The Time of the Saison

Spring is in the air!  Alright, that’s not true.  Snow is in the air, & sometimes on the ground, & temps are in the 30s.  But the beer world extends beyond our little valley of perpetual winter, & spring seasonals from all over the country have been popping up on The House’s shelves.  People sometimes complain about the prematurity of seasonals, but I’m pretty sure everybody’s ready for spring beer.  It’s a way of mentally ushering in the longer days & sweeping away the cold, even if Mother Nature hasn’t gotten the memo yet.

Spring beers generally tend to skew lighter, paler, less alcoholic than their winter predecessors.  Maibocks are a classic: lighter in color, with honey-like flavors & just plain more “vernal” than the wintry Doppelbocks of Lent.  Pales, wheats, & lighter lagers tend to poke their heads up this time of year, too, but it seems that more American brewers are marking spring with a style of beer that’s essentially seasonal: the saison. 

I often get asked what is a saison, exactly.  Good question, & not easy to answer.  It’s a stretch to even classify saison as a style, as flavor profile & ingredients vary so broadly; it’s easier to explain the history of saison in the context of ‘farmhouse ales’.  In the southern, French-speaking region of Belgium called Wallonia (“saison”=”season” in French), the Walloon farmers would need to stay in operation during the winter months, which happened to be at the right temperature for brewing beer.  They made brew to store up until the spring, when it would be used as provisions for the farmhands during the work day.  Out of necessity, the recipe varied year to year, as farmhouse brewers drew ingredients from what was available after the harvest: barley, rye, wheat, spelt.  If hops were scarce one year, they would season the beer with other herbs & spices.

You can see how this might complicate the modern tendency toward stylistic definition: “A beer made with any number of ingredients, with varying levels of hop presence, & may or may not include other seasonings.”  Pretty murky.   Most of today’s examples tend toward the dry & grassy, with a notable hop presence, & fruity & peppery notes from an assertive yeast that’s often amplified by bottle-conditioning.  They are beautiful to look at, with a big, effervescent head crowning a bright body that can range from pale straw to golden-amber – some brewers are even making dark or black saisons (recent collaborations between Green Flash/St. Feuillien & Stone/Stillwater/Evil Twin come to mind).  We’ve had three new spring farmhouse ales hit our shelves this year.  There’s 21 Amendment’s Sneak Attack, made with chamomile pods (in the can, of course).  There’s Victory’s Swing Session Saison, with orange peel, lemon zest, & peppercorns.  And Spoetzel , makers of the Shiner beers, rolled out their FM 966 Farmhouse Ale, a Texan interpretation of this classic country style.  Dig into these light, refreshing beers, & celebrate the turn of the season with a saison.