Your Top 10 Saisons

lol, i kinda agree with tendermorsel about fantome's inconsistency, but think he's a bit harsh on american saisons overall. many do suck, and quite badly. but not enough to make such a generalization. maybe very early on in the craft days, back when ommegang hennepin was the only acceptable attempt available, but not anymore. anyway, dupont indeed remains the standard bearer, there's no escaping that. well... EXCEPT for the f_cking GODDAMNED GREEN BOTTLES!

 

Prairie Ale is one of the best Saisons I have had in a long time. It's being distributed by Shelton Brothers so it should be readily available soon.

 

Interesting, I had the orange wood aged version last night on cask. It was alright, but did not live up to the potential I thought it had (feel free to peruse my review of it for specifics).

 

Haha, nope...

10/27/04 was a much more spiritual, life-affirming event than that:

 

Whenever there is a thread about the "best" beer/style, someone always posts the BA top list for that style, usually accompanied by a painfully bland snarky comment, and often ending with a carefully chosen emoticon. I just beat em to the punch.

 

Bam biere, E.S. Bam, Weizen Bam from Jolly Pumpkin are all easy to find and are great.

 

So youre now the Asshole? Just needed to be clear on this. It is friday.

Cheers!

 

Sometimes you must become what you hate the most to defeat it.

 

That was very deep. I think I might make a motivational poster of this for my office.

Cheers!

 

You gotta get a Saison from Pretty Things, they are the bomb. Jack D'hor, Fieldmouse Farewell, ect.

 

I dug Jack d'or also.. in fact I think I've found almost every Pretty Things beer I've ever tried really solid.

 

Original Fantome... End of discussion

 

Yeah maybe I was being a bit too harsh. You are right Hennepin was the only viable US option not so long ago. I just see Saisons as the new "trendy" beer around here. Throw some shit against the wall and hope it sticks. I guess I am just a traditionalist beer geek. I will say this... Some of the beers mentioned in this thread as the "best" are the gross ones I was talking about To each his own.

I know we have had many a debate about those green bottles hombre! lol SKUNKY DUPONT!

 

Fantome Extra Sour Special Original Creation
Fantome Ete
Fantome Saison
Hill Farmstead Art/Arthur
Hill Farmstead Flora
Hill Farmstead Vera Mae
Hill Farmstead Anna
Logsdon Seizoen Bretta
Boulevard Saison Brett
Anchorage Love Buzz


Fantome and HF are killing the #saisongame

 

I hear a lot discussion as to whether the sour HF saisons (or sour saisons in general) should really be considered saisons.

Some people like to look at them as hybrids since they don't really fit the typical saison profile even if you can taste the saison yeast a little bit in the back end. I notice a group of people that only like these new sour saisons and don't really care for the typical saison.

 

They don't get the hype that HF and the like get, but Funkwerks' Saison won the gold at GABF and is mighty tasty.
Tropic King is also legit.

 

Most of HF's beers have questionable designations - regardless they are tasty.

My vote goes to the classic Saison Dupont (when you get a bottle that hasn't spoiled).

 

That's an interesting point; personally I think it's fine to consider them saisons, just not a classic example. But you're right, seems like there are folks who think saison = brett, and brett = sour—neither of which are true.

 

I've heard a lot of good things about Funkwerks, I just wish they could distribute a little more broadly!

 

Some pretty great ones on your guys' lists. The saison I buy the most, and really enjoy is Tank 7 from boulevard. I also really enjoy Tropic King from Funkwerks, which I havent' seen mentioned yet. Whenever I can find Fantome stuff I try to try new ones... So far my favorite has been the Noel. I recently had Hiver, and it was pretty good, but not my favorite.