At Beer School on June 4th, we’ll be discussing the saison beer style and beers brewed with ‘Brett’ aka Brettanomyces. I’ve included the Beer Judge Certification Program (BJCP) style guidelines for each style, along with a few articles to read and a video. See you Thursday!
Saison:
The BJCP 2015 Style Guidelines for Saison:
https://dev.bjcp.org/style/2015/25/25B/saison/
From All About Beer Magazine:
Bryan Roth tells us the story of Saison Dupont, the beer that has largely come to define the saison style today.
http://allaboutbeer.com/article/saison-dupont/
Brett Beer:
An introduction from VinePair:
If you’re new to Brett beers, start here for this helpful introduction.
https://vinepair.com/wine-blog/what-is-brettanomyces-and-what-is-it-doing-in-my-beer/
The BJCP 2015 Style Guidelines for Brett Beer:
https://dev.bjcp.org/style/2015/28/28A/brett-beer/
(A quick note on the above, BJCP classifies Brett Beer is a Specialty-Type Beer, not a Classic Style. Here’s what that means: “The Classic Styles stand alone and can be fully described in a standard BJCP style description. Specialty-Type Beers involve some form of transformation of either a Classic Style or another base beer, either though adding additional ingredients, or handling the beer differently using an alternative process. The Specialty-Type Beer style descriptions cannot completely describe a style on their own, as Classic Style write-ups do. Rather, the Specialty-Type Beer style descriptions discuss how the additional ingredient or process affects the base beer style.” Emphasis added.)
The Cicerone Certification Program’s ‘Tasting Together: Orval’
In this video, Master Cicerone Pat Fahey leads a guided tasting of one of the best known (and much loved) Brett beers, Orval. (It’s the beer I’ll be drinking on Thursday and I can’t wait!)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jxAHFrBRMY8
Bonus read from Craft Beer & Brewing Magazine:
If you’ve got the time/headspace for one more, this piece by Dave Carpenter digs further into the different strains of Brett and the different ways it can be use in brewing.
https://beerandbrewing.com/the-many-faces-of-brett-overview/
See you on Thursday, June 4th at 6:30pm BST!
Natalya Watson, Beer Sommelier 