Cucumber Farmhouse (Uinta Brewing, Salt Lake City, Utah)
Feb. 2, 2017
While this bottle should have been consumed months ago, we only discovered it in a Florida store two weeks ago. It’s an interesting spin on my favorite style, which has an anything goes ethos. The cucumber ties together well with the orange zest-lemon body. Drinking it on a chilly night might not reflect its refreshing nature – I want this one on a humid, blistering day. There’s no denying the cucumber strength here – it’s bright on the nose, but the body has little of the bitter, floral cucumber flavor until the finish. Here the barrel influence smooths out any rough edges.
Blueberry Thyme Saison (Side Project 30, Terrapin Brewing, Athens, Ga.)
July 9, 2017
This is the beer I always find when I’m not shopping for beer. I cannot bypass a quirky saison, not with that blend of fruit and herbs. Pouring like a sparkling rose wine, BTS presents its fruit early. Before those notes grow too prominent, the vegetative, herbal traces of thyme rise for a dry finish. I was skeptical about how well the fruit and herb would mesh, and they blend effortlessly, their strongest characteristics complementing each other. The thyme’s aromatics don’t interfere with the sharp tartness of the blueberry.
Saison Renaud (Mystic Brewing, Chelsea, Mass.)
July 9, 2017
Beers like Saison Renaud are my touchstone saisons. A brewer can call almost any Franco-Belgian-inspired beer a saison, but few adhere to what makes saison great. Mystic hits all the milestones. Creamy head full of ester notes and a dry, herbal nose rise over an orange body. The finish is both dry, like a fine blanc de blanc Champagne, with notes of dried herbs (rosemary and thyme), muted notes of tropical fruit and lemon peel. Saison Renaud has an undeniable medicinal feel. Mystic’s house yeast cultures yield a tremendous beer both tradition – reminded me of the best Belgian versions like Saison Dupont - but this one stays rooted in New England.
Uinta Farmside Saison (Saison with white wine grape must and gooseberries)
July 18, 2017
Another Utah saison, this is the dry farmhouse I need during the summer months. Bone-dry and with an herbal, perfumed bouquet, this far surpasses the domestic saisons that rely too heavily upon coriander to push their character. There’s some coriander but it’s a background flavor - the drier wine-influence plays stronger. Gooseberries add a tartness that augments the dry character. The funky characters are mild and influenced by the dry herbal characters. Better yet, Uinta sells Farmside in a can. In Tennessee, the canned saison options rarely reach these heights.
Double Saison with Brett (Brasserie de la Senne Brasserie du Mont Saleve, Brussels)
July 25, 2017
It’s been a while since I have tasted a new Belgian saison not tied to one of the top producers. Massive head of dense foam with sharp wild character. I poured and set it aside for 20 minutes. Only after buying a 333 mL bottle did I notice the use of wild yeast. Brettanomyces, the most common wild yeast in brewing, has become ubiquitous to the point of overuse. Brett can hijack a beer, dominating a flavor profile completely if not balanced with assertive ingredients. Twenty years after drinking my first of many Orval bottles, I have grown bored with brett, which better offer complexities beyond the basics produced by the yeast.
The brewery plots its creation down to the day – Dec. 9, 2015 – which throws an eye on the beer’s evolution. This pour was bottled in February 2016, and the refermentation has had 18 months to reshape the flavor. The brett is still strong upfront, but it leaves space for the blonde ale flavors produced by the rustic cereals and noble hops. The brett comes off sharp but complex, introducing medicinal herb notes (parsley, basil) that carry into the other flavors but augment them. Lemon is prominent. Not bad, but not one I plan to revisit in a market with a glut of brett beers.
Blackberry Farm Brewery Plum Basil Saison (BFB, Walland, Tenn.)
Oct. 16, 2016
Tart nose erupts from the glass, with estery fruit notes and occasional strains of warm biscuits. BFB has blended their Classic Saison with plum and basil for a nice offshoot worth a taste. Plums are present, but it isn’t overflowing. It’s a subtle fruit in any beer, aided in this saison by the wild yeast. Basil too leaves a light footprint, lighter than I would like. Throw in bushels of basil – it cannot hurt. Basil never overwhelm any beer. Lindeman’s spontaneously fermented basil sour doesn’t shy from its core ingredient.
BFB Alban Farmhouse Red
August 27, 2017
BFB aged this saison for a year in Alban Vineyards red wine barrels., layering an arresting red wine profile into the saison. The wild yeasts have mellowed under barrel aging and don’t exert a bracing influence. The brett fits into the profile instead of running roughshod over everything else. BFB had 40 Alban barrels and used brett in 36 of them. In the last four, BFB used a Flanders culture, then blended them to produce Farmhouse Red. The Grenache and Syrah previously stored in these barrels wield immense influence, and it’s a better beer for their efforts. This is a major step beyond BFB’s Classic Saison. Not a beer for every day, but Farmhouse Red pushes the boundaries of the style (which doesn’t have any real boundaries).
Crooked Stave Colorado Wild Sage Brett Saison (Denver, Colo.)
Oct. 19, 2017
The nose is loaded with orange, peach and apricot, fruit and nothing else. The flavor does not disappoint, all three presenting strongly throughout every pass. The fruit runs straight through the mid-palate where the brett funk kicks in. I’m not sure I get much from the white sage, but the lemongrass is assertive. Crooked Stave continues to amaze, its wild yeasts veering off the easily trodden path many brewers take. Anyone can throw bretts into a beer, but only in the hands of good craft brewers do they produce superior beer. Count this among them.
Avondale Spring Street Saison (Avondale Brewing Co., Birmingham, Ala.)
Oct. 29, 2017
A reunion with an old favorite, this Birmingham saison is one of the Deep South’s best takes on the Franco-Belgian style.
Seventh Son La Mort (Seventh Son Brewing, Columbus, Ohio)
Oct. 23, 2017
There’s a wild-yeast saison in here somewhere but the addition of sour ale blots out all other flavors. It’s too much in one package, and the strong element wins, which doesn’t boost the beer.
Wild Rosehip Saison (Urban Famly Brewing, Seattle, Wash.)
Nov. 4, 2017
This is a wild sensation, with bright brett burning throughout. The rosehips are subtler, only popping intermittently. It’s dry, sizzling and brilliant. Lots of bone-dry citrus. Find me more.
Embrasser le Sint Farmhouse Ale
(Saint Somewhere Brewing, Tarpon Springs, Fla.)
Nov. 29, 2017
Finally, a brett ale that doesn’t let that wild yeast overwhelm its other characters. This brew pairs the Tarpon Springs (Fla.) saison maker with Nashville’s Yazoo and its Embrace the Funk wild beer offshoot. The brewers loaded this saison with heirloom citrus peel and the brett cannot overrun those impressive tart notes from the peels. The burn of the citrus finish is not one any other beer shares, the citrus quite different than stalwarts like orange and lemon peel. Body is hazy orange. Creamy textures arise mid-palate after the initial wave of dry, medicinal brett flavors.
I cannot begin to untangle the varied citrus notes that dominate this saison. I found notes of grapefruit, tangerine, kumquat, lemon, lime and any type of orange imaginable. It would take two or three bottles to even try, and I had to settle for one. But what a glorious pour Saint Somewhere and Nashville’s sour beer king have crafted.
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