Today I'm having a Saison beer, it's the time of the year :)
In Belgium we have a beer style known as "Saison" Sometimes in English this is considered an IPA, but Belgian Farmhouse Ale is also often seen, which is more correct. I understand the IPA designation however, since in fact, it is a similar solution to a similar problem.
Saison (or farmhouse ale), is traditionally a beer produced at the large Walloon farms from the 1800's. Farms relied heavily on seasonal labour over the summer season, but that meant that you would be trying to rehire your employees every year again. At the same time, as a farm, you can produce the basic ingredients for beer, and on that farm, there is very little work in winter. And in times before modern cooling, brewing could only take place in winter. So brewing beer was a logical combination with farm activity: You have access to the ingredients, and you can employ your staff year round. When not farming, you're brewing, and vice versa.
So why saison? Most likely these breweries brewed all kinds of beers, but back in the day, beer spoiled quickly, and was brewn to be drank immediately.
However, one of the most important feasts in the year takes place just after harvest (as in right about now). And that means that for one of the biggest feasts, there is no beer.
Hence the solution: more heavily hopped beers :). Hops are used in beer because they give flavour, but they also have an antibacterial effect, preventing spoilage. Therefore, adding a hefty dose of hops will keep your beer fresh for longer, Therefore Saison beers were heavily hopped, beers, based around malted barley and wheat, usually around 6%, and carefully brewn, and than saved untill the end of the harvest, about half a year, or even longer, later.
IPA's had to solve the same issue of beers which spoiled quickly, but under far more severe circumstances (prior to the suez canal, any ships bound for India had to sail around Africa, and this in a pre cooling era, meant that any regular beer shipped from England to India would be undrinkable by the time it arrived. VERY, VERY heavily hopped beer however, was both very antibacterial, and so extremely bitter that even if somewhat off, you're consumer wouldn't taste it.
THis is not the case in a saison, they are far from as bitter as an IPA, since there was no need for that. (That being said, today, IPA's have become a lot more aromatic and a lot less bitter than in the past. The very very bitter styles of 10 years ago, where probably historically more accurate (though far too high in alcohol compared to the "original" stuff.).
The Saison Vandekelder, is a small local beer, barley malt, wheat, clear hoppy bitterness, 37 IBU according to the label, which for the style is on par (IBU stand for International Bitterness Units), 1IBU equals 1mg of iso-alfa-acids/L, which makes it fairly easy to calculate your desired bitterness when brewing a new beer.
