What is a Barrel Aged Saison?

Anything from the two breweries mentioned, but especially these two:

https://www.beeradvocate.com/beer/profile/637/1717/

https://www.beeradvocate.com/beer/profile/825/3587/

These are also excellent:

https://www.beeradvocate.com/beer/profile/10557/21113/

https://www.beeradvocate.com/beer/profile/739/58235/

https://www.beeradvocate.com/beer/profile/4315/109132/

There are other European examples, including those from Fantome and de la Senne, and ones from the states including beers from Stillwater, Oxbow, St. Somewhere, Upright, and Funkwerks.

 

Thanks, I'll give them a go.

Wanted to know specific beers, some breweries have lots of one style. Smart ass!

 

No traditional producers, as they adhere to the Methode Traditionelle, but there might be some boutique producers that do so.

There are three essential characteristics to saison, IMO.

1) Well-attenuated
2) Ester and/or phenol forward, i.e. yeast driven aromas and flavors
3) Effervescent

There are certainly others that can be present, like hops or other spices, but they shouldn't be present to the level of the three mentioned above.

 

A Saison that has been exposed to oak that I enjoy drinking is Tired Hands Ourison. It is the everyday beer of SaisonHands but with some additional steps.

Below is how this beer is detailed on BA:

“Ourison represents the progression and evolution of our Saison fermentation program. Ourison is Our Saison, SaisonHands, left to condition in oak and then allowed to fully express itself via a lengthy bottle conditioning period. The end result is a highly refined snappy and pungent Saison that, I feel, is one of the most simplistic and exciting iterations of Saison that we have ever produced.”

Cheers!

 

To some more authentic.

Soured saisons are not saisons.

 

To a great extent I would agree with you. The saisons of Fantome can be an outlier, though.

 

@EvenMoreJesus , although you are being careful enough to include plenty of "IMO" and are saying "to a great extent" at the end, I think we shouldn't be so quick to make such definitive proclamations. The authors you mention (Markowski and Yvan de Baets) have written plenty on the sour aspect of saisons, their relationship to lambic/gueuze, etc.

Yes, you bring up the idea of brewer intention, and this is important, as is the timeline from a historical perspective. Nonetheless, these authors seem very confident that the identification of some saisons as sour beers was strong; that although some elements were out of the brewers control, brewers still were deliberate and showed some control/intention over the sourness; and that this element was not limited to historic brewing, but deliberately continued into the craft era.

These authors seem to have no hesitation with using acidity and lactic sourness as a defining element of some but not all saisons - and that it was partially deliberate. Just because Dupont's is considered the gold standard by the folks who paved the way for American craft beer, doesn't mean that we should use it (and the beers directly inspired by it) to define the category without room for other examples. I love Saison De Pipaix from Brasserie à Vapeur. That brewery has a long history and that beer exhibits some sourness. The existence of Dupont doesn't make Pipaix any less of a saison. I always assumed that the modern American turn to sour saisons was directly due to brewers reading "Farmhouse Ales" and attempting to continue the story.

Yvan de Baets even gets annoyed (if I remember correctly) when people claim that a saison needs to be highly carbonated or have a big head. According to him, some saisons were flat. Yes, the bottled saisons from Belgium today are pretty much very effervescent (except for Fantome in which case all bets are off), but the problem is when a beer reviewer gets a saison without a big head and claims "not to style." According to whom... Dupont and Blaugies? Would those brewers agree or would they just claim that that's their saison? As far as I know, Yvan de Baets wouldn't agree.

Just some food for thought.

 

First of all, thanks for the well thought out response.

If my proclamations seemed definitive, I apologize. They were not meant to be, simply my interpretation of what I've read on the subject.

Here's the issue. If you talk to anyone or read anything from anyone who knows about traditional Belgian beers, like saison and lambic, they do not identify them as "sour beers". Rather, they say that acidity, to some degree, is inherent to their character. No small delineation. This is, very probably, how saison brewers of yore viewed their beer.

As you said, although Dupont and Pipaix are two different beers, neither of them is any less of a saison because of it. That said, you must look at brewing procedures pre-Pasteur and post-Pasteur as two different entities, as, depending upon the brewery, the use of those types of procedures can greatly affect the end product.

So . . . you think the standard for saison should be low carbonation or sans carbonation?

 

No. Just this - When I pour a Blaugies beer and the head erupts out of the glass, I won't say "not to style" and when I pour a Fantome saison w/o a head, I won't say "not to style" either. I might say over-carbonated or under-carbonated respectively based on personal preference and having nothing to do with style. I'm not claiming that you are arguing the opposite or are incorrect. It makes perfect sense to look for propensities and use that info to inform expectations, but I don't link that with "essential." Cheers.