Im planning on brewing a saison next and looking for a good commercial example of one for my fiance to try
plain and simple, whats your favorite saison?
Saison Dupont or Ommegang Hennepin.
Le Merle
brewed by north coast. although i haven’t tried hennepin, i hear great things
http://www.northcoastbrewing.com/beer-LeMerle.htmLove Dupont, not a big fan of Hennepin.
The problem with Dupont is the green bottles. I’ve heard, but haven’t seen, that it is now available on 330ml brown bottles. Definitely the better choice if you can find them.
Dupont is the “classic” example. There are a lot of breweries making saisons these days… being from Maine you should see if you can get your hands on Allagash’s saison, they just started making it.
My favorite saison these days is probably New England Scrumstrulecent.
Thanks for all the suggestions
and Wahoo, i love everything ive tried from allagash - they are responsible for my love of belgian beer- but i have not seen their saison, ill keep an eye out for it
is it just called allagash saison, or is there a different name?
[quote=“Belpaire”]Love Dupont, not a big fan of Hennepin.
The problem with Dupont is the green bottles. I’ve heard, but haven’t seen, that it is now available on 330ml brown bottles. Definitely the better choice if you can find them.[/quote]
Sadly if it’s not skunked a little I don’t think it tastes right!
[quote=“bluenotebrewery”]Thanks for all the suggestions
and Wahoo, i love everything ive tried from allagash - they are responsible for my love of belgian beer- but i have not seen their saison, ill keep an eye out for it
is it just called allagash saison, or is there a different name?[/quote]
I think it’s called MINH or something. It was around. They have a beer out now (draft only) called Allagash Blonde which is technically not a saison but is in the same vicinity. It’s technically a belgian blonde.
+1! Both fantastic. Dupont is the first I ever had and still the best.
[quote=“S.Scoggin”]Le Merle
brewed by north coast. although i haven’t tried hennepin, i hear great things
http://www.northcoastbrewing.com/beer-LeMerle.htm[/quote]Another vote for Le Merle. I love that one.
Stateside Saison from Stillwater Artisinal in Baltimore. Not sure if it’s available up north though, but Stillwater pretty much exclusively makes saison style brews, and they are pretty good at it. They all come in 750mL, and the bottle artwork is pretty cool.
Saison Dupont is the classic. I do not like it skunky. Look for the brown bottles or an un opened box of the big bottles.
Saison is a very broad category. They are all fairly complex with a dry, refreshing finish. Some start sweet (saison Silly), some have brett (saison Pipaix), some have spices and high alcohol (Fantome), and some have interesting grain bills (spelt in Saison D’Epeautre.)
The U.S. saisons are good, but seem less complex compared to the Belgian ones.
If you brew a saison, it needs to finish below 1.010 and should go down to 1.008 or less no matter what your starting gravity. If it stalls at 1.020, it will be too sweet and eventually make bottle bombs when it finishes in the bottles. Just be patient. Saison yeasts are sometime slow, but make fantastic beers.
