A Salute to Saisons! (2022)

I love this beer so drinkable. I think it real fancy!

 

Olora - Other Half / Yeast of Eden



This is a Mixed Fermentation Saison and “House Culture” conditioned in Hungarian Oak with honeycombs. I added it to the database as a Braggot. After drinking it, the Saison quality is strong, yet it is most definitely tart, with horse blanket, orchard fruit, and floral qualities outshining the honey. I’ll suggest it be re-categorized as a Saison. The honey is much more similar to bees wax. Balanced strong sweetness and tartness yields to dryness once the oak and umami settle in. It has a full body with a soft, smooth, slick texture that leaves a viscous film and no legs.

Very enjoyable on a cool and cloudless afternoon.

 

2020 vintage (though a recent acquisition for me) - nice balance between commercial and wild yeasts with a unique malt bill. Review here. (4.24)

 

That is the most beautiful head I have ever seen!

 

I posted the below earlier this morning in the NBW thread:

Do you prefer it in the can!?!

Last month I started a thread asking: Are there some beer brands you prefer in the bottle vs. cans?

https://www.beeradvocate.com/commun...ands-you-prefer-in-the-bottle-vs-cans.666904/

In that spirit I will today be drinking the same beer Saison Dupont from both a can (a new drinking experience for me) and a bottle.

There are differing stories on the bottle vs. can labeling:

Bottle: “Brewed at one of Europe’s last farmhouse breweries, Saison Dupont is a 4-star, world classic example of the Belgian Saison style. Blond in color with a big rocky head. Saison Dupont is dry and refreshing. Great with all grilled foods.”

Can: “Brewed at one of Europe’s last farmhouse breweries. A classic example of the Belgian Saison style. Golden blond in color with a thick creamy head. Dry, yet refreshing, leaving you wanting more – sip after sip.”

Different but essentially the same.

If you want to read more about the Saison beer style and Saison Dupont:

https://www.morebeer.com/articles/Saison_Beer

Before I start the drinking aspect, I will first discuss a few topics which may be ‘confounders’ to this side-by-side tasting:

Age of the beer

The bottle has a date of L21143A. My Little Orphan Annie decoder doesn’t completely work with the Saison Dupont secret code. The best I know is this beer was bottled in 2021 from the “21” portion of the code.

The can has a date of L21476C which means this beer was canned sometime in 2021.

Beer storage conditions & handling

I can report that both of these beers were stored in my basement/cellar after I purchased them but what conditions they experienced during the long supply chain from Belgium to my local beer retailers is a mystery to me. I think it is fair to say they would have been subjected to differing conditions. How resilient is Saison Dupont to high temperature exposure/storage and rough transport?

Bottle/can conditioning

I know from past knowledge/experience that Brasserie Dupont conducts a bottle conditioning process for their bottled products. In the bottle conditioning process the beer undergoes a secondary fermentation within the bottle to achieve carbonation. Since an actual secondary fermentation occurs within the bottle other sensory qualities could be expected beyond just the carbonation aspect.

All that is stated on the can is “Unfiltered” which I suppose could imply they can condition this beer? Or maybe it just means that did not filter this beer prior to canning?

One thing I will be attuned to when tasting these two beers is whether I can perceive a difference in the beer’s mouthfeel. When I homebrew my beers I choose to bottle condition since this provide a superior mouthfeel for my palate; a result of the secondary fermentation I discussed above.


Whew, that’s a fair bit a ‘jibber-jabber’ which is making me thirsty but before I really get into it, I will ask my lovely wife to help me with conducting a triangle taste test of these two beers. As a reminder the purpose of the triangle taste test is to pour the same beer into two cups and the other beer in the third cup and see if the taste tester can determine the ‘odd man’ out. In the below photograph two of the cups were marked with A on the bottom and one with B on the bottom. I normally would use small opaque plastic cups but since this is the same beer I will use small glasses this time but with instructions to my wife to ‘fix’ the glasses to ensure they have similar head appearances (thanks to Chris (@zid) for the suggestion here). Will I be able to distinguish one Saison Dupont from the other via blind taste test? Will mouthfeel differences exhibit itself in these small glass pours?



A took some sniffs of the three beers. The beer in the middle had a very similar aroma to the other two glasses but there was a bit ‘more’ to this beer. That was an indication to be that the middle beer was the ‘odd’ beer but I figured tasting would be more definitive here. Boy, I was mistaken here since all three beers tasted very similarly to me. I stuck with my initial ‘reaction’ from sniffing and said to my wife: the middle beer is the ‘odd’ beer to which she replied “correct”. She then went further and asked: “So, which beer is which” and I very confidently (which I wasn’t) responded: “The middle beer is the bottled beer”. And she replied: “correct”.

I have conducted this triangle test a number of times in the past and so far I have been “correct” every time. I probably just jinxed myself for my next triangle taste test.

I will conduct the side-by-side non-blind so here we go!

Appearance

Can: Golden colored, very slightly hazy with a white head

Bottle: Ditto

Aroma

Can: A combination of spicy (phenols) and fruity (esters).

Bottle: Ditto to above but with what I will describe as being a bit more complexity (perhaps just a bit more intensity to the aromas?).

Taste:

Can: The flavor follows the nose with a pleasant combination of spicy (phenols) and fruity (esters) flavors. There is low-moderate bitterness.

Bottle: Ditto

Mouthfeel

Can: Medium body with a dry finish.

Bottle: Medium body, with a softer mouthfeel in comparison to the canned version, with a dry finish.

Overall

Can: Very good – excellent.

Bottle: Ditto

These two beers taste very much the same but there are some differences in other sensory qualities as detailed above. Given that I had these two beers in a side-by-side tasting the subtle difference of the two are more evident with a personal preference towards the bottled version but I will have no difficulty whatsoever in consuming the remaining three cans of the four-pack I purchased.

I discussed above my wondering on whether the canned version of Saison Dupont is canned conditioned I decided to take one more step: pour the last ½ ounce (or so) of the two beers into a small glass to see if I can detect yeast sediment. Below are two photos of this exercise with the first photo just of the bottle’s last bit of beer and the second of the can’s last bit of beer (and the bottle’s for additional reference). I am uncertain how well this appears in the photos but the bottle’s last portion is decidedly murky while in contrast the can’s is only slightly hazy. Is this an ‘acid test’ situation? I don’t know, but I will state with some confidence that both from the sensory evaluation and the visual appearance of the dregs that the canned version of Saison Dupont is not can conditioned.

Cheers!

@KOP_Beer_OUtlet @rotsaruch @RobH

 

Thanks for the summary! On the dating, I'm not sure this is what Dupont uses for its methodology, but I know other European breweries use a code that is YY WW D for dating, meaning two digit year, two digit week of the year, and then the numbered day within that week.

 

Well, for the canned beer that would be the 47th week of 2021 but how does the day work since it is a single digit? Would the "6" mean the 26th?

Cheers!

 

I suspected it is the numbered batch for the year (21), the bottle being the 143rd, the can the 476th, consistent with Chimay's method.

Their website confirms this.

https://www.brasserie-dupont.com/en/fabrication

The bottling line can process 25, 33, 37.5, 75 and 150cl bottles, at a rate of between 5,000 and 12,000 bottles per hour.

• The labelling machine and ink jet adds a body label and neck label and prints a production batch number (traceability) and an optimal release for consumption date (compulsory from a legal point of view but not particularly useful for beers with a second fermentation in the bottle).

 

Enjoying time with Arthur, cellared lovingly.
Cheers all

 

I have proper beer glasses for most styles, except the wine glasses I use for Saisons. I have two glasses from the Dollar Store picked up pre BA days.



One day I'll get around to buying a proper tulip glass.

 

Saison beers are best served in Tulip glasses from my perspective:





Cheers!

 

A lot of the glasses I've seen in this thread seem to fit the bill.

But when I'm unsure I usually default to the masters. One could argue that's Saison Dupont and Hill Farmstead.

The former uses a Willi Becher (makes sense given the origin of the style is a low ABV beer for farmers) the latter uses a stemmed tulip (also makes sense given they brew a more US-centric style with higher ABVs).

So what do I use? A solo cup.

 

Another Fair Isle saison, though I imagine this has changed quite a bit since bottling, with the hop presence substantially diminished after almost 18 months in the bottle.

Review here (4.17).