For most brewers, the dream is that one day you’ll be in a situation where the boss says to you ’surprise me’, ‘do something special’, ‘let your imagination run wild and don’t worry about the cost’. At Nya Carnegie this dream is our reality and Lux In Tenebris is just the first of many ‘surprise me’ beers.

One of our favourite styles is the farmhouse ale ‘Saison’ from Belgium and Northern France, so we decided to take the skeleton structure from this style and tweak, twist, tease and build on it and transform it into something innovative.

Lux in Tenebris builds on the classic Saison characteristic of dry spiciness with a purpose blended pepper mix – including Borneo Long, Madagascar Cubeb and Tasmania Black Pepper – from the world-renowned spice blender Lior Lev Sercarz at La Boite, New York added at the end of boiling. In order to counterpoint this added spiciness, we have added Dark Belgian Candy Syrup to build up notes of caramel and the earthy, herbal suggestion of Czech Saaz hops. Whilst a classic Saison is pale, ours is purposefully dark. The caramel notes in harmony with the peppery spice.

The result is an elegant, inventive beer full of flavour which did the job of surprising the boss. We hope it’s a nice surprise for you too – you better get used to it, there’s plenty of surprises in store.

STYLE: Dark Spiced Saison

MALTS: Weyermann Pilsner Malt, Wheat Malt, De-husked Black Malt

HOPS: Perle (bittering), Saaz (aroma)

YEAST: Belgian Saison yeast