The 750 Saison

Thanks Jack (and you're welcome too). That's very kind. Will the Emmy be for most gluttonous?

I'm halfway through the six Belgians in the last group pic... and I gotta say... wow, this is true beer-pleasure. One great beer after another.

 

Thank you. If only the life of a shopaholic was as good as you make it sound. It's actually quite the opposite of the way you're picturing it. I'm ignoring all the beer that actually involves greater dedication. Coincidentally, the post before your's mentioned a beer that's only available on the other coast. That sort of thing doesn't interest me... I like to focus on what I can just buy on the shelf in my normal stores. The hard part is actually knowing when to stop adding beers. I suck at this. There's so much out there - this thread could go on forever. I pretty much ignore things over a certain price. I'm actually gonna pick up one or two more beers for the thread tomorrow (see, I suck). I do tend to shop at places with a large selection... and plenty of dusty beers that most others ignore.

 

Well... generally speaking, I don't see it as a fine line, but rather, a fuzzy line... and my "logic" here will probably be just as fuzzy.

Regarding barley wines - some would argue that barley wines and old ales aren't styles at all... and some would argue that their names are interchangeable today. In the context of my barley wine thread, I treated them as under the same umbrella, or simply one and the same.

Regarding "Belgian Strong Pale Ales," I don't view this as a style at all. For me, it's just a BeerAdvocate box... which is fine. In saying this, I am contradicting myself on a certain level since I often express the idea that if it's used as a label then it is one. I'm not always consistent. In this case, I think of common Belgian beer styles as blond (more so than golden), amber, brune/bruin (and/or dark). This site reserves these color labels for English/American ale instead. In the case of saison, the color spectrum is wide... they could look like any of those three colors (but brown would be unusual)... so a saison wouldn't fit neatly as a subtype of one of those three styles. You mentioned that the ABV of the three beers you singled out is remarkably higher. Keep in mind the range in saison too. I'll post about Avec Les Bons Voeux before the thread wraps up. At 9.5, that beer is higher in ABV than the ones you mentioned. It seems like most people think of it as a saison, BUT it's important to point out that the brewer doesn't necessarily classify it as such. It's possible that the brewer considers it to be a blond. Modern beer fans seem to have a tendency to think of some brewers as "saison brewers."

So, where is that fuzzy line between a saison and (let's say) a blond? I don't know. You might find people claiming identifiable differences based on ingredients, process, or results... but while this could work for the archetypes, there's always going to be cases that don't subscribe. I think that fuzzy line is probably much fuzzier than some others consider it. I did include a bunch of beers in this thread that are classified here as "Belgian Pale Ales" - and I usually mentioned this in the post. If I sound like I'm an expert on any of this stuff, please banish the thought. I'm not. I'm a drinker. Take my opinions with a grain of salt.

 

If I was going to pick one characteristic that some knowledgeable folks feel like is the defining saison characteristic, it would be high attenuation. I share your expectations. Having said that, not all brewers seem to feel the need to get in line with that. Is a sweet saison a "bad" saison or evidence that the box is "bad?"

People like to mention the flexibility of the style, but the one thing that it seemed like every critic could agree on was the need for that big ol' head. That unanimous thinking was shattered when I read someone* claiming that it was perfectly acceptable to have a saison with barely any carbonation because this is how it would have been in the past. (How to incorporate style expectations and historical changes is a whole nother topic.)

*Not just any someone... I just can't remember who... maybe Yvan De Baets.

 

Same here my friend.


(probably )

 

I am happy to add a surprise beer to the group of Belgian saisons that I am currently enjoying.



Fantome La Dalmatienne (Light)

La Dalmatienne translates to "the Dalmation"… and the artwork reveals this. Fantome has released a few beers in "light" and "dark" versions. This beer, the light version, has a label with grey spots on a white background. The dark version has white spots on a black background… but the name of the beer is the same even though I'm assuming that the beers inside are different. While that seems simple enough, in reality, it ends up making a confusing group of beers even more confusing… so I guess it's perfectly within the spirit of the brewery. Once again, this is a beer that seems to have no raison d'être as a beer within a brewer's lineup.

This is a wonderful beer. There's an acidity to the beer but it's at such a great level - it's present enough to be unavoidable, but it doesn't come close to overtaking the rest of the beer. Carbonation is very low. It's a hazy amber, but the beer still surprisingly glows. The beer is fruity and dry in the finish. There's a little marzipan flavor. There's a bitterness but it's strictly there for balance. It's characterful but not in a way that prevents it from going down easy.

Fantome has a reputation that makes one believe that there's a level of chaos there (a diehard fan would say "magic" rather than "chaos"). As if anything can get thrown into a beer, the equipment is faulty, and the brewer doesn't taste the product. This beer feels like it's the result of discipline and calculation… and it really works.