Aging Saisons?

If they are part of this new American mixed culture saison thing going on, I think it's a worthy experiment to age some of them, no matter the ABV. I've had some of the higher alcohol imported saisons that can hold up just fine, but if it's somewhere in that Dupont-esque 6.5% ABV range, drink now or give it to me!

 

Saisons are one of the most diverse groups of beer, because of this, its a hard question to answer. Factors I would think about before aging: do hops play a role in the beer, is it a mixed fermentation, the ABV, etc. To me, Hills Farmstead's style of Saisons tend to be agable, but something like Sorachi ace or Workers Comp are not.

 

I have had a Saison Dupont (dry hopped Version in a 750 ml bottle) with a couple of years on it and it was mind blowing...

 

Better than fresh? I've had the dry hopped new and old, and it is still good, but I'm left wondering what the point of dry hopping is if we're hanging onto these for years.

 

Mixed-ferm stuff, sure, although I've had mixed results. Sometimes you get funk and effervescence, sometimes you get garbage water.

As far as your more traditional saisons go, some of them hold up better than you might expect. I'm actually curious as to why but my guess is that there's a lot of active yeast in the bottle, more than the average bottle conditioned beer. I'm a big fan of Saison D'Epeautre by Blaugies for instance, and that stuff is never available anywhere close to fresh, but it's always good. I don't know that I'd age any of these beers on purpose though.

Duex Amis has a bunch of American hops in it, right? If that's the case, I don't think it'll be a good one to age.

 

Yeah they may also produce off notes in addition to just fading.

Although, I've had aged La Vermontoise (Blaugies again), which is also loaded with Amarillo and it was just fine. Again though I don't think there was any improvement.

 

Depends a lot on the beer, doesn't it? I remember having a few different Saisons from Fantome with a few years on them, quite nice.

 

About a year or so ago, I had a Door County Biere de Seigle Farmhouse Ale that was cellared just over a year. It was more effervescent, drier and vibrant tasting than I had remembered the fresh bottles. They don't make this one anymore, and I had only kept one bottle on a lark. Because of this, since this past spring I've been keeping a bottle or two of every pack I get. I'll be opening and comparing a number of them this coming spring/summer. I'm sure some won't work out, but some might. I'm pretty excited about getting to try them.

 

Is your avatar really a building complex shaped like the Millennium Falcon?

 

I have had great experience with 6-20 month aging of most Hill Farmstead Saisons.
European Saisons up to 5 years, they run a bit dusty and lots of mineral elements.
Cheers all

 

Saisons are a very wide style, so it depends on the beer. I had an aged Hennepin that was great