A Salute to Saisons! (2022)

Thanks. I’m looking forward to getting this going again.

 

Fox Farm BA Freckled Fields (b1) 5% ABV, one of my favorite farmhouse ales from FF. Clean, medium carbonation, not acidic, hint of tartness with a lemon flavor. I do prefer the barrel aged version over the base version. I have a mag as well but I'm waiting to share it.

 

Yesterday I got to experience a beer I most likely will never lay my hands on again. This year’s Invitational at Side Project brewing was a plethora of first-time beers for me, but this opportunity was unreal.

The beer was Beatification Batch 001-PH1. Originally brewed in 2006, this incredible opportunity was given to Russian River to age a beer in arguably the most significant barrel in the industry. There’s actually a great article about this barrel’s significance that was published to BA, which I’ll link below:

https://www.beeradvocate.com/articles/13571/the-rarest-barrel-ph1s-influence-and-inspiration/

Regardless, the provenance on this particular bottle was unmatched, and the age added a beautiful level of complexity that may never be found in any of the remaining bottles of this beer. I’ll forever be thankful for the opportunity to taste this piece of beer history.

 

No pic, but I had a fantastic saison at Austin St/Industrial Way in Portland ME this afternoon. It's called Dichotomie, and it really brings the Belgian. It was a beautiful afternoon for sitting out on the patio, soaking up the sunshine, and enjoying the view of the Hannaford's supermarket parking lot.

 

It was amazing! While Russian River was pouring at the event, this was a privately owned bottle brought by one of the attendees. We opened it with Cory from Side Project and a handful of others. Right place right time!

 

I'm inspired by all of you to get this going for 2022. Well done @Davl22.

My saison shelf currently sits at zero. Excuses: (1) I've been traveling a ton so far this year and (2) I took the family to Disney/So. California and that shit ain't cheap.

Looking forward to re-stocking. I have to be in Portland, ME for work at the beginning of May. I do believe a re-up at Oxbow might be in order.

 

Overlooked this thread until now, thank you for kicking this off @Davl22 !

Going through my cellar, waiting until Spring before opening the Saisons. Enjoyed two this weekend, one was solid, the other was this superb 1 year old gem (released one year to the day).

Keeping Together Preoccupied with Memory and Expectation



This is the first one from KT I've aged 1 year, and it worked out very well. Been on buying hiatus while working through my (still) significant cellar, but need to head to Half Acre next month to scoop up some of the remaining bottles.

Averie released her last batch earlier this month, and is looking to reestablish her brewing in New Mexico, after losing the HA space she brewed out of their sold Lincoln Ave. location (along with Half Acre's Lee McComb, who also produced great wild ales). Glad SWA flies direct to Albuquerque!

 

Forest and Main ,

Enjoy


Stalks and Leaves - 3.7% Saison Ooooeee! Sub 4% Saisons are just the coolest thing! We brewed this one with malted barley and lots of malted rye all from @DeerCreekMalt. We hopped it with a fun blend of some of our favourite fresh and aged European hops; and steeped some Holy Basil from @OmaHerbalTeas. It was fermented with our 2021 Foraged Yeast Culture under pressure for extra flavors and lots of natural style bubbles. This is a little departure from our usual can conditioned saisons, but we’re pretty into it so far - it still captures natural fermentation flavors and carbonation, but at a different part of the process.

It has notes of fresh green cardamom, dried apple snacks, miscellaneous anise herbs, rainbow peppercorns, earthy rye bread flavors, summertime farmers’ market social hour, some rare chewing gum, and the confidence that only a sub 4% beer can deliver.


I really enjoyed this one. F&M makes some good beers and Saison is one of their better styles.

 

No pic, but had a Baere Brewing saison last night. It is their flagship, and is "clean" as in no bacterial influences or Brett. It weighs in at %4.4 abv. It's a great local. @unlikelyspiderperson got me turned onto these guys in my own backyard. It's not over the top phenolic. Some Citrus esters come in as it warms. It's also dry as a bone, something so many American breweries miss the mark on.

 

Saison on the cheap(er)!

US craft brewed Saisons (and Belgium brewed too) can be quite pricey so my solution is to homebrew my own.

For the interested student below is a link to an article which discusses the Saison beer style:

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

For my batch of Saison I use a combination of two dry yeasts: Fermentis T-58 and Fermentis BE-134 (Saison) in a 3:1 ratio (more T-58 than BE-134). I was tipped off to this combination by a fellow working the Fermentis booth while attending HomebrewCon 2018. Thank you to Napoleon for making this suggestion!

In addition for this batch:

· I used a European hops: German Magnum for bittering and Czech Saaz for flavor and aroma

· Weyermann Pilsner Malt & 1 lb. of table sugar for the fermentables

Served in my Tripel Karmeliet tulip glass:

Appearance

Golden yellow colored, slightly hazy with a BIG rocky white head

Aroma

Mostly spicy (phenols) but there is notable fruitiness (esters) as well.

Taste:

The flavor is well balanced between spicy (phenols) and fruity (esters). There is a low – moderate bitterness.

Mouthfeel

High – medium carbonation level, a smooth mouthfeel with a very dry finish.

Overall

Very good – excellent.

If anybody is interested in brewing this beer for yourself a recipe is included in the above linked article.

Cheers!

 

Enjoyed your article, and that beer sure does look the part.

 

One Saison planned for this weekend, this one a 2015 collaboration between the now closed Saint Somewhere and Jester King.

Saint Somewhere & Jester King Collaboration - Bouteille Vert



Full review in the New Beer Sunday #91 thread. This held up well over 6-7 years in a green bottle. Tart, funky, lemon, grape and a touch of honey. Drinking the first half now, saving the rest for later today.

Making the world a better place, one Saison at a time.

 

I would like to salute Saisons with this brewer fresh and on tap Farmhouse.
Beach House by Naples Beach Brewery.
The picture is from last month, however I enjoyed another 10-oz. yesterday. I forgot to bring my phone.

That haze you see clears away, not sure if it's chill haze or yeast. The smell is distinctively Belgian; yeasty with faint banana, mild floral hops and fresh bready malt. A slight funk during the taste.

It was 90° inside the semi-open air tap room, check out the sweat on the glass.
Well suited for hot weather.

Saison on draught and brewery fresh is hard to beat, I hope this place makes a Kolsch this summer. Cheers.

 

Most likely a chill haze situation:

“Affected bottles of beer could be described as having a cloudy, opaque, or hazy appearance with “floaties” or “sediment” present at the bottom. This has been caused by chill haze. The good news? Beer affected by chill haze is fine to drink and will disappear when you decant the beer into a glass or soon thereafter.”

https://www.shortsbrewing.com/foggy-phenomenon-chill-haze/

I suspect that in today’s contemporary craft beer scene where Juicy/Hazy IPAs are “the” beer style to drink that maybe there is less emphasis at craft breweries to be perfect with their products appearance (clarity is not as important?).

Cheers!

 

I like to hoist a De Dolle Boskeun on Easter, but this year I cracked a bottle from my recent Saint Adairius haul instead.

Landscapes 1 is an oak-aged saison, dry-hopped with Motueka.

Review here...



Cheers!