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Glass of beer with field, hops and grain
The sun arcs over you. The ochre wheat stalks sway in its light. The brim of your straw hat shades you from its rays. But you’re hot. And you’re thirsty. You were up in these fields with first light. You’ll be out in them until the sun sets. You scythe the wheat stalks. You thresh their heads for berries. You winnow the berries to separate out the chaff. And then, after you harvest the wheat, you harvest the barley. And you’re very hot. You’re very thirsty.
You’re a saisonnier in the north of Europe in the 18th century. You’ve got a job for the spring and summer months at a farm in the south of Belgium, in the fertile plateau of the Hainaut Province in the region of Wallonia. There are jobs like yours west across the border, at farms in the Nord-Pas-de-Calais region of the north of France. Your farm asks you to plant and harvest its wheat and barley fields. Which isn’t easy.
Especially in the summer. Did I say how hot and thirsty you are? You crave an elixir to sustain you. You want it to be refreshing. You want it to be fortifying. You want its alcohol to be low. You have to harvest more wheat and barley fields before the end of the day.
Slake Your Summer Thirst
The Belgian farm where you have your job makes beer exactly like that. We call the style Bière de Saison (seasonal beer). Or simply, Saison. But a Saison is less of a style and more of a story. Its story is made for you to slake your summer thirst.
Many farms in the south of Belgium in the 18th and 19th centuries made beer for themselves and their Saisonniers. These farms made their Saisons by the cycles of their two, yearly harvests. They made them with the grains they had a surplus of or those they could easily trade for. Barley, yes, but also wheat, oat, buckwheat, and spelt.
A brewer making beer for the demands of a market would carefully germinate, kiln, and mash their grains. A farmer making beer as a useful provision for themselves and their Saisonniers may do so less carefully. Or maybe not at all. They would ferment their ale spontaneously—with the yeast and bacteria in the air—or with yeast they cultivated season after season. They would add hops to bitter their ale, as well as regulate it against harmful bacteria. They would ferment, re-ferment, and age their ale in wood casks, which would promote the tart, complex, and vinous qualities of their elixir.
Saisons are part of a category called Farmhouse ales, which includes Bière de Garde from the Nord-Pas-de-Calais region of France, Gueuze from the Senne Valley of Belgium, and Sahti from the Häme region of Finland. Each of these Farmhouse ale styles tells its own story.
The story of Saison is of a rustic style of ale made by home brewers on farms in Wallonia. The story has evolved to the Saison style of ale made by commercial brewers today. A style of ale still made for you to slake your thirst in the heat of the summer. Whether you’ve been out in a field, a garden, or a garage, or up in an office, a kitchen, or a shop, Saisons are as refreshing and complex as they were 400 years ago.
There are many Saison style ales, and many of them are made in the United States. But the best way to explore a beer which is a story as much as a style is to depart from where the story began. With Saisons from Belgium. These three Saisons are classics of the style.
Brasserie Dupont, Saison Dupont
Brasserie St. Feuillien, St Feuillien Saison
Brasserie Blaugies, Saison D’Epeautre
