Lightstruck Saisons

What color bottles does Dupont use for domestic sales of their Saisons in Belgium?

Cheers!

@ManforallSaisons @beerpirates

 

Oxidation is part of barrel aging dark beers. I explained in this thread how light can specifically help saison. Cheers!

 

Well, you can illuminate your saisons, I'll keep mine dark and cool. I like them fresh and young, with a slight chill. Each to his own.

 

These are the same goofballs that age hefeweizens in oak, no?

 

I'm firmly in favor of skunked saison DuPont I much prefer that version to the non skunked brown bottle version. I'm not a fan of that character in other beers with few exceptions, saison DuPont being one.

So no OP I don't think your crazy.

 

Haven't had a lot of their beers but they do make quality!

 

I think it's brown for 33cl and green for 75cl. It could be that's exactly what they want, but it could also be that a small brewery might not have much choice of glass, and have to go with what's available (and prevailing).

 

@jesterkingbeer feels the same way as you do!

 

I just hope Heineken doesn't make Lagunitas start "light striking" their beers in green bottles!

 

Have you tasted the two 'versions'? The brown 33cl and the green 75cl? If so. do you have a personal preference here? If Dupont had a preferred way to 'present' these beer why would they have differing colors for the two sizes of beers? Certainly a brewery can dictate the color of their beer bottles, don't you think?

Cheers!

 

@Chlodwig23 I appreciate you joining in and defending the position that light struck saisons can be better. I would like to repeat the question @JackHorzempa posed above because I don't think you answered him specifically about the flavors of "skunk" you stated earlier. I am very familiar with the odor of skunked beer, but not with the flavor and I would very much like to learn. Cheers!

 

"0724 Lightstruck (aka skunky, sunstruck)" is listed as "Relavance: OT = Odor, Taste" in Meilgaard, Dalgliesh & Clapperton's BEER FLAVOURTERMINOLOGY.

I agree that the odor of a lightstruck beer is the dominant aspect.

 

I've enjoyed my share of skunky St Pauli Girl, and Grolsch. I used to like them for the fact that they had this flavor. Although, at the time, I liked all things skunky, and didn't realize that this was an imperfection in the beer. I haven't had one in several years. Maybe it's time to revisit

 

Since there are only 5 known things you actually taste (Sweet, salty, bitter, sour, umami), all other perceived flavors actually come from the sense of smell in combination with taste. 3-MBT is a very light molecule so you detect it mostly in the aroma.

Other compounds are slightly heavier and can be both in the aroma and flavor, yet others are even heavier and are only detected in the flavor. In any case, "flavor" is created when things evaporate while you are consuming them. This is why wine people (and some beer people) do that slurping thing when they evaluate.

So, 3-MBT comes from a small (light in weight) parts of hop humulones which break off and react with sulfur to form 3-MBT. That is one well defined reaction and studied primarily in the context of a lager recipe. Also 3-MBT is very very potent so its was quite easy to study. It's far more of an unknown as to what other compound are formed in the very different background of saisons. However, many molecules of this size are 'fresh' notes, so the flavor, hypothetically created would be likely citrus and floral (due to undefined but likely chemistry). And this is the flavor many (but not all) people get. More aromatic and dry. Personally, in the classic saison i think you get more pronounced lemon and pepper which is where that typical characteristic may have come form.

 

Just so I am understanding this properly, you are stating that as part of the exposure to light via the green glass that flavors of “citrus and floral” are created? These flavors of “citrus and floral” are not present in the Saisons that are bottled in amber bottles?

Cheers!

 

At least in that case, Heineken offers cans. If they wanted to switch Lagunitas to green bottles, that's fine with me as long as they make cans available.

 

I don't so think -- or rather, I don't assume. I haven't thought to ask this in Tourpes -- perhaps they wish they could do Corona-style clear bottles -- but as there are few bottling in 25/33s in anything but brown, in 75s in anything but green, I'm sure that for at least some breweries here, it's been a choiceless choice.

Personally, enjoy the beer how you like it, and it's not something dependent on being super hoppy, but I probably wouldn't mention any of this to the brewers if you ever meet 'em...

 

They couldn't even if they wanted to. Magee controls Lagunitas.

 

personal preferences and biases between one individual and another do obviously play a part here. given my travels in china and mexico, where green and clear bottles are often "warehoused" out in the open sun, i have a particular aversion to "skunkiness" in beer. this includes when i was introduced to saison dupont (and craft beergeekdom generally) AFTER my learned dislike of skunk, and why i always hated having to buy it off the shelf (i would eventually only buy it direct from the case/box it was distributed in). what @Chlodwig23 brings up however, is very intriguing, and am at least open to the idea that other chemical reactions can occur which can give a sensation of improvement to a drinker. i am also happy to hear that they only offer it under strictly controlled conditions, so that the guessing game doesn't fall upon the retailers and consumers. in any case, i'll try to stop by mystic sometime soon. @Chlodwig23 - do i need to make an appointment if i want to try a blind tasting?

 

I really liked this thread. This website gets very caught up with certain wisdoms and opinions... and the result is that differing ideas sometimes have a hard time surfacing. Kudos to @Robtobfest for going out on a limb and to @Chlodwig23 for adding a professional perspective. I have no thoughts on my own preferences. I've really enjoyed many saisons in green bottles and brown bottles, and I've never noticed a lightstruck quality in any of them... but that doesn't mean that that quality was present or not. The thing that I find interesting is the examination of the conventional wisdom. Often you hear about cases where old methods of doing things are replaced with newer methods... and a certain quality gets lost in the transition. This can be done knowingly, or unintentionally due to a quality that wasn't yet pinpointed or appreciated. Is the high reputation of Dupont partially due to characteristics brought on by green bottles? It's certainly possible even if in a small way. If so, (putting personal preferences aside) that line of thinking upends some conventional wisdom to a certain extent. It's all very interesting and welcome food for thought even if it turns out to be much ado about nothing.