Earlier this year, Ale Apothecary cofounder Paul Arney was drinking beers from Funky Fauna Artisan Ales, a brewery in Sisters, Oregon, at an event that both breweries attended. Funky Fauna brewer Michael Frith had labeled one of these beers, Edwin, as a saison—but Arney was struggling to comprehend it as such.
“How is he calling these saisons?” Arney asked himself.
“Saison Dupont, my gosh, I love that beer so much,” Arney says. “So, I think when I heard the word ‘saison’ and went to drink it, I was expecting that phenolicky yeast-and-ester component. I was pigeonholing it like someone going into BJCP certification.