Suresh with Wooden Ship’s saison, Saison!
October 22, 2026
We kicked off our Beer Education series—or, Beerducation, as I am trying to make catch on—at the ship this Thursday, October 22, in the Starboard Room.
Our topic was saisons, the farmhouse ale that made Wooden Ship famous, or so I’ve heard. It’s light, bright, and crisp, with notes of black pepper and cardamom, although the latter is not super strong in Wooden Ship’s current saison on tap: Saison.
Wooden Ship always has a saison on tap, it’s what we were doing in the early days, when we were just starting out and getting as creative as we could. The saison is sort of a “blank canvas,” Suresh said, impressionable and pairs well, which lends itself to experimentation.
“No two saisons are the same,” they said. “There is no bar to uphold.”
The saison was first popularized by the French brewery Brasserie Dupont. And yes, brasserie means brewery, as we all learned for the first time in this tasting. Their style is available in the U.S., sitting at 6.5% ABV. Today, this is the BJCP standard, although traditional saisons are in the 3-5% range.
The saison traces its history back to Wallonia, a French-speaking region of Belgium, where farmers wanted a beer that was hydrating after long hours out in the field. The name comes from these seasonal workers, “saisoners.”
The beer is also seasonal, and flavors changed throughout as different crops were harvested, berries ripened, and with the whims of brewers shifted. It is typically brewed with wild fermentation, which gives it its bite, and as the fermentation process continues in the keg, the saison’s dryness becomes more pronounced.
In the U.S., the saison hit the craft scene pretty early; beer writer Michael Jackson contextualized it in the 70s and 80s as local breweries were taking off. The saison specifically didn’t gain as much traction as the pale ale and adjacent styles.
Suresh said a lot of breweries are hesitant because of the diastaticus STA1-positive gene in wild-style yeast used to make saisons. It is the reason for the dry, crisp finish, but it is also a “contaminant” that is hard to clean. Not for Wooden Ship, though; we’re different.
The Wooden Ship saison is dry and astringent, with a mealy apple flavor. As the beer oxidizes in the glass, a horse blanket flavor comes out, which—although it sounds a little odd—is the making of a good saison and reminiscent of the beer brewed in and around barns.
Wooden Ship’s Saison, one fresh from the tap, one sitting for two hours
Tips for drinking saison, according to Suresh:
Warm it in your hand, so the farmy “horse blanket” aroma is exposed.
Be wary of the patio saison, as it can be “light struck” as the hops and alpha acids isomerize and off-flavors arise
It pairs well with goat cheese. This was the only food they gave, much to the dismay of Linsey, who said they think goat cheese tastes like kissing a goat.
