Your Favorite Saisons

Sofie - Goose Island Beer Co

 

Hill Farmstead anything
Sante Adairius anything
Jester King anything
Logsdon anything
Prairie Standard and Ale
Goose Island Sofie, Sofie Paradisi, Halia, and Gillian
Orpheus Lyric and Atalanta
Side Project Fermiers and du Ble
Funkwerks Saison
Perennial saisons
BFM Saison
Blaugies anything
DuPont anything
Fantôme anything

 

I do enjoy one dry hopped.. I forget the one by ordell that was good! had a prairie standard ... not bad... Recently had Hop Bandit from a little brewery in Hendrix MN... very good. I do not care for allot of the weird crap allot of that style has in it. That said ... it was only a matter of time before someone got it right.... or many people. This as it should happen is a style I am recently rediscovering with much enthusiasm

 

while enjoying Tank 7, to me Ommegang Hennepin is the tops for the style. such complexity.

 

Burial Beer's Haysaw

 

I like Allagash Interlude

 

Allagash Saison, North Coast La Merle and Kent Falls in Connecticut is new and coming out with some great ones, like Farmer's Table and Field Beer.

 

The only Saison I can drink routinely. Nice bubble gum-ness to it.

On another note, while I have only had it on tap, I recall having heard from somewhere that it's actually better from the bottle, anyone care to chime in on that opinion?

 

If you were lucky enough to come across a bottle of Dalmatienne, chances are good that same shop or others in your area have other Fantome offerings which I would highly suggest giving a try.

The "funk" of Fantome usually comes out with age so if you arnt down with the funk, drink em up fresh. I think batches of classic saison, coffee ruby and chocolate might be hanging around still.

 

Leaving "whales" out of this--I love all the HF shelf saisons, but Arthur is probably my favorite. To me it balances the right amount of citrus/tart with a bit of funk on the nose and backend of your palate. Honorable mention goes to Anna and Brother Soigne

 

Hennepin, Sofie, Tank 7 and SaisonHands (Tired Hands) are all excellent saisons.

 

I was very surprised Lyric Ale and Atalanta from Orpheus brewing. They were very light, full of flavor and incredibly easy drinkers. If They were available here I could easily see them in my summer rotation.

I would also have to add petit azzaca and petit Desay from De Garde. Those both were very tasty as well.

 

Not sure where you live in Illinois, so I could be way off here, but I always have quite a bit of luck finding Sofie at Randalls Wines & Spirits. There are three of them in St. Louis, but there is one in Fairview Heights Illinois too. Not sure if you are even close to there, but if so, definitely check it out. Seems they keep it fairly regularly stocked at the ones I have been to.

 

I think the bottle version is better. Then again I only compared them side by side twice. Its sad I used to buy it all the time and I gave up on it because of price....

 

Saison is my favorite style so it is hard for me to to narrow it down.

Dupont Foret
Fantome Printemps
and any farmhouse ale that Jester King makes are some of my favorites.

I recently had Oddwood Ales Saison (batch 2) and it was fantastic. Picked up another bottle last week.

 

Ardent Core from LIC Beer Project is a local favorite.

 

Transmitter Brewing in NYC is making really good farmhouse ales right now.

 

I have the S8 in my fridge right now...any other suggestions from them?

 

Grand Teton's Grand Sour Saison was awesome. Heavy funk on the nose, but otherwise a mild farmhouse flavor. Crushed a few of them now.

 

Depending on where you're located in Illinois, the closer to Chicago you get, without actually entering the city, you should be able to find Sophie. I'm about 40 minutes out and have 4pks and 750ml gathering dust at the store.