Saison

Tasting Notes

Saisons are the summer and harvest specialties for French-speaking Belgium. The characteristics of the style are a powerful effervescence and a unique fruitiness, often with citric notes and a pungent sourness accented with aroma hops. This ale is distinctively bitter but not assertive. The style is crisp, tart, and refreshing. Most of these beers have a distinctive orange color, though they can range in color from light to amber. A crystal maltiness is sometimes evident.

Ingredients

Saison is brewed predominantly with pale ale malts, though sometimes with Munich or crystal malts. Brewers have also been known to use a small portion of spelt (a variety of wheat), raw oats, or raw rice in brewing Saisons. Some versions are spiced with orange, coriander, and licorice root. Saisons are often heavily hopped, usually with Belgian or British varieties, and notably with East Kent Goldings.

Brewing Techniques

In the brewing of Saisons, high mashing temperatures are often employed to produce unfermentable wort, and in some cases the wort is allowed to develop a degree of natural lactic acid before the boil. The beers are often warm-conditioned in metal tanks for a couple of weeks, or even for several months. Traditionally, they are often dry-hopped. The beer is then primed and re-yeasted in the bottle for conditioning. Today's Saisons are often presented in corked champagne bottles.

The information on this page was provided by beer-brewing.com (http://www.beer-brewing.com).