Fancy Pants Sunday: Matchless Pome Moon Saison Ale

Back in the 1700s, if you asked a Belgian farmhand is his saison was aged you’d probably meet your fate at the end of pitchfork. Saisons were never meant to be aged. The word “saison” means season in French and speaks to its intimate connection to the seasons. The zippy Belgian ale originated in Wallonian farmhouses, intended as farmhand refreshments. Cellar a saison, and most likely those beautiful fruity esters, light earthy hops, and refreshing afternoon sipper would be tossed against the side of the barn.

When American grabbed hold of the beer style, the overalls came off. Many American brewers’ saisons became mega-hopped, funked-up and fruited, as well as stronger, sometimes due to barrel aging.

Thanks all fine and dandy, but this isn’t the O.G. session beer column, it’s Fancy Pants Sunday, a weekly column championing complex, pricey craft beer, and Matchless Brewing’s foudre-aged cider saison, Pome Moon Saison Ale, fits the bill. Matchless Brewing BFF Whitewood Cider collaborated on the beer/cider project. Matchless head brewer Pat Jansen and Whitewood head cidermaker Dave White (a.k.a. Oldtimeydave) made a special clean saison and spontaneously re-fermented it for more than a year with three select apple varieties in Matchless’ Moon Foudre. The result is softly carbonated like a cider but with a light touch of funk and acid, white peach pit, bright apple bite, and a fruity saison finish. “True to our intent, it’s hard to discern where the beer starts and the cider ends,” states Pome Moon hype.

Matchless Pome Moon Saison Ale (6.8%) has a bright Spitzenburg apple bite with a fruity saison finish.

You fancy Matchless Pome Moon Saison Ale.