Are Saisons Too Strong

When the style came back in popularity, it was marketed as a "specialty" beer and sold in larger corked bottles. People paying more for this package expect more alcohol to come with it. Dupont still makes Avril, a more traditional table saison, but it isn't as popular because it delivers less alcohol for the price. People just want bang for the buck.

 

Anyone have Nogne-O India Saison and just say "Wow, bro"? Definitely one of the first memorable beers of the year for me.

 

I just got one of those in a trade and am looking forward to drinking it when I'm grilling!

 

I actually really like high ABV Saisons. Smuttynose Farmhouse Ale is one of my favorite brews! Over 9% and bloody fantastic!

 

I can't tell if this is a serious question...

 

MJ, R.I.P. Went to a paid tasting a year before he died and it was a pretty cool experience. My biggest regret is not having him sign my book that he authored.

 

4% reaching the upper limits of strength is an educated guess, really. I know it is often said that they were small beers for farmhands to drink and I get that you wouldn't want your farmworkers blackout drunk if you still wanted them to be productive. But, I find it very hard to believe that a beer brewed in the winter (when brewing was traditionally done) would still be consumed by August if it was 2 or 3 percent...just doensn't seem like it would hold up very well. These summer beers likely did have some umph to them. Was that umph 4%? 5%? As others have said, probably depended on who was doing the brewing.

 

It's not fun when it's because of 15%ers...

 

In a nod to old farmhouse traditions, Im planning on asking my job if I can be paid in Saisons this summer, preferably Fantome, Dupont and Hennepin. Im sure my wife wont appreciate the drop off in income but, hey, thats why she works also.

 

. I love Hennepin, but at 7.7% abv I try to limit myself to six bottles on any given day.

 

This.

 

Even though we look at Pliny a week after bottling as too old, I doubt that non-beer geeks on the farm years ago would care whether their beer was 6 to 10 months old when they're harvesting in the fall. Low abv beer DOES actually hold up with minimal light exposure and can still be refreshing with age. I hate to admit this, but my father has had year+ old Guinness (the British factory workers' low abv equivalent to a saison) and still enjoyed it. Ignorance can be bliss.

 

i wish avril was more available, honestly. there is only one place in town that has it, a pizza joint, so it's a bit more pricey (~14) than it would be in a store.

stuff is delicious

 

All my hours of surfing Beer Advocate just became worthwhile. That video is an education.

 

Just watching Michael Jackson speak is an amazing experience, we lost a legend when he passed away. His humor, intelligence, sophistication, etc... is simply just amazing to watch. You should search out other videos of him on youtube.