It is an oddity of brewing history that Americans super charged the hop profile of every style of beer they got their hands on, but when it came to saison, they took some out. I am generalising of course, but it does seem that the American conception of saison was to take their scantly hopped American Wheat Ale style and ferment it with a saison yeast strain and then add in increasing percentages of unusual grains to the grist. There are of course new world saison’s which are heavily late and dry hopped with exotic fruity and floral hop varieties, they are however seldom very bitter.
My favourite saisons have bitterness, the best pair spicy herbal noble hop flavours with their wonderous yeast profile. Beers like Dupont, De Ranke Saison Dottignies, and XX Bitter, St Mars of the Desert / Pretty Things Jack D’or and Fantôme (yes the bitterness here is not always from hops).
So, when you get a Southstar saison it will always have evident bitterness. A bit unfashionable, to some unpalatable, to one recent armchair critic ‘lacking panache’ but at the end of the day exactly as I intend and want it to be. Grown up flavours abound.
