Hello, and welcome to Savior Predictive of iHeart Radio.
I'm Any and I'm Lauren Vogelbaum, and today we have an episode for you about Sayson Beers. Yes, hoof drink responsively as always, Yes, yes, Yes.
Was there any particular reason this was on your mind? Lauren?
Well, the weather is starting to warm up and uh so, and this is like a nice refreshing type of summery sort of beer. And so I was like, yeah, let's let's let's let's look forward towards that summer patio beer experience.
That is nice because in Atlanta, to me, the summer approaches like Godzilla. Oh it's so hot. So it is nice to have something to look forward to. Yeah. I don't think I have a lot of experience with Seyson, although doing this research, who knows. I honestly, maybe I do. I have no idea. It's a style that I am very fond of.
There are a lot of great beer menu restaurants around Atlanta, and a lot of them are really fond of it too, and so I've gotten to try a bunch of different ones, also related beers like Grizette and various farmhouse ales, which is kind of a headache, which we'll get into. Also, we are weirdly timely on this one. So Aligash Brewery has named the last Saturday in April Seyson Day, and they celebrate every year by like trading casks of Seyson
with other breweries and hosting tastings. And their brew for this year is called Floating Holiday, which I think is adorable. It's a season brewed with lemon peel and a little bit of sea salt.
That's nice.
Yes, yeah, okay, Well, you can see our past beer episodes if you've done many.
Yeah, yeah, I think sours might be particularly useful for this one for a little bit of background. But also this is reminding me that we have yet to do a Pilsner episode.
It is just.
Yeah, looming looming over us.
It's every present in these episodes, for sure, But that is not what we were talking about today, No, which brings us to our question Seyson beers what are they? Well?
Seyson is a relatively wide style of beer that can be a lot of things, but what you're usually looking at is a type of ale that is crisply yeast forward, like dry and just lightly spiced, grassy and like tart fruity and like funky earthy, with real snappy carbonation, refreshing, but not in a clean, clinical sort of way, like a little more weird and flavorful. They're usually pale but can be darker, are often at least a little bit hazy, and usually have like a thick white foam to them
these days. They are often medium alcohol by volume, somewhere around like six percent or so, but they can range higher or lower. Some brewers add in ingredients like coriander, pepper, ginger, or citrus peel in order to up those spice and fruit flavors. And yes, saisons are just really nice warm weather beers, not too heavy and not too much of a punch in the palate the way that very happy
or very sour beers can be. They are just a really solid patio vibe, like wooden picnic tables and dappled shade and a nice breeze bringing in the scent of flowers blooming somewhere nearby. It does sound nice, so nice, okay.
So Seyson is a French word for season. This style comes from French speaking Belgium, the Wallonia region, and here season seems to indicate a beer that's brewed in the cold winter or early spring, and then cellared and drank a few months later in the warm summer or early fall.
And the dry, crisp feel of these beers certainly lends themselves to that they are part of the wider category of farmhouse ales, which is an even mushier definition, indicating beers that are made with like local ingredients and are meant to be kind of rustic, like not lab created, and like ultimately quaffable, sort of unfussy but nice, you know, like a like a simple supper laid out on the
land that the food comes from. This definition can be literal, or it can be rooted in like romanticized agrarian nosalgia, which might be the case for Sezon today. More around that in the history section, But okay, beer one oh one. So generally speaking, to get a beer, what you do is take some grains and slightly germinate them and then roast or otherwise dry them, and that's going to be your malt. You then boil your malt with water that's your wart, and then you add yeast in some way
to your wart to get it to ferment. During fermentation, the yeasts eat some of the sugars you've released from the grains through that germination and that boiling, and then they excrete alcohol carbon dioxide, which are the beer's bubbles and flavor yeasoo. And this is like a pretty broad
and simple template. And all the different ways that you can tweak the recipe, you know, with different grains, different roasting processes, different yeasts or other friendly microbes, adding different other stuff at various stages like hops or fruit or flavorings, and the way that you age it or not give you all of the wildly different styles of beer out there.
So in the case of Seyson, because it is like a wide open style, different brewers will choose different grains to make up the malt from like regular old wheat and barley to rye or oats or spelt. They're typically paleer roasted varieties of malt because you're really looking to let the yeast shine here. Simbers even use like unroasted or ungerminated grains. I don't know. All of these can add different like bready spicy flavors to the beer. Seysons tend to be a little bit more hoppy than a
lot of other Belgian styles. The hops will help with those spiced floral qualities of the finished beer, but shouldn't add too much bitterness to it. The yeast that you're going to use is going to be an ale yeast. Ale yeasts thrive at relatively warm temperatures and are called top fermenting, meaning that they kick up foam at the top of the vessel while they're working and then are collected from the top when they're done, traditionally to help
make the next batch of beer. Blogger yeasts, by comparison, thrive at cooler temperatures and are bottom fermenting because they ease losing to the bottom of the fermenting vessel, and we're traditionally collected from the bottom. The specific yeasts used for seasons are usually Belgian strains that will add some like fruit and spice flavors to the beer. Brewers might also use Bretona miices in seisons, which give like funky,
earthy barnyard kind of flavors. Some brewers even do like open air fermentation to let wild yeasts and bacteria go to work, which usually will add some like funky and or tart flavors to the beer. And seyson is interesting
in that after it's brood. It's often given a secondary fermentation, either in a cask or directly in a bottle, and that's why many are hazy with a bit of sediment because unlike champagne, in which the sediment from the secondary fermentation is usually filtered out, seyson brewers usually just leave it in. It's also why these beers can be very dry, because you're letting the yeast really finish off the sugars
in the beer. Some recipes will actually add sugar during either fermentation to make the yeast like super active, but all of that sugar gets converted into alcohol and bubbles and flavor. In brewing, how much sugar the yeast has consumed is the attenuation level, and saxons are usually highly attenuated.
Another factor that brewers will play with is aging. You're typically going to age a saxon for at least a few months, but whether you do that in the bottle or a vat or a wooden cask is up to you. What will always make its mark on a beer, kind of like spicy round flavors. I've seen varieties aged in like wine barrels to add some of that flavor and color.
When seasons are produced for draft or cans. They are often carbonated to get that like extra crisp fizz that you miss if you don't do the secondary fermentation directly in the bottle. And yeah, all of this gives you a range of beers that are relatively subtle but really interesting. It's known for being a style that's good with food because it's not palet overwhelming, and it does have some of those nice, you know, spice fruit flavors that can
sort of iterate off of flavors in foods. The Simon Difford of the famous Difford's Guide wrote that they are the gin drinkers ale.
I'm trying to figure out. Okay, well I did see a lot of articles that were like, if you need to pair a beer with anything, get a safe on So yeah, well what about the nutrition drink responsibly? Yes, always have numbers ish for you.
You like two numbers, yeah, one and a half.
So.
On untapped dot com, which is this database of beers made around the world, including everything from like industrial giants to one offs. By independence, they list over seventy thousand farm house ale slash saisons. That's a lot, and that is massive, massive, massive growth over like the past thirty years, it went from being an incredibly local product to being something that breweries around the world are playing with.
Yes, and that's pretty much the history of it, which we will get into.
Yeah, we're going to get a little bit further into it, but first we are going to get into a break for a word from our sponsors.
We're back, Thank you sponsors, Yes, thank you. Okay, So we've said it several times. People have been beering beering. They have been brewing beer for a long time.
Yeah, beering for a long time, I think is also a fair phrase.
I think.
I think so, that's why I didn't retake it, and it was correct And for that reason. A lot of the history of different types of beer is inconsistent or just not well documented, and Sayson is one of those cases. It might be one of the worst cases. I'm getting kind of angry just thinking about it. But that being said, shout out to Roll Molder over at Lost Beers for a lot of fact checking on this whole topic.
Yeah. Yeah, And if you are interested in like the intricacies of the history of beers, lost beers dot Com is a terrific blog, really well researched, really well written just good stuff.
Yeah, yes, a lot of documents, including some tax documents that we always bemone that you can click on, and these Beers Beer episodes we always promone. But yes, fantastic source.
Okay.
So, the popular story is that Sezombier's were first brood in rural farmhouses in the Haino province of Belgium during the winters, almost like a winter time hobby for farmers, and then when summer came around, the farmers would drink the beer that they had brood during the winter, and that is why it is sometimes called a farmhouse ale. However, as much as this story is repeated, there really isn't anything at all to back it up, and in fact,
a few things that suggest it probably wasn't true at all. Yeah, but I cannot begin to express how prevalent this story is. Oh yeah, yes, and you warned me about it when you suggested this topic, and I was like, huh.
I wonder.
Wow, Yeah, it really took hold. There is another variation on the story that also doesn't have any real evidence, that the beer was brewed by and four seasonal farmhands or sayson years to keep them hydrated but not tipsy. During summer months, and it may or may not have been part of their payments.
This is part of a lot of.
Issues because they think there's people are taking things out of context that have happened previously. But yeah, there's no proof that happened in this case.
Right because like, certainly some like rustic idyllic brewing was going on on farms here and everywhere that people grow grains.
But like, it's important to note how formalized and interconnected and widespread the brewing industry was around Europe even before the late eighteen hundreds brought us like the Carlsberg labs and isolated yeasts, and like the true factory industrialization of brewing, like companies sold malts and hops from all over village or commercial breweries would sell their beers and rent their space out for people to come in and use their equipment.
So farmers I mean, and other brewers in general would have been making educated decisions on how and where and from what they brewed beer. It wasn't just like, oh well I had this extra like half pound of rye and half pound of wheat, and I found these hops growing along my hedgerow, and so that's what I made my beer out of like they were doing it on purpose, you know. So again, some of it might have been like that.
Can't say, but.
Suffice it to say that what they were making in this region at this time was not necessarily what we would call seisons or farmhouse ales now.
Right, And a part of the confusion seems to be around what exactly a season is and what a farmhouse ale is. A part of it is due to breweries painting this really romanticized you of the countryside and using it to sell their product, and a part of it is due to a popular source that we'll get to
later that is frequently referenced. All right, So the first known instance of what is believed to be a seison beer is from eighteen twenty three, where it was called a march or advent beer that could be kept for months before drinking. The source also describes how this beer was rude in Liege, Belgium, which was a pretty typical industrial city at the time, not really a place you'd find a lot of farmers and farmhouses.
Yeah, Heino is part of the same general region of Belgium as Liege. It's the southern corner of the country. Again, Wallonia, but Heino is on the western end with a border on France, and Liege is on the eastern end, closer to Germany, like a solid sixty kilometers away at its closest point, like forty miles or so, and no like In the eighteen Liege was home to the largest steel manufacturer in the world, So.
Yeah, yes, from there. Subsequent mentions of Seysons and brewing manuals from the eighteen hundreds describe this version from Liege, not the current Seyson styles from Haino. It was largely a mix of unmlted wheat and malted spelt, maybe a little bit sweet at the time. People brewed it in the winter and they would drink it about four to six months later. As early as eighteen sixty two, there were a handful of mentions of double and triple seisons.
There weren't too many, but there were some. Meanwhile, one of the first known references to a bierre de seison in the Hainau region took place in eighteen fifty eight. It's kind of really fun. It's like, if you won this bowling competition at a bar, you could get one.
It was great, okay.
Also, a singer from the region saying about the beer in eighteen sixty one. However, both of these instances took place in an industrial city in the region. The records we do have indicate it wasn't a popular style and haino at the time, despite the fact that so many seemed to believe that is where it originated. The word seyson was often used as more of a descriptor instead of the name of a style or specific beer type.
So like this type of beer for whatever season, usually referring to a beer that was brewed in a certain season and aged for about six months.
Right, it could be a summer beer or a winter beer, depending on what you're talking about.
Yeah, exactly. It wasn't until the end of the nineteenth century that records pop up of folks selling beer de Seizon. That being said, in eighteen sixty six, two Seysons from Haina were sent in to be professionally judged at the International Hops Fare in Dijon, France, which doesn't seem like something a farmer would do. It's hard to say, but I guess the vibe of the sayson is sort of like something you make and then you drink. Yeah, you drink, so I don't know. I can't say definitively, but I
don't know. Hard to say, it is hard to say. By the nineteen hundreds, Seysons seemed to typically refer to low alcohol sour beers, though the alcohol content did go up over the years, and also over the years preferences for pale loggers, larger commercialized breweries, Prohibition and the World Wars almost wiped Seysons from the map, but.
They never really went away. They were certainly in trouble there for a minute. But the well known Seysan DuPont from the Belgian Brasserie DuPont debuted in the nineteen twenties. They first released a higher alcohol Say in nineteen fifty four, and then brown Sayson in the nineteen eighties.
Yes, and the first known the first known written account of this farmhouse ail story is from Brasserie DuPont in nineteen eighty nine. According to them, they've been brewing their Seyson DuPont on a farmhouse brewery since eighteen forty.
Four, and Annie said it earlier. But like the press and marketing about Seyson's to this day is so centered in this farmhouse story. There is this huge nostalgic romanticism about them, because right, you know, they're supposed to be made with what's available and rely on wild yeasts and
not be constrained by rules or regulations. Like seriously, like industry folks wax poetic about the fields trodden by the walloon seesania, the sun on his skin, the burst of refreshment when he pulls from his clay jug of seeson, kept cool in a shallow hole he dug that morning in the rich earth. I am not exaggerating. I read that in like three places. Yes, I think I just
really screwed up French as well there. So you're welcome, But again, like to clarify or I don't know, like like walk that back a little, because that was a little bit snarky of me, Like, there is absolutely history of beers being made on farms for the workers on those farms, and there's no reason to think that farmers and hey, no we're not doing this back in the day, but were what they brewing what we'd call a seison, did what or how they were brewing influence the style
that we now call seison mysteries, histories?
You know, this fields very existential, Lauren, You're asking deep beer questions which is appropriate for this episode.
It is.
Well, like many beer types, Seysons saw a pretty big uptick in revival during the recent craft beer movement. And this brings me to the thing I mentioned earlier, the source that plays into this farmhouse story.
Other than the DuPont marketing right.
Yeah, so specifically four saysons. The two thousand and four book Farmhouse Ales by Phil Markowski boosted its profile on a lot of people's radar. It described different types of Belgium ales, different brewing methods, but also outlined and popularized the unmverified story of the beer being made on farms. That chap was written by a Belgian brewer named Yvonne Debats, by the way, so it was somebody from Belgium who interviewed the people from DuPont.
And it seems like that was their primary source. Yes, yep, yep, But it did put the beer on a lot of people's radar, which is cool. Just ten years later, alig ash I mentioned earlier, they're in an American brewery that does a lot of Belgian style beers. They started up their seison day in twenty fourteen.
I do love that. That's nice, but it did take a while still for seisons to take off in the US, but starting in the mid twenty teens, they really started to gain some traction and proliferate. And I think that farmhouse story, I mean, there's a reason companies brews lashed onto that story. I think it kind of plays into that whole farm to tail, farm to tail, heads, farm to table. Yeah sure, yeah. So I think people are like, oh, this one's a farm that one's the one I want.
Yeah, yeah, and yeah, like like we said, it's it's a fun story because it is that there is some historical accuracy in it. Out there is everything that calls itself a sayson made that way, Nah.
A huge category. Honestly, it really is.
It really is, which which is part of what makes it fun. I also read so many strong opinions about seison's.
In addition to most brewers wanting to tell you about the soft earth underneath the farm workers feet, they also have strong like like oh, man, like it's not really a sayson if it's if it's under five, but over seven, like it's a percent alcohol by volume that is it's you know, like it should never have added herbs or fruit or like that's the way you make it fun or just I just every opposing opinion that one could possibly have about them. I read and I love that.
It's pretty fantastic. And if you are interested, shout out once again to Lost Beers, because there's a whole article that combats this farmhouse ales book.
And it's pretty fun.
He's just like constantly like, show me your source.
It's like I appreciated it.
Yeah, but when I looked at it, it seems like that was hoot and nanny like that.
Yeah, appreciated it a lot. Mm hmmmm.
Certainly made our jobs a lot easier.
Yes, it did. But listeners, if you've got any thoughts, any faves of the Sason, please let us know. But I think that's what we have to say about Sayson Beers for now.
I think it is. We do already have some listener mail for you, though, and we are going to get into that as soon as we get back from one more quick break for a word from our sponsors.
And we're back.
Thank you, sponsors, Yes, thank you, and we're back with right cheers with the Beers, all right. I was thrilled to receive this email, Okay, Kenna wrote Annie. I also first heard of chatah mushrooms from Spy Kids only, I thought they were saying talking mushrooms. My friend would quote this line all the time, and I thought she was also saying talking mushrooms. I have no idea if she got the joke and was actually saying shatake or not.
I thought it was a weird joke that didn't make sense, but as an adolescent, nothing made much sense to me. Then again, I was very small, asterisk. I understood the joke when I went to college and learned that shataki mushrooms are a thing light bulb moments brought to you by the cinematic masterpiece Spy Kids. Back to the asterisks. Small panic that my tree Beard reference won't be noticed, So I need to explain i'd be a terrible comedian. Well, you're in the right company because we've got it.
Oh, yeah, we're both. We would both also be terrible comedians. Yeah, and we also understood the tree Beard reference.
Both both are true.
Both they're true.
I can't tell you how to rilled I was to receive this because it made it. I don't know why. It just made such an impact on me as a kid, And this is it's very funny when you're a kid and you don't.
Quite get the joke.
Oh yeah, yeah, but.
It's still lingers.
Yeah, you understand that it's supposed to be funny and it's just in your brain somewhere, and then you're.
Like, oh, yeah, I really appreciate that. It was college when you were like, ah, that's my kid's joke, got it.
I can't say that I ever watched that movie. I was a little bit too old for it when it came out. But I understand that it was made by Robert Rodriguez because he wanted to make a movie, you know, who normally makes like a lot of like very gory, very horrific films, and he was like, I want to make something that my kids can watch that I can enjoy with them. So I understand it's great.
It was really fun.
It's got a lot of fun like visual gags. Yeah, it was really you know, the way when you talk about something that maybe you haven't thought about in forever. I noticed it was playing on HBO this weekend, Spikes.
I could watch Spike Kids. I did it, but.
I could have you could have.
Yeah, yeah, maybe I tend to watch kids movies when like I'm home six, so the next time, the next time I come down with the cold, I'll make sure it's on my list. You should you should watch it, Holly wrote, I'm sure I'm not the first to mention the automatically generated transcript on the iHeartRadio app, but Lauren's last name is usually scripted as vocal bomb, like bomb, and it makes me laugh every single time. AI is useful, but not perfect for my short message, I shall pay
some cat tax. This is mo Kitty, who just listened to the Chatake episode with me.
The Teenager.
Yes.
Yeah, the photo is.
Of a beautiful tabby girl who has a small tennis ball that she appears to be blatantly ignoring at the current moment, and it was apparently taken on her birthday and she's now a teenager. So sweet, buddy, Oh my goodness.
Very cute.
Also, you know, I have a lot of thoughts about AI and how it shouldn't be used for as many things as it's being used for right now, and how it is not in fact intelligence of any kind at the current moment. But I think it's onto something with vocal bomb because that's a pretty good descriptor.
I feel like that you could use that as a stage name.
Yeah.
Yeah, karaoke night. You could be like, here comes a vocal bomb. I think there's a lot of room here for you to work with this.
Yeah. Yeah, that's that's pretty smart.
It is, well, we'll workshop it for for sure.
A vocal bomb bomb is my handle on a lot of social media. So yeah, I think this is pretty The vocal bomb is very on the nose. I like it.
Yeah, I do too.
Hello.
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