E265: The Saison Show - Origins, Style Profile, and Homebrewing Tips

We want to Make Saisons Cool Again

It wasn't that long ago that saisons were one of the popular styles.  Several breweries offered up some variation or another and a lot of great collaborations came about.  The saisons are still there, they just don't have the hype they used to.  We'd love to see them come back around.

The saison style started in 1700s in Wallonia, the French-speaking part of Belgium.   Each farm brewed their own take on these Farmhouse Ales in the cold months for seasonal farm workers (Saisonnièrs) to drink during the warm months.  This gave farm workers something to do in the cold months, used up any excess grain, and provided a clean and safe source of hydration for farm workers.  Each worker may drink up to 5 Liters per day of these low ABV (3.0-3.5%) beers as they toiled away.  As each farm used the resources they had available it was difficult to nail down an exact saison style at the time.  Today, the style has some definition but still offers up a lot of variation.  The alcohol content has creeped up a bit and the ones that fall into the range of the originals are known as a Table Beer.

Saison lovers Britt Teusink of brewery in planning Frameshift Fermentation and Brandon King of Stout Brothers Beer Markets joined us on the show this week to dive into the style.  Teusink plans to brew a variety of saisons at Frameshift and has his own blended culture to provide a unique character to each of his brews.

Saison Lovers Unite!  (L-R) Brian Hewitt, Britt Teusink of Frameshift Fermentation, Brandon King of The Stout Bros., and Tim Dennis.

Saison is a great style for new homebrewers to try out as the yeast is very open to higher temperatures that don't require temperature control.  Pitch your yeast at room temperature and let it go and you should end up with a great saison.  For the malt bill you can use all Pilsner malt, or toss in some spelt or wheat to your liking.  Experienced homebrewers can expand on the style with the huge variety of yeasts available or culture their own.

Here's our recipe for Synesthesia Saison.  We've consumed gallons of this beer and it's won a handful of medals in homebrew competitions.  If you try it out let us know what you think.

Type: All-grain Batch size: 5.5 gallons OG: 1.053 FG: 1.00

Thanks for listening to Beer Guys Radio! Your hosts are Tim Dennis and Brian Hewitt with producer Nate "Mo' Mic Nate" Ellingson and occasional appearances from Becky Smalls.

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