WEBVTT - Tis the Saison 0:00:09.039 --> 0:00:11.080 Hello, and welcome to Savior Predictive of iHeart Radio. 0:00:11.119 --> 0:00:13.680 I'm Any and I'm Lauren Vogelbaum, and today we have 0:00:13.720 --> 0:00:19.680 an episode for you about Sayson Beers. Yes, hoof drink 0:00:19.760 --> 0:00:23.160 responsively as always, Yes, yes, Yes. 0:00:23.560 --> 0:00:25.920 Was there any particular reason this was on your mind? Lauren? 0:00:26.720 --> 0:00:30.960 Well, the weather is starting to warm up and uh so, 0:00:31.160 --> 0:00:34.599 and this is like a nice refreshing type of summery 0:00:34.720 --> 0:00:37.320 sort of beer. And so I was like, yeah, let's 0:00:37.520 --> 0:00:42.040 let's let's let's look forward towards that summer patio beer experience. 0:00:44.040 --> 0:00:47.240 That is nice because in Atlanta, to me, the summer 0:00:48.320 --> 0:00:54.720 approaches like Godzilla. Oh it's so hot. So it is 0:00:54.840 --> 0:00:59.160 nice to have something to look forward to. Yeah. I 0:00:59.160 --> 0:01:01.520 don't think I have a lot of experience with Seyson, 0:01:01.920 --> 0:01:07.960 although doing this research, who knows. I honestly, maybe I do. 0:01:09.280 --> 0:01:12.440 I have no idea. It's a style that I am 0:01:12.560 --> 0:01:13.280 very fond of. 0:01:14.080 --> 0:01:19.800 There are a lot of great beer menu restaurants around Atlanta, 0:01:20.040 --> 0:01:22.320 and a lot of them are really fond of it too, 0:01:22.440 --> 0:01:24.639 and so I've gotten to try a bunch of different ones, 0:01:25.600 --> 0:01:31.119 also related beers like Grizette and various farmhouse ales, which 0:01:31.120 --> 0:01:34.480 is kind of a headache, which we'll get into. Also, 0:01:34.880 --> 0:01:39.360 we are weirdly timely on this one. So Aligash Brewery 0:01:39.880 --> 0:01:44.320 has named the last Saturday in April Seyson Day, and 0:01:44.440 --> 0:01:47.400 they celebrate every year by like trading casks of Seyson 0:01:47.480 --> 0:01:51.920 with other breweries and hosting tastings. And their brew for 0:01:51.960 --> 0:01:55.160 this year is called Floating Holiday, which I think is adorable. 0:01:55.320 --> 0:01:57.280 It's a season brewed with lemon peel and a little 0:01:57.280 --> 0:01:58.320 bit of sea salt. 0:02:00.040 --> 0:02:00.559 That's nice. 0:02:00.800 --> 0:02:07.160 Yes, yeah, okay, Well, you can see our past beer 0:02:07.360 --> 0:02:09.120 episodes if you've done many. 0:02:09.400 --> 0:02:13.960 Yeah, yeah, I think sours might be particularly useful for 0:02:14.080 --> 0:02:18.880 this one for a little bit of background. But also 0:02:19.000 --> 0:02:21.000 this is reminding me that we have yet to do 0:02:21.040 --> 0:02:22.040 a Pilsner episode. 0:02:22.800 --> 0:02:23.400 It is just. 0:02:25.440 --> 0:02:27.040 Yeah, looming looming over us. 0:02:28.480 --> 0:02:33.200 It's every present in these episodes, for sure, But that 0:02:33.320 --> 0:02:36.960 is not what we were talking about today, No, which 0:02:37.040 --> 0:02:46.280 brings us to our question Seyson beers what are they? Well? 0:02:46.680 --> 0:02:50.000 Seyson is a relatively wide style of beer that can 0:02:50.040 --> 0:02:52.120 be a lot of things, but what you're usually looking 0:02:52.120 --> 0:02:55.720 at is a type of ale that is crisply yeast forward, 0:02:56.480 --> 0:03:01.480 like dry and just lightly spiced, grassy and like tart 0:03:01.600 --> 0:03:08.239 fruity and like funky earthy, with real snappy carbonation, refreshing, 0:03:08.520 --> 0:03:11.040 but not in a clean, clinical sort of way, like 0:03:11.040 --> 0:03:14.160 a little more weird and flavorful. They're usually pale but 0:03:14.240 --> 0:03:16.840 can be darker, are often at least a little bit hazy, 0:03:17.000 --> 0:03:19.600 and usually have like a thick white foam to them 0:03:19.960 --> 0:03:23.280 these days. They are often medium alcohol by volume, somewhere 0:03:23.320 --> 0:03:25.480 around like six percent or so, but they can range 0:03:25.520 --> 0:03:30.359 higher or lower. Some brewers add in ingredients like coriander, pepper, ginger, 0:03:30.480 --> 0:03:33.239 or citrus peel in order to up those spice and 0:03:33.280 --> 0:03:37.280 fruit flavors. And yes, saisons are just really nice warm 0:03:37.280 --> 0:03:40.480 weather beers, not too heavy and not too much of 0:03:40.520 --> 0:03:42.840 a punch in the palate the way that very happy 0:03:43.280 --> 0:03:46.440 or very sour beers can be. They are just a 0:03:46.480 --> 0:03:50.800 really solid patio vibe, like wooden picnic tables and dappled 0:03:50.840 --> 0:03:53.680 shade and a nice breeze bringing in the scent of 0:03:53.960 --> 0:04:02.720 flowers blooming somewhere nearby. It does sound nice, so nice, okay. 0:04:02.840 --> 0:04:07.040 So Seyson is a French word for season. This style 0:04:07.200 --> 0:04:11.560 comes from French speaking Belgium, the Wallonia region, and here 0:04:11.760 --> 0:04:14.320 season seems to indicate a beer that's brewed in the 0:04:14.600 --> 0:04:18.680 cold winter or early spring, and then cellared and drank 0:04:18.680 --> 0:04:21.320 a few months later in the warm summer or early fall. 0:04:22.480 --> 0:04:25.880 And the dry, crisp feel of these beers certainly lends 0:04:25.880 --> 0:04:29.200 themselves to that they are part of the wider category 0:04:29.279 --> 0:04:33.560 of farmhouse ales, which is an even mushier definition, indicating 0:04:33.600 --> 0:04:36.200 beers that are made with like local ingredients and are 0:04:36.240 --> 0:04:39.440 meant to be kind of rustic, like not lab created, 0:04:39.880 --> 0:04:45.720 and like ultimately quaffable, sort of unfussy but nice, you know, 0:04:45.839 --> 0:04:47.760 like a like a simple supper laid out on the 0:04:47.839 --> 0:04:52.080 land that the food comes from. This definition can be literal, 0:04:52.640 --> 0:04:56.880 or it can be rooted in like romanticized agrarian nosalgia, 0:04:57.760 --> 0:05:00.719 which might be the case for Sezon today. More around 0:05:00.760 --> 0:05:05.320 that in the history section, But okay, beer one oh one. 0:05:06.040 --> 0:05:09.360 So generally speaking, to get a beer, what you do 0:05:09.560 --> 0:05:13.200 is take some grains and slightly germinate them and then 0:05:13.560 --> 0:05:16.320 roast or otherwise dry them, and that's going to be 0:05:16.360 --> 0:05:19.920 your malt. You then boil your malt with water that's 0:05:19.960 --> 0:05:22.479 your wart, and then you add yeast in some way 0:05:22.520 --> 0:05:25.880 to your wart to get it to ferment. During fermentation, 0:05:26.120 --> 0:05:28.360 the yeasts eat some of the sugars you've released from 0:05:28.400 --> 0:05:31.400 the grains through that germination and that boiling, and then 0:05:31.440 --> 0:05:34.919 they excrete alcohol carbon dioxide, which are the beer's bubbles 0:05:35.200 --> 0:05:43.039 and flavor yeasoo. And this is like a pretty broad 0:05:43.080 --> 0:05:45.800 and simple template. And all the different ways that you 0:05:45.800 --> 0:05:48.560 can tweak the recipe, you know, with different grains, different 0:05:48.640 --> 0:05:53.360 roasting processes, different yeasts or other friendly microbes, adding different 0:05:53.440 --> 0:05:56.960 other stuff at various stages like hops or fruit or flavorings, 0:05:57.320 --> 0:06:00.560 and the way that you age it or not give 0:06:00.600 --> 0:06:03.640 you all of the wildly different styles of beer out there. 0:06:04.920 --> 0:06:09.000 So in the case of Seyson, because it is like 0:06:09.040 --> 0:06:12.520 a wide open style, different brewers will choose different grains 0:06:12.560 --> 0:06:14.960 to make up the malt from like regular old wheat 0:06:14.960 --> 0:06:19.120 and barley to rye or oats or spelt. They're typically 0:06:19.240 --> 0:06:22.280 paleer roasted varieties of malt because you're really looking to 0:06:22.400 --> 0:06:26.719 let the yeast shine here. Simbers even use like unroasted 0:06:26.880 --> 0:06:30.200 or ungerminated grains. I don't know. All of these can 0:06:30.200 --> 0:06:34.960 add different like bready spicy flavors to the beer. Seysons 0:06:35.040 --> 0:06:37.000 tend to be a little bit more hoppy than a 0:06:37.000 --> 0:06:40.359 lot of other Belgian styles. The hops will help with 0:06:40.400 --> 0:06:43.320 those spiced floral qualities of the finished beer, but shouldn't 0:06:43.320 --> 0:06:46.560 add too much bitterness to it. The yeast that you're 0:06:46.600 --> 0:06:48.360 going to use is going to be an ale yeast. 0:06:48.640 --> 0:06:51.839 Ale yeasts thrive at relatively warm temperatures and are called 0:06:51.880 --> 0:06:54.560 top fermenting, meaning that they kick up foam at the 0:06:54.560 --> 0:06:56.800 top of the vessel while they're working and then are 0:06:56.839 --> 0:06:59.760 collected from the top when they're done, traditionally to help 0:06:59.800 --> 0:07:03.520 make the next batch of beer. Blogger yeasts, by comparison, 0:07:03.560 --> 0:07:06.400 thrive at cooler temperatures and are bottom fermenting because they 0:07:06.400 --> 0:07:08.320 ease losing to the bottom of the fermenting vessel, and 0:07:08.360 --> 0:07:12.560 we're traditionally collected from the bottom. The specific yeasts used 0:07:12.600 --> 0:07:15.680 for seasons are usually Belgian strains that will add some 0:07:15.800 --> 0:07:19.480 like fruit and spice flavors to the beer. Brewers might 0:07:19.520 --> 0:07:23.520 also use Bretona miices in seisons, which give like funky, 0:07:23.680 --> 0:07:27.960 earthy barnyard kind of flavors. Some brewers even do like 0:07:28.040 --> 0:07:31.120 open air fermentation to let wild yeasts and bacteria go 0:07:31.200 --> 0:07:33.480 to work, which usually will add some like funky and 0:07:33.640 --> 0:07:37.600 or tart flavors to the beer. And seyson is interesting 0:07:37.680 --> 0:07:41.560 in that after it's brood. It's often given a secondary fermentation, 0:07:41.720 --> 0:07:44.960 either in a cask or directly in a bottle, and 0:07:44.960 --> 0:07:46.960 that's why many are hazy with a bit of sediment 0:07:47.240 --> 0:07:50.240 because unlike champagne, in which the sediment from the secondary 0:07:50.240 --> 0:07:54.040 fermentation is usually filtered out, seyson brewers usually just leave 0:07:54.040 --> 0:07:57.320 it in. It's also why these beers can be very dry, 0:07:57.640 --> 0:08:01.720 because you're letting the yeast really finish off the sugars 0:08:01.800 --> 0:08:05.440 in the beer. Some recipes will actually add sugar during 0:08:05.560 --> 0:08:09.040 either fermentation to make the yeast like super active, but 0:08:09.280 --> 0:08:13.080 all of that sugar gets converted into alcohol and bubbles 0:08:13.160 --> 0:08:17.280 and flavor. In brewing, how much sugar the yeast has 0:08:17.360 --> 0:08:22.120 consumed is the attenuation level, and saxons are usually highly attenuated. 0:08:23.760 --> 0:08:26.240 Another factor that brewers will play with is aging. You're 0:08:26.280 --> 0:08:28.080 typically going to age a saxon for at least a 0:08:28.080 --> 0:08:30.000 few months, but whether you do that in the bottle 0:08:30.160 --> 0:08:32.240 or a vat or a wooden cask is up to you. 0:08:32.679 --> 0:08:34.640 What will always make its mark on a beer, kind 0:08:34.640 --> 0:08:37.600 of like spicy round flavors. I've seen varieties aged in 0:08:37.640 --> 0:08:39.839 like wine barrels to add some of that flavor and color. 0:08:41.320 --> 0:08:44.040 When seasons are produced for draft or cans. They are 0:08:44.080 --> 0:08:47.360 often carbonated to get that like extra crisp fizz that 0:08:47.400 --> 0:08:50.079 you miss if you don't do the secondary fermentation directly 0:08:50.080 --> 0:08:54.360 in the bottle. And yeah, all of this gives you 0:08:54.640 --> 0:08:58.760 a range of beers that are relatively subtle but really interesting. 0:08:59.559 --> 0:09:02.120 It's known for being a style that's good with food 0:09:02.320 --> 0:09:05.160 because it's not palet overwhelming, and it does have some 0:09:05.200 --> 0:09:07.559 of those nice, you know, spice fruit flavors that can 0:09:07.600 --> 0:09:11.800 sort of iterate off of flavors in foods. The Simon 0:09:11.920 --> 0:09:14.320 Difford of the famous Difford's Guide wrote that they are 0:09:14.320 --> 0:09:15.600 the gin drinkers ale. 0:09:19.720 --> 0:09:26.360 I'm trying to figure out. Okay, well I did see 0:09:26.400 --> 0:09:28.640 a lot of articles that were like, if you need 0:09:28.679 --> 0:09:32.679 to pair a beer with anything, get a safe on 0:09:32.920 --> 0:09:39.360 So yeah, well what about the nutrition drink responsibly? Yes, 0:09:40.320 --> 0:09:44.719 always have numbers ish for you. 0:09:44.880 --> 0:09:47.400 You like two numbers, yeah, one and a half. 0:09:47.760 --> 0:09:47.920 So. 0:09:48.200 --> 0:09:51.120 On untapped dot com, which is this database of beers 0:09:51.120 --> 0:09:54.680 made around the world, including everything from like industrial giants 0:09:54.679 --> 0:09:59.280 to one offs. By independence, they list over seventy thousand 0:09:59.720 --> 0:10:08.240 farm house ale slash saisons. That's a lot, and that 0:10:08.440 --> 0:10:12.560 is massive, massive, massive growth over like the past thirty years, 0:10:13.040 --> 0:10:16.520 it went from being an incredibly local product to being 0:10:16.600 --> 0:10:19.400 something that breweries around the world are playing with. 0:10:20.880 --> 0:10:25.680 Yes, and that's pretty much the history of it, which 0:10:25.679 --> 0:10:26.559 we will get into. 0:10:26.720 --> 0:10:28.480 Yeah, we're going to get a little bit further into it, 0:10:28.760 --> 0:10:30.480 but first we are going to get into a break 0:10:30.480 --> 0:10:31.640 for a word from our sponsors. 0:10:41.400 --> 0:10:45.280 We're back, Thank you sponsors, Yes, thank you. Okay, So 0:10:45.480 --> 0:10:50.280 we've said it several times. People have been beering beering. 0:10:50.440 --> 0:10:54.439 They have been brewing beer for a long time. 0:10:54.559 --> 0:10:56.680 Yeah, beering for a long time, I think is also 0:10:56.720 --> 0:10:57.360 a fair phrase. 0:10:57.880 --> 0:10:58.240 I think. 0:10:58.320 --> 0:11:01.320 I think so, that's why I didn't retake it, and 0:11:01.360 --> 0:11:04.520 it was correct And for that reason. A lot of 0:11:04.520 --> 0:11:07.840 the history of different types of beer is inconsistent or 0:11:07.920 --> 0:11:13.960 just not well documented, and Sayson is one of those cases. 0:11:15.160 --> 0:11:18.439 It might be one of the worst cases. I'm getting 0:11:18.559 --> 0:11:24.560 kind of angry just thinking about it. But that being said, 0:11:24.600 --> 0:11:27.440 shout out to Roll Molder over at Lost Beers for 0:11:27.480 --> 0:11:30.440 a lot of fact checking on this whole topic. 0:11:30.720 --> 0:11:33.840 Yeah. Yeah, And if you are interested in like the 0:11:33.880 --> 0:11:38.160 intricacies of the history of beers, lost beers dot Com 0:11:38.240 --> 0:11:41.920 is a terrific blog, really well researched, really well written 0:11:42.320 --> 0:11:43.120 just good stuff. 0:11:43.200 --> 0:11:48.400 Yeah, yes, a lot of documents, including some tax documents 0:11:49.080 --> 0:11:52.600 that we always bemone that you can click on, and 0:11:52.679 --> 0:11:57.480 these Beers Beer episodes we always promone. But yes, fantastic source. 0:11:59.120 --> 0:11:59.480 Okay. 0:11:59.640 --> 0:12:04.120 So, the popular story is that Sezombier's were first brood 0:12:04.240 --> 0:12:08.439 in rural farmhouses in the Haino province of Belgium during 0:12:08.440 --> 0:12:11.720 the winters, almost like a winter time hobby for farmers, 0:12:12.559 --> 0:12:14.800 and then when summer came around, the farmers would drink 0:12:14.840 --> 0:12:16.920 the beer that they had brood during the winter, and 0:12:16.960 --> 0:12:21.640 that is why it is sometimes called a farmhouse ale. However, 0:12:22.200 --> 0:12:25.320 as much as this story is repeated, there really isn't 0:12:25.440 --> 0:12:28.360 anything at all to back it up, and in fact, 0:12:28.480 --> 0:12:35.080 a few things that suggest it probably wasn't true at all. Yeah, 0:12:35.120 --> 0:12:39.320 but I cannot begin to express how prevalent this story is. 0:12:39.559 --> 0:12:43.040 Oh yeah, yes, and you warned me about it when 0:12:43.040 --> 0:12:45.840 you suggested this topic, and I was like, huh. 0:12:45.679 --> 0:12:46.520 I wonder. 0:12:47.760 --> 0:12:53.440 Wow, Yeah, it really took hold. There is another variation 0:12:53.720 --> 0:12:56.679 on the story that also doesn't have any real evidence, 0:12:57.760 --> 0:13:01.400 that the beer was brewed by and four seasonal farmhands 0:13:01.480 --> 0:13:04.840 or sayson years to keep them hydrated but not tipsy. 0:13:05.720 --> 0:13:09.000 During summer months, and it may or may not have 0:13:09.080 --> 0:13:10.200 been part of their payments. 0:13:12.240 --> 0:13:13.240 This is part of a lot of. 0:13:13.200 --> 0:13:17.840 Issues because they think there's people are taking things out 0:13:17.840 --> 0:13:22.480 of context that have happened previously. But yeah, there's no 0:13:22.559 --> 0:13:24.319 proof that happened in this case. 0:13:24.400 --> 0:13:28.520 Right because like, certainly some like rustic idyllic brewing was 0:13:28.559 --> 0:13:34.520 going on on farms here and everywhere that people grow grains. 0:13:34.960 --> 0:13:39.920 But like, it's important to note how formalized and interconnected 0:13:39.960 --> 0:13:44.320 and widespread the brewing industry was around Europe even before 0:13:44.400 --> 0:13:47.480 the late eighteen hundreds brought us like the Carlsberg labs 0:13:47.520 --> 0:13:51.720 and isolated yeasts, and like the true factory industrialization of brewing, 0:13:52.760 --> 0:13:57.280 like companies sold malts and hops from all over village 0:13:57.400 --> 0:14:00.600 or commercial breweries would sell their beers and rent their 0:14:00.640 --> 0:14:03.200 space out for people to come in and use their equipment. 0:14:03.640 --> 0:14:07.680 So farmers I mean, and other brewers in general would 0:14:07.679 --> 0:14:12.040 have been making educated decisions on how and where and 0:14:12.080 --> 0:14:15.680 from what they brewed beer. It wasn't just like, oh 0:14:15.640 --> 0:14:17.960 well I had this extra like half pound of rye 0:14:18.000 --> 0:14:21.400 and half pound of wheat, and I found these hops 0:14:21.440 --> 0:14:23.800 growing along my hedgerow, and so that's what I made 0:14:23.840 --> 0:14:26.080 my beer out of like they were doing it on purpose, 0:14:26.160 --> 0:14:28.680 you know. So again, some of it might have been 0:14:28.680 --> 0:14:28.880 like that. 0:14:29.000 --> 0:14:30.000 Can't say, but. 0:14:32.720 --> 0:14:36.240 Suffice it to say that what they were making in 0:14:36.280 --> 0:14:39.280 this region at this time was not necessarily what we 0:14:39.320 --> 0:14:42.680 would call seisons or farmhouse ales now. 0:14:44.600 --> 0:14:47.360 Right, And a part of the confusion seems to be 0:14:47.440 --> 0:14:51.880 around what exactly a season is and what a farmhouse 0:14:51.920 --> 0:14:56.000 ale is. A part of it is due to breweries 0:14:56.040 --> 0:14:59.680 painting this really romanticized you of the countryside and using 0:14:59.720 --> 0:15:02.880 it to sell their product, and a part of it 0:15:02.920 --> 0:15:05.160 is due to a popular source that we'll get to 0:15:05.280 --> 0:15:10.720 later that is frequently referenced. All right, So the first 0:15:10.800 --> 0:15:13.960 known instance of what is believed to be a seison 0:15:14.040 --> 0:15:17.560 beer is from eighteen twenty three, where it was called 0:15:17.640 --> 0:15:20.640 a march or advent beer that could be kept for 0:15:20.680 --> 0:15:24.520 months before drinking. The source also describes how this beer 0:15:24.720 --> 0:15:29.080 was rude in Liege, Belgium, which was a pretty typical 0:15:29.200 --> 0:15:32.920 industrial city at the time, not really a place you'd 0:15:32.920 --> 0:15:35.160 find a lot of farmers and farmhouses. 0:15:36.160 --> 0:15:39.880 Yeah, Heino is part of the same general region of 0:15:39.920 --> 0:15:44.440 Belgium as Liege. It's the southern corner of the country. Again, Wallonia, 0:15:44.800 --> 0:15:48.240 but Heino is on the western end with a border 0:15:48.320 --> 0:15:51.000 on France, and Liege is on the eastern end, closer 0:15:51.040 --> 0:15:54.040 to Germany, like a solid sixty kilometers away at its 0:15:54.040 --> 0:15:59.280 closest point, like forty miles or so, and no like 0:15:59.320 --> 0:16:01.880 In the eighteen Liege was home to the largest steel 0:16:01.920 --> 0:16:03.800 manufacturer in the world, So. 0:16:06.280 --> 0:16:13.960 Yeah, yes, from there. Subsequent mentions of Seysons and brewing 0:16:14.000 --> 0:16:18.720 manuals from the eighteen hundreds describe this version from Liege, 0:16:18.920 --> 0:16:23.120 not the current Seyson styles from Haino. It was largely 0:16:23.160 --> 0:16:26.520 a mix of unmlted wheat and malted spelt, maybe a 0:16:26.560 --> 0:16:29.640 little bit sweet at the time. People brewed it in 0:16:29.680 --> 0:16:32.120 the winter and they would drink it about four to 0:16:32.160 --> 0:16:35.320 six months later. As early as eighteen sixty two, there 0:16:35.360 --> 0:16:38.320 were a handful of mentions of double and triple seisons. 0:16:38.360 --> 0:16:42.360 There weren't too many, but there were some. Meanwhile, one 0:16:42.400 --> 0:16:45.640 of the first known references to a bierre de seison 0:16:45.960 --> 0:16:49.720 in the Hainau region took place in eighteen fifty eight. 0:16:51.000 --> 0:16:52.920 It's kind of really fun. It's like, if you won 0:16:52.960 --> 0:16:56.560 this bowling competition at a bar, you could get one. 0:16:56.720 --> 0:16:57.760 It was great, okay. 0:17:00.120 --> 0:17:02.800 Also, a singer from the region saying about the beer 0:17:02.880 --> 0:17:06.520 in eighteen sixty one. However, both of these instances took 0:17:06.560 --> 0:17:10.680 place in an industrial city in the region. The records 0:17:10.680 --> 0:17:13.159 we do have indicate it wasn't a popular style and 0:17:13.280 --> 0:17:17.119 haino at the time, despite the fact that so many 0:17:17.840 --> 0:17:22.119 seemed to believe that is where it originated. The word 0:17:22.160 --> 0:17:26.960 seyson was often used as more of a descriptor instead 0:17:27.000 --> 0:17:29.440 of the name of a style or specific beer type. 0:17:30.119 --> 0:17:34.919 So like this type of beer for whatever season, usually 0:17:34.920 --> 0:17:36.879 referring to a beer that was brewed in a certain 0:17:36.920 --> 0:17:38.840 season and aged for about six months. 0:17:39.000 --> 0:17:40.879 Right, it could be a summer beer or a winter beer, 0:17:40.960 --> 0:17:42.399 depending on what you're talking about. 0:17:42.600 --> 0:17:46.720 Yeah, exactly. It wasn't until the end of the nineteenth 0:17:46.760 --> 0:17:49.919 century that records pop up of folks selling beer de Seizon. 0:17:50.680 --> 0:17:54.320 That being said, in eighteen sixty six, two Seysons from 0:17:54.400 --> 0:17:57.800 Haina were sent in to be professionally judged at the 0:17:57.840 --> 0:18:02.919 International Hops Fare in Dijon, France, which doesn't seem like 0:18:03.000 --> 0:18:05.600 something a farmer would do. It's hard to say, but 0:18:05.680 --> 0:18:09.320 I guess the vibe of the sayson is sort of 0:18:09.359 --> 0:18:14.399 like something you make and then you drink. Yeah, you drink, 0:18:14.600 --> 0:18:17.879 so I don't know. I can't say definitively, but I 0:18:19.240 --> 0:18:22.880 don't know. Hard to say, it is hard to say. 0:18:23.560 --> 0:18:27.399 By the nineteen hundreds, Seysons seemed to typically refer to 0:18:27.480 --> 0:18:30.919 low alcohol sour beers, though the alcohol content did go 0:18:31.119 --> 0:18:36.000 up over the years, and also over the years preferences 0:18:36.040 --> 0:18:41.080 for pale loggers, larger commercialized breweries, Prohibition and the World 0:18:41.200 --> 0:18:46.240 Wars almost wiped Seysons from the map, but. 0:18:46.200 --> 0:18:49.520 They never really went away. They were certainly in trouble 0:18:49.520 --> 0:18:52.679 there for a minute. But the well known Seysan DuPont 0:18:53.040 --> 0:18:57.200 from the Belgian Brasserie DuPont debuted in the nineteen twenties. 0:18:57.960 --> 0:19:01.600 They first released a higher alcohol Say in nineteen fifty four, 0:19:01.840 --> 0:19:04.920 and then brown Sayson in the nineteen eighties. 0:19:06.760 --> 0:19:11.080 Yes, and the first known the first known written account 0:19:11.320 --> 0:19:16.159 of this farmhouse ail story is from Brasserie DuPont in 0:19:16.240 --> 0:19:19.800 nineteen eighty nine. According to them, they've been brewing their 0:19:19.880 --> 0:19:23.680 Seyson DuPont on a farmhouse brewery since eighteen forty. 0:19:23.400 --> 0:19:29.320 Four, and Annie said it earlier. But like the press 0:19:29.400 --> 0:19:34.400 and marketing about Seyson's to this day is so centered 0:19:34.480 --> 0:19:39.400 in this farmhouse story. There is this huge nostalgic romanticism 0:19:39.440 --> 0:19:42.439 about them, because right, you know, they're supposed to be 0:19:42.480 --> 0:19:45.840 made with what's available and rely on wild yeasts and 0:19:45.880 --> 0:19:50.520 not be constrained by rules or regulations. Like seriously, like 0:19:50.800 --> 0:19:56.680 industry folks wax poetic about the fields trodden by the 0:19:57.080 --> 0:20:00.560 walloon seesania, the sun on his skin, the burst of 0:20:00.560 --> 0:20:03.320 refreshment when he pulls from his clay jug of seeson, 0:20:03.680 --> 0:20:06.320 kept cool in a shallow hole he dug that morning 0:20:06.359 --> 0:20:10.560 in the rich earth. I am not exaggerating. I read 0:20:10.560 --> 0:20:19.639 that in like three places. Yes, I think I just 0:20:19.680 --> 0:20:21.959 really screwed up French as well there. So you're welcome, 0:20:22.880 --> 0:20:30.840 But again, like to clarify or I don't know, like 0:20:30.840 --> 0:20:32.840 like walk that back a little, because that was a 0:20:32.880 --> 0:20:36.280 little bit snarky of me, Like, there is absolutely history 0:20:36.280 --> 0:20:39.119 of beers being made on farms for the workers on 0:20:39.119 --> 0:20:41.800 those farms, and there's no reason to think that farmers 0:20:42.040 --> 0:20:45.120 and hey, no we're not doing this back in the day, 0:20:46.240 --> 0:20:50.160 but were what they brewing what we'd call a seison, 0:20:50.960 --> 0:20:55.600 did what or how they were brewing influence the style 0:20:56.119 --> 0:20:59.520 that we now call seison mysteries, histories? 0:20:59.600 --> 0:21:05.119 You know, this fields very existential, Lauren, You're asking deep 0:21:05.400 --> 0:21:13.000 beer questions which is appropriate for this episode. 0:21:13.000 --> 0:21:13.400 It is. 0:21:15.160 --> 0:21:19.280 Well, like many beer types, Seysons saw a pretty big 0:21:19.400 --> 0:21:24.840 uptick in revival during the recent craft beer movement. And 0:21:24.880 --> 0:21:27.640 this brings me to the thing I mentioned earlier, the 0:21:27.680 --> 0:21:31.600 source that plays into this farmhouse story. 0:21:31.400 --> 0:21:34.080 Other than the DuPont marketing right. 0:21:34.960 --> 0:21:40.000 Yeah, so specifically four saysons. The two thousand and four 0:21:40.040 --> 0:21:45.199 book Farmhouse Ales by Phil Markowski boosted its profile on 0:21:45.280 --> 0:21:48.639 a lot of people's radar. It described different types of 0:21:48.640 --> 0:21:52.760 Belgium ales, different brewing methods, but also outlined and popularized 0:21:53.520 --> 0:21:58.359 the unmverified story of the beer being made on farms. 0:21:59.520 --> 0:22:04.280 That chap was written by a Belgian brewer named Yvonne Debats, 0:22:04.560 --> 0:22:07.840 by the way, so it was somebody from Belgium who 0:22:07.880 --> 0:22:10.920 interviewed the people from DuPont. 0:22:10.720 --> 0:22:17.680 And it seems like that was their primary source. Yes, yep, yep, 0:22:19.480 --> 0:22:21.119 But it did put the beer on a lot of 0:22:21.160 --> 0:22:26.919 people's radar, which is cool. Just ten years later, alig 0:22:26.960 --> 0:22:29.840 ash I mentioned earlier, they're in an American brewery that 0:22:29.880 --> 0:22:32.320 does a lot of Belgian style beers. They started up 0:22:32.359 --> 0:22:34.640 their seison day in twenty fourteen. 0:22:38.440 --> 0:22:41.440 I do love that. That's nice, but it did take 0:22:41.480 --> 0:22:45.600 a while still for seisons to take off in the US, 0:22:45.640 --> 0:22:49.600 but starting in the mid twenty teens, they really started 0:22:49.640 --> 0:22:53.560 to gain some traction and proliferate. And I think that 0:22:53.600 --> 0:22:59.040 farmhouse story, I mean, there's a reason companies brews lashed 0:22:59.080 --> 0:23:02.440 onto that story. I think it kind of plays into 0:23:02.480 --> 0:23:07.360 that whole farm to tail, farm to tail, heads, farm 0:23:07.400 --> 0:23:11.280 to table. Yeah sure, yeah. So I think people are like, oh, 0:23:11.480 --> 0:23:14.760 this one's a farm that one's the one I want. 0:23:15.920 --> 0:23:22.080 Yeah, yeah, and yeah, like like we said, it's it's 0:23:22.080 --> 0:23:26.560 a fun story because it is that there is some 0:23:26.720 --> 0:23:30.320 historical accuracy in it. Out there is everything that calls 0:23:30.320 --> 0:23:37.240 itself a sayson made that way, Nah. 0:23:35.200 --> 0:23:37.760 A huge category. Honestly, it really is. 0:23:37.880 --> 0:23:40.600 It really is, which which is part of what makes 0:23:40.600 --> 0:23:44.920 it fun. I also read so many strong opinions about seison's. 0:23:45.680 --> 0:23:49.119 In addition to most brewers wanting to tell you about 0:23:49.160 --> 0:23:53.400 the soft earth underneath the farm workers feet, they also 0:23:54.080 --> 0:23:56.280 have strong like like oh, man, like it's not really 0:23:56.280 --> 0:23:59.720 a sayson if it's if it's under five, but over seven, 0:24:00.080 --> 0:24:03.200 like it's a percent alcohol by volume that is it's 0:24:04.280 --> 0:24:07.639 you know, like it should never have added herbs or 0:24:07.680 --> 0:24:10.320 fruit or like that's the way you make it fun 0:24:10.560 --> 0:24:13.560 or just I just every opposing opinion that one could 0:24:13.600 --> 0:24:15.919 possibly have about them. I read and I love that. 0:24:17.400 --> 0:24:22.560 It's pretty fantastic. And if you are interested, shout out 0:24:22.560 --> 0:24:26.720 once again to Lost Beers, because there's a whole article 0:24:26.840 --> 0:24:31.120 that combats this farmhouse ales book. 0:24:31.600 --> 0:24:33.080 And it's pretty fun. 0:24:36.440 --> 0:24:39.320 He's just like constantly like, show me your source. 0:24:42.720 --> 0:24:44.360 It's like I appreciated it. 0:24:44.840 --> 0:24:47.119 Yeah, but when I looked at it, it seems like 0:24:47.320 --> 0:24:49.680 that was hoot and nanny like that. 0:24:50.359 --> 0:24:56.040 Yeah, appreciated it a lot. Mm hmmmm. 0:24:56.440 --> 0:24:59.320 Certainly made our jobs a lot easier. 0:25:00.520 --> 0:25:05.880 Yes, it did. But listeners, if you've got any thoughts, 0:25:06.040 --> 0:25:12.200 any faves of the Sason, please let us know. But 0:25:12.240 --> 0:25:14.119 I think that's what we have to say about Sayson 0:25:14.200 --> 0:25:14.800 Beers for now. 0:25:15.320 --> 0:25:18.040 I think it is. We do already have some listener 0:25:18.119 --> 0:25:19.360 mail for you, though, and we are going to get 0:25:19.359 --> 0:25:20.760 into that as soon as we get back from one 0:25:20.760 --> 0:25:23.119 more quick break for a word from our sponsors. 0:25:31.800 --> 0:25:32.400 And we're back. 0:25:32.440 --> 0:25:35.600 Thank you, sponsors, Yes, thank you, and we're back with 0:25:39.160 --> 0:25:50.119 right cheers with the Beers, all right. I was thrilled 0:25:50.200 --> 0:25:58.600 to receive this email, Okay, Kenna wrote Annie. I also 0:25:58.800 --> 0:26:04.760