Lightstruck Saisons

Well, if one of the definitions of crazy is someone who disagrees with you, then...

Light struck is one quality that I can't abide by any more; I've done my time with it. I will enjoy certain amounts of DMS, diacetyl, even oxidation - but can no longer take the skunk.

 

Well, considering that it's a flavor that was not intended, I would say it's kind of odd, but whatever. You're drinking it, so it really doesn't matter what anyone else likes.

 

Some old timers grew to like the light struck skunkiness of the old time eurolagers.

Some folks like the smell of skunks too, there actually is a society for those folks, though I believe they belong more in institutions than societies.

I will not drink a skunked beer. Been there, done that, no more.

 

Sorry, but I don't even feel close to the same. For me Saison Dupont comes from a keg or a brown bottle or I don't order/buy/drink it. Even a single skunked beer of any brand or style is enough to put me off the store where I made the mistake of buying it.

Once when I was a teenager our dog tangled with a skunk and I got stuck with having to give him a bath. Since that experience as soon as I catch even the slightest aroma of skunk from a just opened bottle I start to gag and am unable to even be in the same room with the beer.

 

I have no problem finding Saison Dupont in brown bottles, and is a regular purchase of mine. I can't stand light struck beers, and try to avoid it at all costs. Anyway, for some releases Jester King is using green bottles and even sites the green Dupont bottles for their inspiration, which I find kind of silly...

http://www.beeradvocate.com/communi...g-towards-green-bottles-for-packaging.304036/

 

I looked. I couldn't at first believe what I was reading in that OP and started thinking it was originally posted on April Fool's Day. Then I checked the date and my state of disbelief became overpowering. In my personal view it goes beyond silly.

 

Never had DuPont out of a brown bottle to compare. But the dupont of had out of the green bottles have been great no real skunky character to speak of. Tho I always grab from the back of the shelf.

 

Yep, that is what I do, or when at my regular store ask to get one that they have not taken out of the box yet. I almost never have a problem that way.

 

You're not crazy. I have a friend who is a fairly reputable brewer who swears by green glass for saisons. He feels the exact same way, that a little bit of light struck character is desirable. While I certainly would never complain if every beer I drank had zero traces of being light struck, the best bottle of Avec Les Bons Veux I ever had contained a bit of skunkiness, so I see where you're coming from.

 

Mystic in Chelsea, Massachusetts offers their Saison Renaud in both green and brown bottles to try to offer a mild light struck character that Jester King referenced in their press release and I think it's cool to offer that option. I didn't really notice a crazy difference, but I am tempted to plop one of the green bottles on the porch for a bit to get some more dramatic results. I think a slight light struck character is ok with these styles, but I wouldn't like to be sprayed in the face by a skunk. My mother rehabilitated wildlife and I got enough of that smell growing up.

 

At the last Cicerone exam I helped proctor, one of the beers in the tasting portion was Saison DuPont. At the end, the vast majority of the class thought there was nothing wrong with it, but it had been spiked with liberal amounts of lightstrike. The beer was fresh out of a brown bottle, but since they were all so used to DuPont out of the green bottle, the beer matched the expectations of the flavor.

I personally never liked the skunkiness of that one, and am very glad they switched to brown bottles.

 

I guess if you are used to and enjoy your saisons having aromas and flavors like horse blanket, musty hay, and other barnyard things, then skunk isn't that different. But, I'm with the folks who would never willingly subject myself to skunk in my beer or otherwise. If the individual consumer wants to skunk their beer, fine - they bought the beer they can do what they want. But I strongly believe that no brewer should be purposely creating conditions (i.e. green bottles) where their beer risks getting skunked, because they have no control over the amount of light exposure the beer could experience through distribution and retail...a lot, a little, none at all... It's just sloppy. If a brewer truly believes skunk is an improvement to their beer they can add a recommendation on the label for the consumer to pour the beer into a clear glass and leave it in the sun for a couple minutes time before drinking. At least then the consumer has some control and it can as the brewer intends.

Well, I for one won't buy anything from Jester King after reading that. I don't want to support a brewer with an attitude like that towards their product.

*looks at the peanut gallery* Yeah, I know, more for you guys. There's a skunk roadkill near my house right now you can have too.

And to think people go nuts on Alan Pugsley for the intentional diacetyl in some Shipyard beers.

 

Been lucky with Dupont, but I don't think I've ever had a De Blaugies Vermontoise that wasn't laden with that note. I'm kinda wondering if that might not be intentional.

 

To be fair, it is only for a few brewery only releases. I have not seen any green bottles for anything that hits distribution. Though I can understand your point of view.

 

Alright. If it's brewery only releases then I'll back off some from my rhetoric. They are at least exercising some quality control over over the beer before it's in the hands of a consumer. It still bothers me that a brewer stated being light-struck is a defining feature of Saison DuPont. If Saison DuPont switched to brown bottles, then it clearly shows they at least don't agree with him.

Jester King distribution in my area is pretty spotty anyway... I doubt they would notice whether or not I buy their beer.

 

Oh, yeah completely agree. That line about Saison Dupont made no sense to me either.

 

Definitely go with your preferences. I'm not trying to discount your observations at all, but if I was in your shoes, I'd try an experiment (assuming you've never tried this yet):
Pour a saison into two glasses. Intentionally expose only one to sunlight. Try to drink each glass at the same temperature and "blindly." See if your preference remains.

 

It's an interesting idea, to be sure, and one that clearly some others agree with (i.e., Jester King). My issue with it is that it seems, anyway, like the brewers that have released in green bottles haven't desired light strike, so much as it was a feature of shipping, long-term storage, etc. Cantillon may use green bottles, but they also stored them all in a giant dark cellar. Dupont may use green bottles, but my guess is that (and the switch to brown bottles seems to corroborate it) they didn't desire light struck notes and only used green because of historical availability, the assumption that the beer would be drunk fresh enough to not pick up light struck notes, etc.

Anyway, beer is freedom, so if you like the note, I say go for it. But that's probably the best way to explain it -- you just like the note. All the talk (from JK, for example) about character and freeing from the status quo and the like seems like a poor interpretation of how/why light strike has occurred in some continental brews.