PARTIZAN brewing have been on our shelves previously, when the brewery was first starting up. Now that distribution of their beers has spread a little wider we've managed to get them back in.

An experimental and imaginative brewery, this is one of a quartet of its saisons we've got our hands on (the others being: saison cuvee lemon, a lemongrass grisette, and another which has been dosed with iced tea). Definitely a brewery for the adventurous, Partizan's beers are always thought provoking and flavourful.

This mango and black pepper saison pours a murky tangerine with very little head at all, perhaps as a result of the mangos being added to the beer.

The initial aroma is of lemongrass and sour cream, and just a touch acetic, all laid across an aroma of over-proved wholemeal bread.

The flavour begins with a sweet mango sorbet, creamy bananas and juicy strawberry, before clearing away into a light bodied, dry and fragrant saison.

Allspice and nutmeg recede before a warming black pepper spiciness. The finish is heralded by a flourish of peaches and strawberries, which once again emphasise a latent creamy lactic note, akin to fruit yoghurt.

Medium sweet overall, with low carbonation, this is far from your typical saison, as one can only expect from a brewery with this degree of imagination and ambition.

Recommended by Michael Bates, Trembling Madness, York