Saisons have reached their saturation point. Quite frankly, there are too many saisons with far too much discrepancy between them. Rather than add breadth and depth to the style, the sea of options has watered down the category. At the 2004 Great American Beer Festival competition, there were 21 submissions in the French and Belgian-style Saison category. In 2014, there were more than five times as many (115).
What used to be a niche style filled with seasonal, rustic and artisanal interpretations is now overrun with sweet, spiced barleypops. It breeds mistrust and sweeping generalizations. So why stop with the generalizations there? Here we go.
You can divide saisons into two camps—the artisanal interpretations in one corner and sweet, Belgiany treats with a standard issue artillery of spices in the other. Distinguishing which camp a saison hails from is difficult, especially when it's produced by an American craft brewer and labeled simply as a "saison." It begs the question, "Is a saison a saison because its brewer says it is?" Probably, though, arguably, it should at a minimum use a saison yeast strain.
Regardless of their camps, saisons often masquerade with similar colors in the glass—ranging from golden and pale orange to amber—with booming, frothy heads if they know what's good for them. It's not until the first sniff and sip that a saison reveals its true colors. But what if it could reveal itself before then?
Enter Milwaukee Brewing Co. For years, its Booyah farmhouse ale has been a mainstay in its portfolio. Now the brewery has done something different. At a tap takeover at Ray's Growler Gallery in early March, Milwaukee Brewing Co. introduced its Dark Saison. (Talk about calling a spade a spade, right?) This 10% ABV beer's name and appearance let you know that it's not going to further water down the category. If anything, it's spicing it up (and not by utilizing the playbook from that one camp of saisons). Here's what you can expect when this beer rolls out more broadly.
Tasting Notes
Cloves, black pepper and white chocolate cocoa powder are cast over lemon-peach yogurt, carrying wafts of herbal variety, cafe quality and rustic earthy compliments. A touch of leather and maduro cigar wrappers alternate aromatic whispers with burnt nutmeg, brighter ginger and allspice. The flavor capitalizes on the olfactory’s assumptions, imperializing it from all corners. Black leather strips are dipped in a lemon-cardamom-cocoa-chai concoction, catching airborne herbs—primarily nutmeg, cinnamon and cloves—as it’s extracted. A touch of pollen latches on as well to cling loosely to the massive farmhouse motif. The peaches return, resting on toasted pumpernickel party loaf bread. Slightly singed oats get their toasted edges covered in cocoa powder, smoothing it out while adding an underlying natural chocolate flavor. Prunes roll with cacao nibs. Hazelnut sheafs are shed between sips. Lemon and pepper team together to keep a bright, energetic acidic-spice combo throughout, tingling the tip of the tongue and leaving a touch of heat as the liquid recesses, also indicative of the 10% ABV, but with remarkable drinkability. Scorched cardamom pods give a concentrated cola flavor in the finish with a tiny peak at lemony bananas.
Want more?
Check out the Craft Beer Compass Tasting Notes Directory plus stay in sync with Craft Beer Compass on Twitter, Facebook and Instagram. Subscribe to the podcast in iTunes.
