You’ve heard the joke about Champagne about sparkling water. It may be factual, but meme lords have turned it into a farce. And did you know there’s one about beer too? Saison Ale can only come for the francophone residents of Wallonia, Belgium.
Luckily, Belgians aren’t as uptight about their nomenclature. They gave us Witbier, chocolate, and now they bring the gift of farmhouse ale. A Saison beer is defined by its high fizz, its bottle conditioning, and its flavors of fruit and spice. Let’s look at some top ones.
The Best Saison Beer List
1. Brasserie Saison Dupont
Saison beers are typically blonde (sometimes described as pale, yellow, or golden). And Saison Dupont is no different. It has an ABV of 6.5% and many people consider it the world’s best Saison beer. It’s why so many sales gimmicks involve blind tasting against Saison Dupont. Saisons are farmhouse brews, so it makes sense this brewery used to be a farm.
The crew specializes in Saison – which is probably why theirs is seen as the industry’s SI unit. Everything else is judged off this standard. The beer is top-fermented that’s further conditioned in the bottle. This copper-colored beer is best served straight from the beer rack at ‘cellar temperature’ (about 53°F) or after less than an hour in the fridge.
2. Holy Mountain Witch Finder
This sounds like something Robin would say. It’s also a great name for a beer. This Seattle bottle has an ABV of 6.1%. And you just might need supernatural assistance to find it since it’s no longer on the brewery’s main site. It’s possible though – some Saison super-fans tried some as recently as 2019. The beer has a soft mineral flavor and a powerful aroma.
This drink has a ‘pleasantly funky’ scent and lots of head. It’s brewed malted wheat and pilsner, then hopped with Amarillo and Saaz. They make the beer simultaneously fruity, floral, and herbal. It’s high in citrus esters and a true treat. But if you don’t want to scour backroom brewers, try their current Saison, The Goat. Its ABV is lower though – just 4.9%.
3. Birds Fly South Rustic Sunday
For lots of people, the perfect Sunday involves sunshine, green grass, good weather, fried food, and a well-chilled beer. And when this ‘old school urban’ brewery named their Saison, they made sure they could live up to their promise. Like artisanal beer crafters, this brewery started as a 2016 passion project. Lindsay and Shawn Johnson are now pros in this industry.
Their Saison is brewed using their in-house yeast-mix. It’s modeled off white wine and aged 500-liter oak barrels called puncheons. These are loaded with sauvignon blanc grapes and a yeast blend they call ‘bird’. The beer has Hallertau Blanc hops and malts that include wheat, rye, and pils. It’s a 7% farmhouse ale with an IBU of 32 but gets increasingly tart as it ages.
4. Boulevard Brewing Tank 7
Boulevard Brewing considers itself the biggest brewery in the Midwest. And many of its fans agree. Like many craft brewers, John McDonald started by tinkering on beer and doing carpentry gigs. And his day-job helped because he ended up building the brewery himself. His tools, props, and vices moved to the corner to make room for 35 brewing barrels.
Boulevard took the same approach to its Saison, brewing multiple batches in several tanks. The tipple in Tank 7 won the test and is now their top seller. This pale, ‘straw-colored’ ale has a dry peppery finish. And they have a special tulip glass for it. The beer has an ABV of 8.5%, an IBU of 35, and an EBC of 12. It’s a soft, light beer with citrusy grapefruit hops.
5. BlackBerry Brewery Fenceline
Blackberries are no longer just fruits (or smartphones). Now you can get the best Saison beer from a blackberry near you! The brewery began in 2011, selling small-batch beers to visitors at the farm. They scaled up in 2015 with a separate facility to keep up with demand. All their beers are bottle-conditioned so yes, you can drink them immediately, but later is better.
Fenceline is brewed in the Belgian style. It’s a hazy, straw-colored beer with an ABV of 5.9% and an IBU of 27. Every sip feels smooth, creamy, and fruity. It’s hopped with Huell Melon and has a strawberry echo. It’s full of floor-malted wheat so it’s a beer with girth and gumption. It’s a fizzy, foamy beer though. Lots of head and lace in addition to the haze.
6. Oxbow Farmhouse Pale Ale
Oxbow takes its names from the meandering rivers that surround it. And they apply the same principle to their brewing – twisting, turning, and tweaking for months until they achieve the perfect recipe. Some of their brews take years to develop. Their farmhouse ale boasts All-American hops making this a truly local beer. Its ABV is 6% and is a dry ale.
It comes in two forms. The barrel-aged version has a slightly higher alcohol level (6.5%) due to the additional fermentation. Both are blonde beers, but the barrel-version is a mix of aged brew from various vats. The barrels are either French Oak or American Oak. The brew in a farmhouse, so yes, the beer has notes of pine, pear, lemon rind … and horse blanket.
7. Brewery Ommegang Hennepin
The name sounds strange to the American tongue, but you’ll love it once you find out more. Ommegang is a tame, European version of Carnival. It started as a 1549 parade to welcome King Charles V and became an annual tradition. So when two Belgian brewers linked up two American entrepreneurs to build a Belgian Brewery in New York, the name was perfect.
The brewery opened in 1996 in Cooperstown aka Nova Belgium. Hennepin was their second beer, introduced to the public in 1997. It has an ABV of 7.7% and an IBU of 24. The beer has won two silvers and a bronze between 2006 and 2007. The beer is hopped malted with pilsner and flakes of corn. Ginger, orange rind, and coriander give the beer a nice spicy kick.
8. Yazoo Brew Saison de Bois
Brandon Jones and Linus Hall want you to ‘Embrace the Funk’. It’s their series of wild and sour beers. They launches these tipsy treasures in December 2012 and they often sell out in hours. But if you prefer something more conventional, check out their Saison de Bois. The brew sits in 20-year old puncheons for 6 months before sale. The barrels are French Oak.
And they were previously used as red wine casks so your beer will have that sophisticated flavor. Saison de Bois is fermented using original yeast from Wallonia. Other ingredients include pilsner, wheat, oats, and rye. It’s a dry drink with an ABV of 5.8% and an IBU of 22. The spicy mixed culture includes notes of … red fruit, gasoline, and overripe mangoes. Yum?
9. Allagash Brewing Shiro’s Delight
Depending on where you live, Shiro could be a Japanese boy who dreams of being a samurai, a Kenyan nickname for girls named Wanjiru, or American farmhouse ale. For now, let’s talk about the latter. It’s spiced with a selection of pluerries (cherry plums), regular plums, sugar, and peppercorns. For yeast, they use a standard Saison yeast plus their house yeast.
The brewing process involves double aging – eight months of yeast and malt then another four months after the fruit is added. This results in a ruby-red beer that’s tart and tropical. You can age it further if you like – Allagash recommends three years. And all that ‘cooking’ gives it an impressive ABV of 9.9% with minimal pinkish head and lace. The aroma is rich in oak.
10. Wiley Roots Funck Yo Couch
This brewery was started by Miranda and Kyle Carbaugh in 2013. And despite the brewery’s young age, the founders’ wiley ways have earned their beers multiple awards. These include two silvers, two golds, and a bronze. Their Saison in particular is a Brett, meaning it’s made with Brettanomyces aka British fungus. This beer has ‘mixed Bretts’ for enhanced flavor.
These cultures are mixed in a solera. And each time Wiley Roots releases a new Saison recipe, they dip into the solera then refill the harvested wort. The beer also has Nelson Sauvin hops (that’s why the name is on the can). It has an ABV of 5.6% and an IBU of 20. Funk Yo Couch has the same trademark taste in every new batch – peach, mango, and pineapple.
11. Creature Comforts Eukaryote
Is beer part of your self-care routine? Do you take the time to savor each sip or are you more of the chug-chug-chug mentality? Well, if you’re looking for this brand of Creature Comforts, you’ll have to take it slow. This is because it has the lowest alcohol volume we’ve seen so far – just 4%. It’s brewed using a mixed Saison culture and has a pale ‘glowing’ tone.
The yeasty mix includes DaySpring wheat malt, Hallertau Mittelfrüh, and Saaz hops. The dry-hopping stage utilizes New Zealand Rakau. This minglement creates aromas that are floral and fruity with a strong echo of wet, freshly cut grass and lemons. It’s a light, dry Saison that reminisces the taste of candied lemon. It’s best enjoyed in tulip bomber glass to retain esters.
12. Funky Buddha Undefeated
Monks make the best Saison beer. And all other types of tipple as well. So it makes sense one of the top brands would be named Funky Buddha. And while the brewery has released lots of Saisons, their current batch is Undefeated. Farmhouse ales are generally pale. Some of the previous Saisons have been dark. This one is 11.8% of pure boozy blonde with an IBU of 20.
The beer is modeled on chardonnay. The beer is aged in a wine barrel and infused with champagne yeast and grape must. The Pinot grapes enrich the flavor and the yeast is added later for bottle conditioning. So it’s kind of a ‘sparkling beer’. Its aromatics are floral and peppery. The chardonnay barrel adds notes of vanilla, lemon peel, and oak to your drink.
13. Perennial Saison de Lis
Perennial Artisan Ales began in 2011 with a vision ‘to brew adventurous beers by hand and in small batches.’ They aim to maximize seasonal local ingredients so their roster changes with the weather, providing more variety for its fans. The company prefers organic products. They brew using Belgian and American styles that are spiced up with unexpected elements.
In this case, their Saison de Lis already betrays its components. It’s a flowery beer built off chamomile and you can buy it all year round. This Saison has an ABV of 5% and an IBU of 20. So if you’re in the mood for a beer that tastes like tea … this is a good bet. It’s dry with a tart finish and lots of lacy head. It has a ‘soft fizz’ so it’s best served in a tulip tumbler.
14. Three Brewing Thought Experiment
This Brooklyn brewery is driven by conservation and sustainability. So they brew multiple fruit beers but they stick to second-use solutions. Their main areas of concentration are lagers, mixed cultures, and hop-forward drinks. Though Experiment falls neatly into the mixed culture category. They brew it in two flavors – peach (4.8%) and apricot (4.7% ABV).
Second-use means they re-use fermented fruit from previous beer batches. These are mixed into every new brew to add a vintage quality to the bottle. These beers are low in alcohol, fruity in taste, and high in fizz. Both fruit beers are unfiltered and their mouth feel resembles seltzer or champagne. The resulting flavor is like a spritzy effervescent jelly or jam.
15. Arizona Brewing Sweet Potato Saison
The best Saison beer is often the most creative. It stretches the borders between fruit beer, sour beer, and wine, intermingling their styles and flavors. Arizona Wilderness has this concept down pat. Because yes, potatoes make good vodka, but sweet potatoes are great in Saison. The beer has an ABV of 7.8% and of course, it’s on the sweeter side of the shelf.
Apart from sugary potatoes, this beer blends cinnamon, marshmallow root, and vanilla. The potatoes are roasted in-house before they hit the brew. The result is a saccharine Saison. Sip it slowly – all that sugar plus the alcohol volume will hit you hard and fast. The beer is aged in barrels previously used for tequila or gin, imprinting their notes into your bottle.
What Saison are you sipping this season? Tell us about it in the comments!
