Sixpoint Introduces Spring "Seison"

Sam, I have not had the pleasure to drink Saison Dupont Cuvee Dry Hopping. It apparently is brewed using Triskel hops. I have never heard about this hop before.

“Saison Dupont Cuvée Dry Hopping 2013 will be available this Spring, featuring the famous Triskel hop varietal from Alsace. Triskel is bred from the French Strissespalt and English Yeoman hops. Dupont’s master brewer, Oliver Dedeycker, describes it as “combining the aromatic notes, mainly floral, of Strisselspalt with the fruity character of Yeoman.” The unusual name, Triskel, was apparently inspired by triskelion, the symbol of the Gauls, those beer drinking ancestors of the French, which represents the three elements: Earth, Air and Water.”

How would you personally describe the aroma/flavor of Saison Dupont Cuvée Dry Hopping? According to Stan Hieronymus the Strisselsplalt hop has an elegant aroma; floral, spicy and some lemon zest.

The Sixpoint Seison is apparently hopped with “new-world hops’; American aroma hops I presume?

I have dry hopped various homebrewed beers using American aroma hops and European hops (e.g., Saaz, East Kent Golding, Styrian Goldings, Hallertauer Mittelfruh, Lublin, etc.). The character that I obtain from dry hopping with European hops and American aroma hops (e.g., Cascade, Centennial, Citra, Amarillo, Simcoe, etc.) is very, very different. The American aroma hops provide robust & bold aroma/flavor while the European hops provide pleasant but understated aroma/flavor in comparison. Permit me to utilize Stan’s verbiage of “elegant aroma” as regards to dry hopping with European hops.

I recently brewed a Saison in which I late hopped (including dry hopping) with a total of 2 ounces of Amarillo (for a 5 gallon batch). The Amarillo hops provided a pleasant citrus aroma/flavor but it was not too overwhelming since I was a bit restrained in using that hop (only 0.67 ounces of dry hops).

Cheers!

 

I would love to get in on this

 

Shane, I will be happy to participate in this exercise.

At the risk of sounding like a pain in the neck, the fundamental issue is consistency in brewing. There is absolutely no doubt in my mind that Sixpoint is capable of brewing non-bad beer at breweries other than the Brooklyn brewery location otherwise you would be totally out of business; as you posted in another recent thread in response to a post from @cestlavie:

“You are clearly trolling here and lost all credibility when you say there is "diacetyl, DMS, and other off flavors in EVERY single batch."

If that were the case Sixpoint would cease to exist, instead of growing steadily and winning awards for their beers.”

I am a fan of Sixpoint Brewing in general, I am not a fan of the fact that the Sixpoint beers not brewed at the Brooklyn brewery location suffer from inconsistency.

At the risk of sounding like a broken record, I am more than happy to purchase and consequently financially support Sixpoint beers that are brewed at the Brooklyn brewery location. The fact that labeling on Sixpoint cans does not permit me to make an informed decision on my purchases hinders my ability to be a consistent consumer of Sixpoint beers.

Cheers!

 

since it appears that my original post was deleted, i'll post the more respectful version of the same thing:

'seison'? what's that about? is it like 'session' + 'saison'? what am i missing here?

as for the beer itself, sure why not?

edit:

i have. man that was a great beer.

 

Shane, I dry hop in my primary using pellet hops enclosed in a muslin bag (with marbles to weigh down the hop bag). There seems to be a fair amount of debate on the optimum contact time for dry hopping. I prefer to dry hop ‘longer’: 10-14 days. I presume that the majority of the essential oils are extracted during the first few days of dry hopping but I figure that ‘extended’ contact time may extract some additional essential oils and I have detected absolutely no issues with a longer contact time.

Cheers!

Jack

 

You stated in your review: “Smell: Bright saison yeast aroma, very fresh and floral with a tinge of citrus fruit. Not much to say about it, as it is not complex--but it's full and powerful, like a very aromatic flower. It's great.”

It sounds like the aroma is a combination of Saison yeast produced aromas and floral aromas.

I suspect that Sixpoint Seison will have a different character since it is dry hopped with “new-world hops”. Since American aroma hops can produce a strong/potent aroma, it is possible that the Saison yeast aroma is not as noticeable in this beer? Needless to say but this is also dependent on the specific yeast strain utilized.

Cheers!

 

i dry hop for 7 days sometimes in 2 sessions . in a mesh bag, with whatever form of hop is fresher and the right varietal. my IPAs fucking suck though. and i haven't brewed in forever. and i only ever brew with someone else.

anyway, just chiming in one more time:

noticing a trend, and i have to ask...

what gives you all the impression that germans and belgians (and brits) don't ever heavily hop their beers?

just because you see americans do something doesn't mean it's some Crass American Fad and everyone everywhere else does it "authentically." why do people think that americans were the first to go above 30 IBUs? or that pilsners need to hide their hops?

this sort of false puritanism is really embarrassing. if you don't like hoppy beer, just say so and buy accordingly.

yeah, i bet it will have some dankness. who knows? i'll try anything once, i like brewers to blur style boundaries.

i mean, look at otter creek citra mantra. citra is usually an american IPA hop, but its parentage really comes out in how well it compliments the pilsner-esque malt character.

or maybe better, look at the really out there beers that work... feeling too lazy to look up examples so i guess take it or leave it .

re: bashing sixpoint, i like sixpoint. not my favorite brewery, but apollo's awesome in the summer. 3 beans is really solid. haven't had gorilla warfare in forever but i loved it years ago.

 

“what gives you all the impression that germans and belgians (and brits) don't ever heavily hop their beers?
just because you see americans do something doesn't mean it's some Crass American Fad and everyone
everywhere else does it "authentically." why do people think that americans were the first to go above 30 IBUs? or that pilsners need to hide their hops?

this sort of false puritanism is really embarrassing. if you don't like hoppy beer, just say so and buy accordingly.”

I may have missed something in this specific thread concerning the above comments.

I would strongly recommend that you start a new thread on the Beer Talk forum posing the above observations. I am very, very confident that a number of BAs will respond with their thoughts on this specific topic.

Cheers!

 

I guess I just have no idea where you are coming from here, as what is essentially the defining example of saison is a heavily late-hopped beer that also has a dry-hopped version and is probably 35-40 IBUs. Saison was and is probably the hoppiest Belgian beer style, which is why it has caught on with American brewers as of late.

Ever had De Ranke XX Bitter? Another great, hoppy farmhouse ale from Belgium. Or Taras Boulba…

 

If this is anything like Abita's Pale Ale/Saison hybrid, it should be very tasty.

 

yeah, i was given a little pause when i saw that a version of saison dupont may not be saison-y enough.

 

My guess is it comes from the Spanish 'seis' which means six in English. SIXpoint brewery... SEISon.

 

^Beat me to it.

Wish this was being canned, and I wish my local shop would start carrying Sixpoint again.

 

Looks interesting. Sometimes I miss being in the States, and missing a good hoppy saison is cause for that.