American-Style-X on label

I am really glad for the American/English/Russian/Irish/Belgium labels. I love American Barleywines but cannot stand English Barleywines. It saves me a lot of drain pours labeling them that way. That is the first thing I look for when I see Barleywine.

 

Pretty sure it's a saison with strawberries, honey and white pepper. As I said in another thread earlier today, saison is a very loose style and all manner of spices and other adjuncts were added to them long before American brewers tried it. Most brewers that label things "Belgian style" are trying to describe their flavor while paying respect to their origins and not confusing consumers into thinking it came from Belgium. So a brewery that labels something "American style farmhouse ale" is essentially doing the same thing with different words; you shouldn't try to read too much into style labeling anyways, it's all marketing in the end. For example, what if a Belgian brewery made a saison and labeled it an "American style farmhouse ale"?

 

American and English barleywines are two distinct styles; it's a useful distinction but doesn't apply to the argument at hand.

 

Well damn. I guess I am just as confused as some other commenters on what OP is trying to say.

 

I'm not sure he does either, he's found a damn small nit to pick if I'm reading him correctly.

 

I remember recording some jazz inspired instrumental hip hop songs with a friend of mine. When he went to the studio and was explaining the concept one of the engineers was like "......this is not jazz?!" I wonder if that was OP lol.

 

Seems to be a big misunderstanding of belgian beer here... they use fruit and spice additions and barrels and such too.

and yeah, 'saison' is about as specific as 'american strong ale' or 'herbed/spiced beer.' Fantome's saisons are as far away from saison dupont as they are from speedway stout, in every respect but geography (and--only sometimes!--color).

 

Right. Saison isn't even a style any more than "farmhouse cheese" is a particular sort of cheese.And it it's over about 4% ABV it fails every test as it's a harvest time beer for quaffing in large volumes.

 

I will gladly take these heinously mislabeled beers off your hands for you...

 

I think we are spending too much time needlessly nitpicking minor details. Is it authentic to the style? Probably not, but then again if you take a modern "authentic to style" beer and match it to its counterpart from 100 years ago does it matchup? Probably not. Why worry about then? More important questions to answer- Is it good? Can I afford to buy it? Is it distrobuted in my area? Can I trade it/ trade for it? While it age, or should I drink it fresh? Can I justify buying this to my wife? Will she like it? Will she let me buy more?

 

Does this stuff really bother you guys? The label gives the consumer a decent idea of what they would be purchasing. Most consumers probably don't realize what the style restrictions are. They may however know what a Farmhouse Ale is like, combined with the Strawberry colored label, and probably a description of the ingredients, it appears to be an effective communication device to reflect their product.

 

"saison" can mean LOTS of things. some have fruit, flowers and spices added and some are aged in wine barrels while other have none of the above.
if you're trying to rigidly apply the BJCP style guides to a saison/farmhouse you will be missing out on a large majority of some great beers.

 

historically saisons/farmhouse were brewed with whatever the brewer had on hand. there is no set grain bill, hops or adjuncts. even the yeasts used to make these brews vary WILDLY!

 

But you see part of the OPs point is that some labels don't give you a correct idea of what to expect or think the beer is like.

 

Yes they do

 

The farmhouse "style" can be everything but the kitchen sink IMO. There are no guidlines to brewing one. Saison has some guidelines, but that can vary greatly by where you are and who you are talking to.

The reason why these beers aren't defined properly on labels is because everyone has their own interpretation of what they are. Also corporate marketing knows they'll sell to a wider audience with a familiar term like Belgian style than american farmhouse.

 

While absolutely true, what you've said side steps what I think the OP is after, and I agree that picking Saison may be a misleading choice as an example to start the discussion.

My reading of what he's after is discussion of a labeling convention along the lines I described in an earlier post. Switch to my Dopplebock example. If you bought an American brewed Doppelbock that had substituted US C-hops for those customarily used, wouldn’t you want to know up front that it was a deliberately different interpretation of the style?

 

I don't know if it's the same in Europe but when it comes to labels in the U.S.A. it's caveat emptor. If you don't believe me, check a can of Budweiser.