saison taste vs. belgian taste

[brokebucket]

Hey all,

I have a picky pallette...some beers I LOVE, but others, I cant stomach. The reason i say this is that I dont like ANY Belgian beers that I have had. The yeast profile just tastes nasty to me. Friends will say, "oh, but you have to try this one"...nope, dont like it!

Normally, I just wont drink them if I dont like them and drink something different, but funny thing, I bought a Boulevard Tank 7 and absolutely loved it! Nice and fruity with none of that nasty "Belgian" aftertaste. So, I also bought a local farmhouse ale by a small brewery called Lickinghole Creek...hated it. These are the only two that I have had.

I would love to brew something similar to Boulevard, but I am nervous about having 5 gallons of after taste beer.

So, My question is this: Do Saisons normally have a belgian yeast flavor profile, or are they more citrusy....like Tank 7?

sorry to be long winded, but I wanted to explain where I am coming from

Thanks for your input,

Chris

 

[Xpertskir]

I have not had tank number 7 so I cannot speak to that. This is a complex subject but here are some thoughts.

1st Farmhouse typically means that brett is also present whether from the onset or at bottling, but some brewers are pretty loose with the term.

Saisons are typically not citrusy unless american hops and/or brett are involved.

There is a lot of range in saison yeast strains which is compounded by how those flavors are coaxed out the yeast by the brewer.


I personally am not a fan of the typical belgian yeast esters but cannot get enough of the saison esters. I'd say if you want to see if you like saison yeast, pick up a bottle of saison dupont, it's readily available, highly respected, and IMO delicious. If you like that beer then you should explore the style more.

 

[ChuckD123]

The honest answer in my opinion is that it depends on the saison. Saison has a very broad range of flavors. Not many limitations for the style. Tank 7 is a pretty good saison. From what I remember its similar to Dupont Saison, which is the generally accepted benchmark for saison. So much of saison flavor.is derived from the yeast and traditional saison yeast is from Belgium so you may not like the style.

Here's some unsolicited advice, just keep trying saison and see how it plays out. Some are super clean, some are verf funky, just depends.

 

[eastoak]

i was not a fan of the belgian taste until i had pranqster. turns out pranqster bottle dregs have the same yeast they used to ferment the beer so i built up the dregs into a 2 liter starter. i generally don't brew clones of beer but with this yeast driven beer i knew whatever the grain bill the beer would taste similar to pranqster and i was right. the flavor is still belgian but toned down to a level that i do enjoy. my favorite saison is from dupont but not the one most people site, my favorite is avril which clocks in at around 3.5%.

 

[GuldTuborg]

At risk of getting too nit-picky, as saison is a Belgian style, anything that has a saison taste has a Belgian taste, by definition. I think the point is, that "Belgian" tastes are actually quite varied. If someone hands you a bunch of Trappist beers, and you don't like them, that's not surprising - they're all in a family anyway. But there's lots more to Belgium than those, and just because you don't like them doesn't mean you won't like anything Belgian. You just need to find the right examples. Talking about a "Belgian taste" is much akin to talking about an "American taste." You mean like Sierra Nevada, or Shipyard, or Stone, or...you see? All very different.

I think the thing to do is try a lot more saisons. As a style, they're all fairly different anyway, as you've seen - some you like, some you don't. Find the ones you like, see what kind of yeast they're using, then brew your own to be along those lines.

 

[40watt]

The really ironic thing about that is that Boulevard uses a Trappist yeast for Tank 7.
Or at least that is what they recommend if you were to try to recreate it.

 

[40watt]

Also I use my "house" yeast for most of my Saisons. That being Westmalle. WY3787.

 

[testingapril]

The really ironic thing about that is that Boulevard uses a Trappist yeast for Tank 7.
Or at least that is what they recommend if you were to try to recreate it.

I can't see that being the case. Doesn't taste like that at all from what I remember.

Maybe I need to try another one, but I am like OP, I've had amazing saisons, and I've had some really lousy ones. Tank 7 is one of the best. Saison Dupont is also fantastic.

 

[moti_mo]

Also, Tank 7 is dry-hopped and late-hopped with Amarillo, so its not necessarily a completely true-to-style representation of a saison. Its a truly delicious representation, but maybe not completely true to style. Maybe the big citrusy Amarillo character is what you like.

Saisons vary a lot, so there may be some other ones that you like. For that matter, most other Belgian styles vary a lot, so there may be plenty you haven't had that you might like if you tried.

I edited this post b/c of an original incorrect statement.

 

[HolyKrausenBatman]

I love Tank 7. Such an easy drinking beer. I think in this case, it's the hops that are really flavoring the beer. They list it at 37 IBU's, which is on the high side for a saison, and note that Amarillo, in addition to Bravo and Magnum are used. A trappist yeast fermented on the low side would suppress the esters so prominent in the Belgians you may be speaking of, and bring out more of a spice character. That being said, if you really like citrusy, I just brewed a saison with WY3711 for the first time and citrusy is the word that comes to mind from all the preliminary tastings.

 

[andhou27]

I love all types of Belgian beers but I really despise Brettanomyces. I recently had Helios Farmhouse Ale from Victory Brewing Company and was very disappointed. However, it's found in many Belgian ales. Like everyone else has said, Belgians are a wide variety and can taste completely different (see Dubbels and Tripels). Anyway, to be even more nit-picky, saisons were brewed in a specific area of Belgium, typically by the French-Belgians at the border with France.

 

[mb82]

Saison to me tastes more like white wine then say Hardywood single. Fruity a little aftertaste.

Anyway if you brew a Saison and don't like it I know a guy who will gladly take it off your hands for you

 

[40watt]

My favorite thing about Saison is that it is a style that defies style. There is more of a "spirit" of Saison than anything you can shoehorn into a style guideline. The BJCP did about as good a job with that as anyone could. Still, a Saison could be nearly anything with that wild rustic spirit. As has been proven by some very talented brewers.

Belgians in general are just a great opportunity to meld ones brewing knowledge with a healthy dose of black magic, Straight up voodoo. Delicious voodoo.

 

[brokebucket]

Saison to me tastes more like white wine then say Hardywood single. Fruity a little aftertaste.

Anyway if you brew a Saison and don't like it I know a guy who will gladly take it off your hands for you

I am actually running out of room, so come on down this way and bring a couple growlers! I like to brew, but I only drink maybe 10 glasses a week.

 

[brokebucket]

Also,

Thanks all for your input. I will definitely be looking at getting a couple different ones of this style to try before brewing any...starting with Saison Dupont.