Beer Style Fun Facts: Saisons

Saison, a French word meaning season. But for many beer lovers all across the globe, a saison is an earthy, fruity, rustic beer best enjoyed during the warmer months of the year. In that sense, the name matches the style quite nicely. Just like the flavors match the season.

But where did this not-so-well-known style of beer originate from? And why does it even matter? I mean, IPAs are all the rage, right?

What is a Farmhouse Ale?

To understand where saisons got their start, we must first understand what a farmhouse ale is because according to many a beer drinker, saisons are considered a farmhouse ale. And for simplicity’s sake, a farmhouse ale is exactly what it sounds like.

Rewind back to the 1700s when farm workers needed to hydrate and water wasn’t always the safest way to do so because the infrastructure we have today was yet to be built. Ale was the popular drink of choice because A) it was easy to brew, and B) it was often safer than water.

The problem, however, was the potency of many of the popular dark beers oftentimes clocking in at greater than 7% ABV. The farm workers needed to stay hydrated to complete their work, but the farm owners also needed them to remain coherent in order to do so.

Enter a low ABV, lighter beer that kept everyone happy and hydrated, the farmhouse ale. Traditionally brewed in the winter months in Belgium and France to be ready for the planting season, this style of beer was made with natural yeast and leftover crops, giving it a rustic, earthy, sometimes, tart fruity flavor.

Never the same, rarely high quality, and maybe not quite preferred, it was nonetheless, a quite popular style when that was all one had to be hydrated while toiling away in the fields during the heat of the summer months.

What is a Saison?

Today, many people refer to a saison and a farmhouse ale as one in the same. And while they can be, during the farming days of yesteryear, the renowned farmhouse ales of Belgium and France began to split ways resulting from various wars over land ownership.

Belgium continued brewing the farmhouse ales which transitioned more into the term saison, keeping the original hoppy and tart sessionable style it had become known for.

The French, on the other hand, started leaning more towards earthy and funky flavors, giving their style, now called bière de garde (meaning beer to keep), a hint of sweetness to the brew.

As farming shifted throughout the centuries, and our ways became more automated and machine-operated, the traditional saisons and bière de gardes could have easily been lost to history. But thanks to the constantly evolving craft beer industry, and the love of traditional styles, we have yet to lose these funky styles.

The Funkiness of Brewing a Saison

In the past, brewers used ingredients left over from previous crops, their own barley (malting it themselves), and traditional wild yeast. These ingredients gave saisons their unique, varying, and hard to define flavors.

Attempting to keep down bacteria levels, brewers at the time weren’t worried about preventing infections in the beer; they simply needed to keep it to an acceptable level. Using natural yeasts and increased amounts of hops performed this job nicely, but these also gave it a tart and wild taste.

And while many farmhouse breweries grew and malted their own barley, it was still cheaper to use other grains, such as oats, buckwheat, or spelt, along with wild yeast. It was this that gave saisons their lighter colors, rustic character traits of woodiness and wild flavors, smooth mouthfeel, and increased esters.

While brewers may not be looking to use lesser quality ingredients to keep the costs down today, they are still looking to create the true flavors of the traditional saisons and bière de gardes. Because of this, modern brewers are cultivating wild yeast, leaving brews open to wild fermentations, aging them in barrels of a myriad of origins further widening, and maybe confusing, the style definitions even more.

However, it is this creativity that may just keep saisons and other farmhouse ales around long past today. After all, what started ages ago, still has ages to go (pun intended).

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https://vinepair.com/wine-blog/what-is-a-farmhouse-ale/

https://www.porchdrinking.com/articles/2016/05/19/beerology-saison/

https://beerconnoisseur.com/articles/saison-vs-farmhouse-ale