Flavor Fever: Farmhouse Ales

It’s clear that much about the origins of saison is confusing. That doesn’t mean there aren’t style marks to strive for. Randy Mosher breaks down this beer (often called farmhouse) point by point to give us a better understanding.

THE STORY OF BELGIAN farmhouse ales could fill a book—that is, if there were any real historical information available to fill the pages. Nevertheless, tales of ghostly rustic “saisons” fill our imagination, burnished in the fading golden light of an early harvest, dripping with romance of a connection to the land. The beer itself often has to work very hard to maintain the image. It’s an illusion, but boy, what a pleasant one.

Because the history is so sketchy and contradictory, I’m just going to bulletpoint it. You can connect the dots as best you can while we’re waiting for someone to figure this out.

▪ The late, great Michael Jackson wrote in his World Guide to Beer in 1977, “In the south of the country, top-fermented beers are sometimes called saisons.” He was pretty capable of ferreting out obscure styles, so he either missed it, or saison just wasn’t much of a thing then.

▪ The Belgian Brewmaster G. Lacambre wrote in his Traité Complet de la Fabrication des Bières in 1851 that “saison” indicated a beer brewed “en saison,” indicating a winter-brewed stronger beer: between 4.5 percent and 6.5 percent ABV at the time.

▪ Lacambre also details a couple of dozen regional styles in Belgium. None of them resemble modern saison.

▪ The beers in the current saisonproducing region of southern/southwestern Belgium were amber-to-brown in Lacambre’s day. There’s no mention in Lacambre’s book about farmhouse anything. There were rural breweries, but from photographic evidence, these were multistory brick buildings in large compounds employing twenty or more people. This makes sense when you consider the variety of tasks—barrels, brewing, delivery, horses, cleaning, coal furnaces—and the considerable amount of manual labor required.

▪ The only historic beer with the word saison in its name was Liège saison, a poorly attenuated 2.5 percent ABV brown ale brewed from malted spelt, oats, and/ or buckwheat, or sometimes broad beans. It’s utterly unlike today’s saisons.

It’s clear that much about the origins of saison/farmhouse ale is confusing. The fact that we use these two words pretty interchangeably just makes my point. I’m going to call them saison since I’d rather appear sophisticated and use French, but you can plug in “farmhouse” if you’re that crunchy kind of person. So let’s suspend disbelief on the history until something comes along and bursts our fantasy. Let’s move on to what we can be sure of about this sprite of a style—today.

Modern Saison

First, saison is quite pale, and a light haze is typical. From a flavor standpoint, the malt character is limited to a very narrow range: grassy, bready, crackery, possibly with delicate accents of light kettlecorn caramel or malt ball. Period. No raisin, no toast, not even that little biscuity edge pale-ale malt sometimes brings. Of course, there are many delightful variations that shoot off in just about every direction, but we’re going to limit ourselves to the historical-ish center.

We’ll talk about the yeast character later, but it is my personal opinion that this should be the absolute star of the show. Saison’s unique fermentation character largely defines the style. While it’s assertive, it is also subject to distortion and dilution. As malts get darker, flavor chemicals with sharper edges are created, and while these are delicious in the right context, it’s been my experience that they also detract in lighter styles and compete with the peppery yeast nose.

ABV

The Belgian classics such as Saison Dupont are in the 6.5 percent ABV range, and some Wallonian producers have stronger versions close to 10 percent. Back in the nineteenth century, every beer style in Belgium was brewed in both strong and weak versions; the bigger ones were likely more in alignment with present-day reality. But history does give us permission to make legitimate saisons in the lower-alcohol realm.

Grain Bill

Saison is a dry-tasting beer, but that does not mean it should be thin. The grain bill can add a lot to the texture, adding a creamy viscosity with the right ingredients. The general opinion is that saisons “frequently contain wheat, oats, rye, or spelt” as the BJCP guidelines

Saison’s unique fermentation character largely defines the style. While it’s assertive, it is also subject to distortion and dilution. As malts get darker, flavor chemicals with sharper edges are created, and while these are delicious in the right context, it’s been my experience that they also detract in lighter styles and compete with the peppery yeast nose.