9 replies to this topic

[Pseudolus]

I'm to give a short presentation on the Saison style to my club tomorrow night. I just sat down and typed up some notes. I figured I'd post them here for a couple reasons: A) Someone else might find them useful, and B) If I wrote anything really dumb, someone here might be kind enough to point it out in time for me to make a correction. I'm not sure how the formatting will come through, but here goes:

Saison - Sources: 1) Farmhouse Ales, Markowski 2) 2008 BJCP Style Guidelines3) “A Saison for Every Season”, Beechum, Zymurgy, May/June 2008, https://www.stoutguy...ipes.php#saison4) Great Beers of Belgium, JacksonBrief description: A dry, effervescent, golden-to-orange, spicy, hop-inflected Belgian/French ale of moderate strength. (Note: This is for the BJCP version. Saisons “in the wild” vary tremendously.)History: Saison originated in Wallonia, the southern, French-influenced portion of Belgium in small, farmhouse breweries that mainly brewed for the consumption of their own workers. “Saison” translates as “season”, and these beers were originally brewed in the late winter and springtime to last over the warm summer months when brewing ceased. The beer would have to be sturdy enough to remain palatable, light-bodied enough to be thirst-quenching, and yet not be so strong as to prevent workers from returning to the fields after imbibing (originally as low as 3% ABV).Brewing Saison: Key word: Dry. Malt bill: Generally based on pilsner malt (up to 100%), sometimes pale malt based. Vienna or munich can add some color and malt complexity. May contain other brewing grains – malted or unmalted - such as wheat, spelt, oats, rye. (Pretty much whatever the farm had available.) Crystal/cara malts are generally not present. Sugar is generally used in amounts from 5% to 10% (more sugar generally found in bigger beers). Acid malts are occiaisionally used to lower mash pH and to provide a slight sourness to the final product. Mash: Look to maximize fermentability. A step mash is traditional. Markowski suggests:113°F for 30 minutes (protein rest) / 131°F for 15 minutes / 144°F for 30 minutes (sacc rest) / 154°F for 15 minutes (dextrin rest) / 165°F (mash out).OR, if you do single infusion, aim for something low. Maybe 148°F, possibly for up to 90 minutes. Boil: If a large portion of pilsner malt is used, may want to extend boil to 90 minutes to drive off DMS. Hops: More firmly bitter than most Belgian beers, but not quite to APA levels. Smaller flavor addition, emphasis on aroma addition. Kent Goldings and Styrian Goldings are most common, followed by Saaz and Hallertau. Dry hopping is uncommon, but not unheard of. Spices: Optional. “Spicy” characteristic can come from the yeast and the hops alone. If used, use with restraint. Options include coriander, cumin, orange peel (sweet or bitter), ginger, grains of paradise, star anise. Can be added to the boil or to primary/secondary. Yeast: You are looking for two things: 1) characteristic saison flavors and 2) high attenuation. The classic strain – generally sourced to Dupont – is WLP565/Wyeast 3724. Pros: Classic saison flavors, possibility of very high attenuation. Cons: slow worker (after fast start, may take 3 weeks to complete), highly temperature sensitive (pushing up into the 80s is generally necessary to finish dry in a reasonable period of time). If you choose to use this strain, you must be very patient. Some homebrewers report getting good results by pitching an active starter of a second strain of yeast (e.g. an attenuative, clean American ale strain) a week or two after brew day to more quickly chew up the last few gravity points. White Labs also packages a Saison Blend (WLP568) that aims to achieve this in one package.Alternative strains include Wyeast 3711 (French Saison – attr. to Brasserie Thiriez) and Wyeast 3726 (Farmhouse Ale – attr. to Brasserie de Blaugies). I’ve had good results from both of these – not exactly the same profile as WLP565, but still very tasty and very attenuative while being much less finicky to work with. Both 3711 and 3726 are seasonal strains, but word on the internet is that 3711 may be switching to year-round production.Saisons Beyond BJCP: Belgians are famously unconstrained by style definitions. This goes double for saison brewers. Belgian and American brewers have made saison-type beers going well outside the constraints of BJCP Category 16C. Deviations include: higher gravities (up to 1.100 and beyond), use of American hops, unusual sugars, non-traditional spices (e.g. “Christmas” ones – cinnamon, nutmeg, vanilla, etc.), darker colors, fruit, brett and/or bacteria cultures. Fantôme is a brewery known for creative interpretations of saison. For homebrew inspiration, the Drew Beechum article and website are good places to start. What keeps the beer a saison (in the larger sense) is dryness and the saison yeast character. For competition purposes, beers of this nature are generally best entered as Category 16E, Belgian Specialty.<then on to tasting commercial examples>

Corrections? Suggestions? Thrown shoes? Accusations of copyright infringement?

[Thirsty]

I just read the section in Jackson's GBOB the other night, and I was going to suggest some history, but I see you already covered that. In fact you covered mostly everything. The only thing I could possibly think of is maybe getting into the indigenous water profile of Wallonia, and maybe how to adjust pH for the slight acidity (which you touched on already with acidulated malts) and possibly the acid/sour that appears with the softer water and dry atten. Maybe some more about the fruit additions of citrus? You seemed to have covered it all!

[MtnBrewer]

I have to agree that it seems all angles are covered. I don't think I'd bring up water since it may only confuse the issue. Water profile isn't a major component of the flavor profile. Also from what I understand the water profile varies significantly throughout the traditional brewing area. It's very soft in some areas but highly carbonate in others.

[Stuster]

Looks good to me. I think you've really covered it well. I think you could mention that you don't need to run the French Saison or the Farmhouse Ale that hot. Both seem to work fine in the low 20s for me.

[Pseudolus]

I think you could mention that you don't need to run the French Saison or the Farmhouse Ale that hot.

A good point. I had that in my head but didn't get it onto the paper. Thanks.

[chuck_d]

Nice overview. Nothing stupid, it was a good read for me as it reminded me how much I enjoyed Belgium last fall, when there was talk about Wallonia and Flanders breaking up. I need to make it back to Brussels this fall. Anyways, it should be a good presentation.

[Pseudolus]

Here's the final handout, written up in outline/bullet point style and condensed. I'll still use the "full" version to give my talk but I wanted to boil the handout down to the useful nitty-gritty. They'll also have the BJCP guideline in front of them so I didn't duplicate grav/srm/ibu numbers and such. I added a bit about the style's increasing popularity. (Couldn't swing a drunk at club night this year in Oakland without hitting a saison.) And a bit about being patient with extended conditioning time.Thanks to all who gave it a look-over.

Saison Style 16CA dry, effervescent, golden-to-orange, spicy, hop-inflected Belgian/French ale of moderate strength.History: Saison originated in farmhouse breweries of WalloniaOriginally brewed in the winter/spring to last for the summer season.Intended for the farm’s own workers, which shaped the saison “style”.10 years ago – very rare. Today, increasingly popular.Brewing Saison: Key word: DRY.Malt bill: Generally based on pilsner malt (up to 100%), sometimes pale malt based. Vienna or munich can add some color and malt complexity. May contain other brewing grains wheat, spelt, oats, rye, whatever. Sometimes acid.Crystal/cara malts generally not present. Sugar is important to achieve dryness, generally 5% to 10%Mash: Look to maximize fermentability. A step mash is traditional. Markowski suggests 113/131/144/154/165°F.Single infusion, aim for something low. Maybe 148°F, possibly for up to 90 minutes.Hops: More bitter than most Belgian beers, but not into APA territory.Smaller flavor addition, emphasis on aroma addition. Dry hopping is uncommon, but not unheard of.Varieties: Kent, Styrian Goldings most common, followed by Saaz and Hallertau. Spices: Optional. “Spicy” characteristic can come from the yeast and the hops alone. If used, use with restraint. E.g., coriander, cumin, orange peel, ginger, grains of paradise, star anise. Yeast: Looking for two things: 1) characteristic saison flavors and 2) high attenuation. Classic strain: WLP565/Wyeast 3724. Dupont strain. May have been red wine yeast? Pros: High atten, classic spicy flavors. Cons: Slow, finicky, temperature sensitive. (Likes to ferment in the 80s.) (Yes, 80s.) Alternative strains: E.g., Wyeast 3711 (French Saison), Wyeast 3726 (Farmhouse Ale)Pros: High atten, faster, need less extreme temps (70s). Good flavor.Cons: Not exactly the classic Dupont flavor.Conditioning: Have patience! Saisons Beyond BJCP: Belgians don’t do style definitions. This goes double for saison brewers.Deviations include: higher grav., US hops, weird sugars, weird spices, darker colors, fruit, brett and/or bacteria. How are these still saisons, in the larger sense? A) dryness and 2) saison yeast character. In competitions, consider category 16E, Belgian Specialty.Sources: 1) Farmhouse Ales, Markowski 2) 2008 BJCP Style Guidelines3) “A Saison for Every Season”, Beechum, Zymurgy, May/June 2008, https://www.stoutguy...ipes.php#saison4) Great Beers of Belgium, Jackson

[MtnBrewer]

Sources: 1) Farmhouse Ales, Markowski 2) 2008 BJCP Style Guidelines3) “A Saison for Every Season”, Beechum, Zymurgy, May/June 2008, https://www.stoutguy...ipes.php#saison4) Great Beers of Belgium, Jackson5) The experts at https://www.brews-bros.xyz

FTFY

[Genesee Ted]

One thing that i personally would add emphasis to which you mentioned in passing is the ingredients. The BJCP style guideline for Saison is based primarily upon Dupont, which is a fine beer. One of my favorites. However, the sheer breadth of Saison is not very well represented solely by Dupont. From what I have tasted, they seem to be more of a family of beers based on a highly attenuative, high temp-loving group of yeasts (which probably evolved from red wine yeasts) that produce very spicy and somewhat citrusy esters. I say this not to put down Dupont, although perhaps to put down the BJCP a bit.

[Pseudolus]

Presentation went well. (Although I did have to pause for a bit when the teevee over my head showed the Sox/Tigers brawl. I can't compete with that.)I think the consensus best beer tasted of the night - and certainly my favorite - was the Brother Levonian Saison that Port Brewing made for the Oakland NHC conference. If you can get hold of a bottle of that, you should.PS - I did emphasize that the saison as defined by BJCP is a lot more restrictive than the saison as understood by Belgian (and, increasingly, American) brewers. But the club competition for the night was based on BJCP, and so I wanted to make sure that folks knew that standard before they judged the homebrew offerings.