In Issue 2 (Summer 2014) of Craft Beer & Brewing Magazine™, I attempted to define saison as a beer style. After a lot of chats with a lot of saison brewers, I came to the conclusion that saison is more of a philosophy than it is a categorical style of beer. Saisons abide by no particular flavor or aroma profiles and instead are characterized by qualities such as light body and effervescence. Although most saisons are brewed with light grains and wild yeast strains, in general they are made with whatever is locally available at the time.
As they always do, the craft brewers I interviewed had a lot more to say than could be condensed into one magazine article. Here are a few more of their sentiments about saison.
“Broadly speaking, everything that we brew falls into that [saison] category. For us it’s all about embracing nature, working with local terroir, working with yeast, letting the product drive the process instead of the other way around.” Ron Extract, Co-Owner and Brewer, Jester King Brewery (Austin, Texas)