On the farm: Saison Dupont

Mindy, being an animal science major, gets to take all sorts of neat applied courses.  One of her classes, an animal behavior lab, has her doing a self designed research experiment.  Texas A&M has a massive animal science complex; for the project she can use some of the animals around, as long as she doesn’t mess anything up.  A few days ago, one of the big mama Yorkshires had a litter of piglets (which is the technical wording).  Mindy had already seen the babies in class, but she wanted to show our roommate and me.

Hungry little bugger

Those little guys were awesome.  They were pale pink and about the length of my forearm.  The kept crawling under each other trying to get warm.  The big mama was really docile.  She was still nursing so she was stuck in the farrowing pen. I stood there and scratched behind her ear for about 5 minutes, it’s one of the only spots on a pig’s body that isn’t covered by rough little hairs.  We didn’t stay too long, because there’s really not much you can do hanging out in a pig sty, but it was still an enjoyable experience.  You can’t study agriculture without some real world application.

After we got back home, I decided to pop open my bottle of Saison Dupont I’d purchased a week prior.  Historically, Saisons were made for Belgian farmers and laborers.  So, after hanging out with farm animals, drinking a farmhouse ale seemed so right.  This particular beer is brewed by La Brasserie Dupont, a family owned brewery in Hainaut.  The brewery sits on a farm where similar style beers have been brewed since the 1750s.  In 2005, Men’s Journal named Saison Dupont “the best beer in the world.”  This, along with the overall microbrewing renaissance, has led to increased interest in the style.

Lots of action in this photo

My particular bottle of Saison Dupont was a 750ml green bottle (750ml being the standard size for wine).  You could see the yeast caked up against the side from being stored on its side.  The bottle was corked, not capped.  As I eased the cork off it popped and shot towards the ceiling; Mindy jumped a bit but I just laughed.

I poured the beer into two small glasses, one for me and one for Mindy.  The pour on both of them yielded about 3 fingers of fizzy white head.  There was quite a lot of carbonation in this brew.  The head settled into a cloudy pale straw color with a little yeast sediment swirling around.

The beer smelled very earthy, maybe a bit musty.  It also had a hint of lemon.  The initial flavor note was zesty lemon rind, a little acidic taste.  Following that was a mild doughy yeast flavor, and the last note I tasted was lasting farmhouse funkiness.  The beer was refreshing, attributed to being so heavily carbonated and light in body.  After the swallow, the funkiness leaves your mouth in a few seconds and leaves a clean palate.

I’d rate Saison Dupont 4 out of 5.  The must and funk weren’t flavors I look for in a beer, maybe they’re acquired tastes.  I enjoyed this brew, but I wasn’t amazed by it, which is what I assumed would happen.  It’s the second Belgian beer I’ve had that has let me down a bit.  I really don’t think it lived up to “beer of the year” hype.  I think a little hype can really help fuel demand for a brew and lead to great exposure for a brewery, but sometimes too much hype sets up for a letdown.