast.
- Allergens
- Gluten (barley malt, wheat).
- Alcoholic strength
- 4,2% vol.
- Contents
- 33 cl bottle
- Place of production
- Produced in San Pierino, Fucecchio (FI)
| Energy | 142 kJ / 34 kcal |
|---|---|
| Fat | 0 g |
| of which saturated fatty acids | 0 g |
| Carbohydrate | 2,2 g |
| of which sugars | 0,3 g |
| Protein | 0,4 g |
| Salt | <0,01 g |
| Alcohol (ethanol) | 3,3 g |
Where and how it is made
Daniele Nespeca, per Birrificio Aries, in Fucecchio.
A two-hectoliter brew · from barley to bottle, all in house
All 76 products by Birrificio Aries- How it is made
- Selection of raw materials, barley milling, mashing, filtration, whirlpool, yeast pitching, primary fermentation in fermenter, secondary fermentation in bottle or keg. All stages on-site: 2 hl brew kettle and two 600 l temperature-controlled stainless steel conical fermenters.
- Other sizes
- 33 cl bottle; 24 l keg.
The brewery’s other beers
Gli elementi
Il cielo
Le speciali
