You’re probably asking yourself, “How did this guy become a Mustang Daily beer critic?”
It’s not because I drink more beer than you. While I have quite a healthy beer belly, I tend not to binge drink because frankly, it’s too expensive with the kind of beers I enjoy.
In fact, if you’re reading this and think you know more about beer than me, you probably do.
I’m not a sophisticated drinker either, at least not in the terms that you might read from old school beer critics. I won’t tell you that a beer has a “hazy oakwood texture to it” because really, what the hell is that?
So the bottom line is, I guess I’m just lucky.
So lucky in fact that last weekend I got my hands on a bottle of Foret saison ale from Brasserie Dupont in Belgium.
Saison ales originated in France where they were created as refreshment for farmers working in the warm summer months. Traditionally, a saison, or farmhouse ale, would have very low alcohol percentages. It was the Coca-Cola of the day. People didn’t drink a saison ale to get plastered, they drank it to cool down in the heat.
Saison translated from French to English means ‘season’. It was seasonal in the strictest sense because there was no modern refrigeration. It was brewed in the autumn or winter for consumption in the summer. If it wasn’t all gone by the end of summer, it was bad. Because of saison’s short life span, many farmers were allowed up to five liters a day. Could you imagine drinking five liters of beer a day?
Me neither.
Luckily for us, saisons and Foret specifically have a higher concentration of alcohol than they used to. Foret is 7.5 percent, roughly a 20 percent increase from most standard beers. There’s no need to drink five liters of this delicious brew.
Like many farmhouse ales, it pours a distinct straw color. I had heard that saisons have a big head but the glasses I poured were very minimal. It had a slight citrus scent with a tinge of spiciness — the Belgians know how to spice their beers. There wasn’t a lot of sediment like I normally see in Belgian beer, but there aren’t many saison brews readily available here so I wasn’t sure what to expect.
It had a very light and crisp citrus flavor to me. It was very enjoyable on a warm weekend afternoon. My roommate who also had a glass remarked that it went down smooth and didn’t have the harsh aftertaste of most beers.
Foret claims to be a wholly organic beer, one of the few in the world to make that claim, and nature is what it reminds me of.
It’s the kind of beer that should be enjoyed after a long day of arduous work, or after a nice hike. It’s the reward for a job well done.
With the warm days of summer approaching, Foret is the kind of brew to come home from work and relax to.
Saisons are probably not for everyone. It’s more of a refreshing drink than a ‘Let’s get drunk’ kind of drink. It also has more of a citrus taste than people might expect from a beer. But trust me, it’s not Smirnoff Ice. It’s a beer, with a citrus feel, and it’s very good.