It’s always the season for Saison

While originally a beer style brewed in Belgian farmhouses for summertime consumption, Saison is now a perfect all-year-round beer. With its lovely appearance and unique flavors, Saison is a beer that may capture your heart, just as it did mine.

I fell in love with the modern Saison beer style early in my craft beer journey. After being exposed to Saison Dupont, and several others made in a similar vein, my heart was won over. Its bright golden or amber golden coloring and dense, white head caused me to stop and stare. The light haze couldn’t obscure the multitude of tiny bubbles that I watched make their way from the bottom of the glass to the surface.

Saison enchanted me with its black pepper, fruity, earthy character and high carbonation. It was different. Oh, such complexity and balance. Elegant and very flavorful at the same time. My palate took a joy ride across the countryside, through farms and fields.

A yeast-driven beer style

This is definitely a yeast driven beer-style. While it contains high quality grains and hops, they play second fiddle. The special Belgian yeast strain takes the starring role. Spicy, fruity yeast-produced flavors frolic on a bed of pilsner malt, which adds only a light grainy hint. The European hops are primarily there to add a distinct balancing bitterness and earthiness, along with just a hint of complementary fruit flavors. Throughout the drink, the long-lasting, high carbonation pushes delectable aromas out of the liquid and up to your nose. Layers of flavor uncover as the beer warms degree by degree. It’s a highly attenuated beer meaning it’s fermented dry. You’ll find little if any perceivable maltiness like that you would find in a Helles lager or pale ale. The finish is long, hoppy, and dry.

The modern Saison, as perfected by Brasserie Dupont and others in the post WWII era, is a much-copied work of art. A beer in a different direction from other classic European pale beers, yet one that holds its own. At one’s dinner table, it could easily substitute for a richer-flavored, dry white wine. Today, many American breweries try their hand at Saison. The ingredients may vary quite a bit, but the common feature of a true Saison is using a distinct Belgian yeast strain that pushes phenols, giving the beer a more spicy signature.

Carrying the Saison torch

I recently visited Weathered Ground Brewery to sample four Saisons on tap, which is a rare site at any American brewery. It was National Saison Day and Weathered Ground celebrated. Among West Virginia brewers, no one carries the Saison torch higher than does Weathered Ground Brewery (though I don’t mean to leave out Abolitionist Ale Works, which also brews a bunch of Saisons).

Anthony Meador, Weathered Ground’s talented head brewer, produces these Saisons in conjunction with Sam Fonda, who heads overall brewing operations there. Meador has worked with Weathered Ground from the beginning, starting as an assistant and working up to head brewer. Sam Fonda credits Anthony with developing many of the brewery’s most popular beers.

Meador tells me that Saisons are slowly catching on better compared to back when the brewery originally started making them. “But, of course, they don’t hold a candle to the [sales of] IPAs and fruited sours that everyone continues to be head over heels for, especially the latter,” Meador says. I think that’s a shame because Saisons are such beautiful beers.

Weathered Ground’s Saison production protocol

Meador reminds me that Weathered Ground has been brewing Saison and farmhouse ale styles ever since the brewery’s beginning. Along the way, he says they experimented with several different varieties of Saison yeasts, starting with a few different Belgian strains and a French stain, until they finally settled the Belgian/French hybrid strain that they now use exclusively. Originally, they did a fermentation temperature control much like the one they use for conventional ales, such as IPAs and the like. But now they have changed to beginning fermentation at a normal ambient ale temperature (66°-68° F.) and then letting the temperature free-rise as high as it wants to do its thing. That is the beauty of a good Saison yeast: It can run up to 90° F. and make attractive peppery/earthy/spicy/fruity flavors without producing the undesirable high esters (bandaid, nail polish remover, etc.) like regular ale yeasts would do. Meador follows this high-temp fermentation with a longer post-fermentation rest to finish and condition the beer.

As the base malt for all four of its Saisons, Weathered Ground uses Cumberland Pilsner from Asheville’s Riverbend Malt. “We also have become a big fan of Riverbend’s Great Chit malt, which we have started using in just about everything,” Meador adds. He loves that Great Chit helps provide a creamy, soft mouthful and a little perceived sweetness. “It just really helps out everything we use it in.”

Four WGB Saisons tasted

Little Grazer

Grain Bill: Riverbend Cumberland Pils, Riverbend Great Chit, Riverbend Malted Wheat, Flaked Wheat
ABV: 4.2%

Meador’s Brewing Notes: This is the much lighter Grissette or “Table Beer” variety with a heavier wheat grain bill — 60 to 65 percent wheat. Our Saison yeast character, Magnum hop bittering, and very delicate late boil hop addition of East Kent Goldings and Tettnanger.  Very spring/summer-time session brew.

My Tasting Notes: Light straw color. Slight haze. Highly carbed. Thick fine white head. Light lemon aroma. Very dry but solid flavor of bready grain, citrus and spice. Lightest body. Solidly tasty. Refreshing. Great balance of elements in a light, low ABV package. 

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Take Me Home

Grain Bill: Riverbend Cumberland Pils, Riverbend Great Chit, Riverbend Malted Wheat, Flaked Wheat
ABV: 5.1%

Meador’s Brewing Notes: This brew we do at a more normal ABV and are getting the same yeast characteristics but we do a bit fancier hop regimen from batch to batch. This most recent batch used a delicate German Magnum hop bittering charge but then got a medium dosing of New Zealand Nelson Sauvin and NZ Enigma in the whirlpool to give a more exotic and tropical hop flavor hoping to complement the yeast-induced flavors.

My Tasting Notes: Ample, yet thinnest head of the four. Clear, golden tint. Lightest aroma. Very faint grassy meadow and citrus. Taste is more hops and bitterness in the foreground with a fruity background. Missing spicy phenols. Good balancing bitterness. Lighter body than To the Place I Belong. Comes across not as dry. Overall, not assertive and doesn’t come across as all that Saison-like. Less complex, less interesting. A very quaffable beer but lacking the flavor boost and complexity I seek in a Saison. 

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To The Place I Belong

Grain Bill: Riverbend Cumberland Pils, Riverbend Great Chit, a touch of Riverbend Heritage,  a touch of Riverbend Rye, and Flaked Wheat.
ABV: 7.2%

Meador’s Brewing Notes: A little more peppery traditional Saison in the traditional ABV range. It has a softer mouthfeel and body from the Chit, Heritage, and Rye for as dry a beer as it is.  We hop it delicately with German Magnum and add a small amount of Citra and Tettnanger in the whirlpool to lend a light floral and citrus hop flavor to mingle with the yeast’s characteristic flavors.

My Tasting Notes: Straw yellow. a little cloudy. A denser white head. More spicy aroma. More mouthfeel. More crackery, with spicy citrusy taste. High carbonation. Dry. Highly attenuated. The most Belgian Saison-like of the four. It’s got great taste and complexity. Solid body. Very satisfying. Best balance of the four. Clean finish with lingering light bitterness and fruitiness from the hops.

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Sunshine On My Shoulders

Grain Bill: same as Take Me Home
ABV: 5.2%

Meador’s Brewing Notes: This is last year’s batch of Take Me Home, aged in Red Wine Barrels for over a year with a house Brett blend added for secondary fermentation and to work during the aging. Light barrel character notes along with the added funk from the Brett make for a nice drinking experience.

My Tasting Notes: Tight, lasting, creamy white head. Clear golden color. Beautiful appearance in the glass. Most fragrant of the four. Barrel aging provides more developed, deeper aromas than the others, although the aromas are not ones you would find in a Saison style beer. Almost very lightly whiskey-esque. Lingering winey flavor in foreground over a fruity background. I get a lightly acidic, lightly funky peach note in the flavor—likely from the added Brett yeast. Solid bitterness. Extremely dried out. The least Saison-like of the four.

Drinking West Virginia brewed Saisons

While Saisons at West Virginia breweries are pretty uncommon these days, there are usually a couple of them out there beyond Weathered Ground. Abolitionist Ale Works always has a Saison on draft: usually Shenandoah Saison and often others too. Bridge Brew Works, The Peddler, Bad Shepherd, Stumptown, and Greenbrier Valley have all done them from time to time — often as a summer seasonal. Ask for a non-flavored Saison, meaning there are no flavoring spices or fruits, etc. added to the beer. This allows you to better taste the yeast’s contribution. That’s the best way to learn about the style.

Saison is a wonderful food beer too. It complements so many American dishes. I love it at my Thanksgiving dinner table along with turkey, sage dressing, and gravy. Try it with your grilled chicken and pork. Saison loves grilled or roasted veggies too. And it goes real well with mac & cheese dishes. It’s a such versatile beer that shows a bit differently when enjoyed with different foods.

When you find one you like at a brewery, take home a growler or a few cans so you can pair this beer with your favorite food at home.

Making Saison at home

No bones about it, I prefer my Saison’s straight up. I don’t need them fruited up, spiced up, or Bretted up. It’s not a beer to barrel age, but bottle/keg aging a bit it is good. I do want them dried out. I remember back in my early days of learning about beer that my homebrewer friends would often add ingredients such as black peppercorns, pink peppercorns, lemon peel, bitter orange, grains of paradise, and other substances in an attempt to enhance the flavors that the Belgian Saison yeast strain naturally produces. You don’t need to do that.

My advice to brewers is learn to brew a Saison without flavoring additions. Use pilsner malt, some wheat, and other pale grains to limit “malty” flavors. Use European hops like Styrian Golding, East Kent Goldings or their equivalents in the kettle. Use a high quality Belgian Saison yeast. Let the fermentation temp rise and give the beer time. There are many articles out there that give suggestions for fermentation management in Saisons, because it can be quite tricky.

Saison is a lovely beer style that stands on its own. To make a beautiful Saison. good brewers obtain the flavor they need from the yeast and proper fermentation management. Make this your season for Saison.

LINKS

Weathered Ground Brewery website
Abolitionist Ale Works website