We make a lot of saisons here at Orpheus Brewing. We call some of them saisons, and for some we leave that out of the description. Whether or not we put it on the label, these are saisons we’ve released:
Lyric Ale
Atalanta
Serpent Bite
Wandering Blues
Clio
Saison Calliope
Saison Erato
Even the Furies Wept
My God is the Sun
…and a few other small batches
So what ties these together? The short answer is that there are a handful of distinct fermentation characteristics in how they ferment, and in the character produced from the fermentation.
A Style or Something Bigger?
The saison character is wide ranging, but is always marked by a distinct yeast contribution of spicy, fruity, and/or funky esters with a relatively dry finish. Traditionally, some tartness and wild yeast presence was fairly common, along with an earthy or spicy hop character. They were fermented on farms in the Wallonia region along the French/Belgian border during the cold months to keep for the harvest. They were drunk by workers in the field, so they were refreshing and low alcohol. They were brewed with whatever grains and flavorings were available around the farm. As the beer moved away from the field, the beers got bigger, but kept the rustic fermentation and refreshing character. Modern American renditions like Lyric Ale sometimes highlight an American hop character, but still tucked behind the fermentation character, which always dominates, and actually alters the hop profile (the synthesis of hop compounds by yeast is a whole separate, fascinating topic).
Despite some similarities, we have a wide range of beer all classified as Saison, but without suitable individual style names. There are a number of Belgian yeasts with characteristics similar to saisons, but the beers made from those yeasts have been more codified into separate styles. If you took the unfermented wort for a dubbel, tripel, Belgian pale, or a quad, and fermented them with saison yeast, they would generally all just be called saisons.
The elephant in the room here is Brasserie Dupont’s Saison Dupont. This was many people’s first experience with a saison, and for a long time was one of the very few commercially available Belgian saisons in the US. Saison was an almost dead style when Michael Jackson convinced an American importer, Vanberg & DeWulf, to bring Saison Dupont into the US in the 80s. It became popular, leading to a renaissance for the old style, and establishing Saison Dupont as the benchmark that all saisons would be compared to. The majority of American saisons actually use one of the yeast strains isolated from the brewery*. In the process, the idea of what a saison has been established for many people as a beer like Saison Dupont, sometimes missing out on the wide variety that’s historically been brewed.
Though Saison is talked about as a style, it’s probably more accurate to think about it as a subset of Ales, in that Ale and Lager don’t refer to an actual style, but to different fermentation characteristics from different species of yeast, with ale yeast classified as Saccharomyces cerevisiae and lager yeast as Saccharomyces pastorionus**, with practical brewing differences largely being due to fermentation temperature***. Lager yeast ferments with the best flavor around 45-55°, and most ale is fermented from 62-72°. Though saison yeast is ale yeast, its behavior in relationship to other ale yeast is similar to the relationship between ale yeast and lager yeast, with saisons generally fermenting best at 80-95°. So, we’ll keep calling beers saisons for lack of a better descriptor, but don’t really think that it’s narrow enough to be very useful.
Brewing
I think about brewing saisons in 2 ways. The first is how our bigger production beers are made – a more simple fermentation as a basis for other flavoring. I much prefer the character from saison yeast after souring wort than the more standard German yeast used in Berliner Weise. Whether soured or not, the fermentation character is great for taking on fruit or hops, so that’s what we do for Lyric Ale, Atalanta, Wandering Blues, and Serpent Bite.
The other way gets closer to the fermentation profile you would have found with older saisons. The saison yeast(s) are still there, but also augmented by brettanomyces and lactic acid producing bacteria. This is a saison of complexity, with musty funk and refreshing acid to go along with the spiciness of the saison yeast. There’s often some open fermentation, both to collect some amount of wild yeast and bacteria from the environment and to prevent the pressure from the fermentation that comes from using a blowoff. You haven’t had much from us like this because it’s all barrel-aged and we’ve barely started pulling beer out of barrels yet, but they all started in our open fermenters, and have a wide variety of yeasts and bacteria. Though not quite like a Lambic, these fermentations take time to develop. We’ll be doing our first bottled barrel blend soon though (Even the Furies Wept), so it should be available around the new year.
As I said above, the big practical difference in brewing is with fermentation temperature. We ferment our saisons over 20° warmer than our IPAs (generally in the mid-80s, but as high as 100). If we fermented Transmigration of Souls at 85°, you wouldn’t drink it. The IPA yeast would produce an enormous number of unpleasant esters and hot, fusel alcohols. Fermenting saison yeast at that temperature produces wonderfully spicy, fruity esters with none of the fusel alcohol production though.
Besides those flavors, a saison fermentation (especially with our French saison yeast) is marked by high glycerol production. After CO2 and ethanol, glycerol is actually the most abundant byproduct of Saccharomyces yeast activity, and it’s much higher in saison yeast than other beer yeast. The yeast produces glycerol to deal with osmotic stress and as a way to maintain a redox balance of NADH and NAD+ (redox balance is actually the main reason for the yeast to produce ethanol****). Glycerol is a viscous, sweet sugar alcohol with a large influence on the mouthfeel and perceived sweetness of dry saisons. This is what gives Lyric Ale its touch of sweetness and richness, despite its relative dryness. Production is inhibited somewhat in lower pH beers like Atalanta.
Drinking
Saisons are great food beers. Their dryness, acidity, and slight bitterness all make for great pairings. They’re also great how they were originally intended, as the original thirst quenching lawnmower beers, and have evolved to be complex beers that are worthy of contemplating. Of course I want you to drink our saisons, but I’m throwing in some others to try as well:
Orpheus Brewing Lyric Ale – This is our saison that tastes most similar to most people’s idea of a saison. Light and dry, with a touch of sweetness, spiciness from the yeast, and a blend of tropical and citrusy fruitiness from the yeast and hops. This drinks in many ways like a lighter tripel.
Orpheus Brewing Atalanta – The fermentation character here actually comes more from the ester production in our souring process, but the saison yeast adds another dimension to it. Even though the souring process in a Berliner weisse is similar to what we do, I’ve generally found them to be somewhat lacking and that the saison yeast makes for a more satisfying beer. And then we add a bunch of plum juice.
Brasserie Dupont Saison Dupont – As I mentioned earlier, this is the benchmark. Most of the copies are mere one-dimensional shadows that use just one of the several yeasts in this beer. Dry, lively, fruity, and musty, this really does deserve its reputation.
Jolly Pumpkin Bam Bier – This is a great example of an acidic, bretty saison. Sometimes bordering on gueuze-like characteristics, this is light, refreshing, bright, and infinitely complex. Not currently distributed in GA, but should be available in better beer bar cellars and easily available in surrounding states.
Fantome Saison – This (and all the beer from Fantome) is a saison that reminds you that saison means more than just Saison Dupont. Fantome Saison has a bigger body than many other saisons, but manages to avoid being heavy. A unique house brett strain and secret spicing set it apart. Not currently distributed in GA, but should be available in better beer bar cellars and easily available in surrounding states.
Ommegang Hennepin – An early American rendition of a saison, this has held up well. An earthy and spicy fermentation is brightened with a subtle touch of ginger and coriander.
Boulevard Saison Brett – A very nice brettanomyces character mingles with Boulevard’s saison yeast, which is also well represented in their Tank 7. This is the easiest to find saison with strong brett character in GA (Saison Dupont also probably has brett, but it’s more restrained). This is especially good from the bottle, both because of higher carbonation and the increased brett character that can come from a secondary fermentation.
Others worth seeking out: Jolly Pumpkin/Anchorage Calabaza Boreal, Sante Adairius Rustic Ales Saison Bernice, Prairie Ale, KleinBrouwerij De Glazen Toren Saison D’Erpe-Mere, Lost Abbey Red Barn, The Bruery Saison Lente, Logsdon Farmhouse Ales Seizoen Bretta, Hill Farmstead (Grassroots Brewing) Brother Soigné, Brasserie Dupont Avec Les Bons Voeux, Stillwater Existent, and many more
There’s a wide world of saisons out there, so explore and enjoy.………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………..
* It’s generally accepted that there are at least 4 distinct strains of yeast in Saison Dupont. The famous single Dupont strain is sold commercially as Wyeast 3724 Belgian Saison and White Labs WLP565. We use Wyeast 3724 as part of a large assortment of yeasts in our barrel-aged saisons, but Wyeast 3711 for our main beers like Lyric Ale and Atalanta.
** Ale yeast is Saccharomyces cerevisiae and lager yeast is usually classified as Saccharomyces pastorionus, but the story is actually much more interesting than that. It’s not actually clear now whether lager yeast should be considered a separate species.
*** Fermentation temperature and its effect on the fermentation is the biggest concern to the brewer about the difference between ale and lager yeast, but another critical brewing difference is that lager yeast has an enzyme that allows it to ferment the long starch chain melibiose, which ale yeast can’t do.
**** Yeast metabolism of glucose has 2 main pathways, both starting with glycolysis. Glycolysis uses NAD+ to oxidize glucose into pyruvate, netting 2 ATP (molecular energy carrier) and 2 NADH in the process (NAD is a cofactor, which helps enzyme activity – in its NAD+ form, it’s an oxidizer which can easily take an electron from another chemical, and in its NADH form it’s a reducer which can easily give an electron).
At this point, the yeast would like to use the pyruvate to begin the Krebs cycle, which reduces lots of NAD+ to high energy potential NADH. The NADH is used in the Electron Transport Chain (ETC), with the energy released from the oxidizing of the NADH used to set up a hydrogen ion concentration gradient in mitochondria that drives the production of ATP, netting significantly more ATP from a single glucose molecule than was made in glycolysis (around 30 ATP molecules). At the end of the chain, there are all the electrons that were pulled from the NADH, and their final reaction is with oxygen, which is reduced to water after gaining the electrons. The NADH, now being oxidized back into NAD+, can be used again in glycolysis. This process stops when there’s no more oxygen in the system.
With no oxygen available for the Krebs cycle and ETC, the yeast has to just accept that it will only get the 2 ATP from glycolysis, but then it’s stuck with the resultant NADH that needs to be oxidized back into NAD+. This is finally where alcohol production begins (though yeast will sometimes make this transition when there’s still available oxygen just because it’s lazy). Pyruvate is broken down into acetaldehyde and CO2. Acetaldehyde is then reduced by NADH, turning the NADH into NAD+ and the acetaldehyde into ethanol. Finally beer!
If yeast doesn’t want to go all the way through glycolysis and then fermentation before restoring the necessary redox balance, there’s a point in glycolysis (which is a chain of 10 reactions) that can branch off to produce glycerol, and convert NADH to NAD+ in the process.
-Jason Pellett
Brewmaster/President