The Classic Belgian Saisons

Probably Fantome, they have a few good ones.
BFM's saison was pretty good too, although not Belgian

 

I recall enjoying this one, in cans no less: https://www.beeradvocate.com/beer/profile/2874/49728/

Dupont also makes a BIG saison, the abv roughly 9.6%. I fell in love with that one, and found that 4-yr old bottle still tasted great and had plenty of life to it.

 

I will await Chris' (@zid) post to this thread.

In the interim, @JackRWatkins: did you read/follow this thread: https://www.beeradvocate.com/community/threads/the-750-saison.429632/

Cheers!

 

Aww. I'd send you some, but alas, our distributor doesn't carry it anymore.

 

I could name far more classic Belgian strong pales than saison. Dupont gets my vote because every bottle to me is a bit different.

 

Waiting to hear some comments myself.

 

Saison de Pipaix
Saison de Dottignes
Saison D'Erpe-Mere

 

I'll second that last one- D'Erpe-Mere is great on draft and bottle.

 

And I almost forgot Thiriez Extra...

 

St. Feullien makes a good one.

 

Unfortunately, there is no fitting answer to your question since Dupont's is the classic widely available Belgian saison. There's no other answer. If you're looking for any Belgian saisons, the suggestions you already have here are great. Beyond those, I'd add Saison Voisin to the list of "classic" ones even though I've never found one in good shape... and that's the problem - even if an importer does business in your state, you still might never get some product, or what you can actually find is terribly old. Since you get some Fantome and De Ranke, that means you get Shelton Brothers in some shape or form. They also import Blaugies, Geants, Thiriez, and De La Senne. I would concentrate on talking to the right store owners about Shelton product availability. Of the ones above, Brasserie De La Senne hasn't been mentioned previously or in other posts. While they are too new to be producing a "classic" saison, you should definitely check their product out anyway.