“Saison” is the French word for season. This style of farmhouse ale was created before mechanical refrigeration was used in brewing. Saisons were intended to provide refreshment to thirsty farm workers on hot days, thus the farmhouse connection. Because the style emerged as a seasonal beer, often brewed in the winter and made without temperature controls, the original characteristics of the style were all over the board. In the funky world of sours, wild ales, and farmhouse ales, you never quite know what you’ll get once Brettanomyces, Lactobacillus, and all their microscopic friends finish their wort buffet. Brewer and drinker alike could theoretically expect a different sensory experience from every bottle, perhaps even every sip. Saisons, with their crisp bubbly nature, showcases a range of fruity, earthy and yeasty flavors, bridge the gap between the malty brews of winter and summer’s hoppy bitter beers. Brewers may add spices, which can include grains of paradise and black pepper, and they really don’t offer much hoppy character; if they are bitter it can be assertive. Today, Peaks and Pints presents a flight of saisons — traditional and enhanced — that we call Craft Beer Crosscut 5.26.18: A Flight of Saisons.
Atwood Ales Mo’s Saison
4.2% ABV
Located just 18 miles north of the burgeoning Bellingham brewery scene, on the outskirts of a scenic seaside town, is Blaine, Washington’s first, and oldest, brewery — Atwood Ales. The unique setting provided by a 100 year old farmhouse and barn and the surrounding acreage is not only visually compelling, but also provides countless opportunities to directly incorporate estate and locally grown agricultural and natural ingredients into Atwood’s small batch beers. It’s a family-operated farm and brewery. Josh brews the beer. Monica takes care of sales, marketing and distribution. Josh’s parents, Stephen and Leslee Smith, co-own the brewery, and Monica’s parents (Steve and Nancy) are involved as well. Josh brewed Mo’s Saison “for my beauty wife, who likes to keep light and refreshing saisons with mild spice and fruit character stocked in our fridge. This seasonally influenced saison features rotating ingredients grown here on our farm.” Today’s version features farm-grown 2-row barley, rosemary and sage.
Upright Fatali Four
4.5% ABV
Upright Brewing owner and Brewmaster Alex Ganum opened his brewery in the basement of Portland’s Leftbank building in 2009. Since then, Upright has made a name for itself brewing Belgian-style saisons as well as pushing outside the boundaries of what a standard Pacific Northwest beer tastes like. Fatali Four is a blend of the brewery’s barrel aged Four saison with fresh homegrown fatali chiles added for a couple months before bottling. It also incorporates light use of Brettanomyces yeasts providing a contrasting earthy backdrop for the bright chile flavors.
Trinity TPS Report
4.8% ABV
Trinity Brewing specializes in a wide variety of Belgian-style saisons and wild ales brewed with Brettanomyces yeast, including two-time GABF medal winning TPS Report made with flaked oats, flaked wheat, coriander, three different kinds of citrus zest (lemon, lime and tangerine), aged in French oak Chardonnay barrels with rose petals and dosed with Brettanomyces and Lactobacillus. And while the ninja action on the beer’s label is more Office Space than Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, this crisp, refreshing mild sour with a hint of citrus and spice could be named after “Turtle Positioning System” — the term applied to turtles ability to use the Earth’s magnetic field as their own Global Positioning System, sensing the field they can work out both their latitude and longitude and head in the right direction.
Perennial Saison de Lis
5% ABV, 20 IBU
Conceptualized by the creative team at the St. Louis brewery Perennial Artisan Ales, Saison de Lis combines the natural floral notes of a classic Belgian-style saison with the enticing aromas from chamomile flowers. Apples and yeast driven esters arise from the glass and bring focus while the faint tealeaf and pollen high notes lend interesting complexities. Saison de Lis’ fundamentals are crisp with baked apple and ripe pear comparisons that linger with a hint of citrus and grass. The lasting qualities are comforting as they hold a welcoming sensation similar to that of sunbeams catching the petals of wild flowers or the blades of hay among the countryside. Seriously.
Holy Mountain The Seer
5.1% ABV, 70 IBU
The sparse, highly stylized Holy Mountain has quickly established itself as the Washington brewery where one stands in a line for coveted beer releases. Though it dabbles in everything from cloudy IPAs to pilsners, Holy Mountain’s heart is its five foudres and innumerable barrels, which churn out beers that tend to have mild sourness and stunning depth thanks to complex malt bills, open fermentation and mixed cultures of yeasts. The Seer is a hoppy saision brewed with pilsner malt and wheat, and hopped aggressively with Galaxy and East Kent Golding, fermented with a house saison culture and aged in an oak foudre with Brett. After spending 4 months in oak, the seer was dry-hopped with Galaxy and EKG and conditioned in the bottle with Brett.
