This combination of radically different flavours, textures, and fat content is enough to give anyone other than a world-class Sommelier nightmares.

For a beer connoisseur, it’s easy – give me a good Saison or French Farmhouse ale, and we’re done.

The explosive carbonation lifts the fats off your tongue – goodbye butter. There’s a sweetness in there that plays nicely with the turkey and the sweet potatoes (and brown sugar or marshmallows, depending which way you like to make it).

There’s a sharp acidity in there that laughs at the cranberries, and there is a final sharp snap of bitterness from the hops that scours your tongue, leaving it refreshed and waiting for the next bite.

Wine with my Thanksgiving meal? No thanks! Give me a Saison and I will give thanks

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Beerlicious articles by Stuart Carter, stuart@beerlicious.net is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-No Derivative Works 3.0 United States License.

WHERE ARE THE MUSHROOMS?!

The meal was another kit dealie.  Passable.  It really needed mushrooms, and we didn’t have any on hand (and the box didn’t suggest adding them, gasp).   And the flavor needed a little more punch.  It was extremely mild.  But decent.

So.  Chicken Marsala.  That’s made with wine (yes, there’s actually a packet of marsala cooking wine in the kit).  “But Danner!” you say.  “Surely you need to pair wine with an Italian dish made with wine.”  “Never!” I say.  I’m pretty obnoxious in my unwavering belief in the superiority of beer over wine in every way imaginable.  I harbor deep-seated resentments over wine’s undeserved status as the high-class beverage of choice in fine restaurants.   And I’m quite bitter that I’ve never been to an Italian restaurant with a decent beer selection, when Italian food is my favorite style of food.

I’ve been holding onto this Le Merle for quite a while now, waiting to spring it upon an unsuspecting Italian dish.  I decided tonight was the night to crack it open.  I actually didn’t even realize when I bought it that it was brewed by North Coast.  I just saw the word “saison” on the label and picked it up without much thought.  I’m constantly in search of great saisons.  I try them all, hoping one day to find another brewery that “gets it” the way Fantome gets it.

I noticed the North Coast brand tonight before I popped the cork, and I knew instantly it would be in the Dupont ballpark of saisons, not the Fantome ballpark, before I even opened the bottle.  North Coast is a great brewery (their Red Seal is one of my all-time faves), but I just knew they’d go for something similar to Saison Dupont and Hennepin.  And I was right.

It matters not.  I felt like either type of saison would work with chicken marsala.  And Le Merle didn’t prove me wrong.  It is very similar to a Belgian strong golden ale, with plenty of fruity esters and some nice spicy phenols from the yeast.  Really well done as non-Fantome Belgian beers go.  Plenty in common with some dry white wines, only better.

It paired perfectly with chicken marsala.  I can’t imagine having to suffer through some boring grape juice instead of a good beer here.  Not that you’ll ever find a good saison or Belgian pale ale in an Italian restaurant, but if God himself intervenes and places one on an Italian beer list somewhere, spring for it.  Superb.

Recipe was great.  Of course no raw onions for me.  I carmelized them, actually.  Also, it’s twentysomething degrees outside, and as much as I love grilling, I’m not cooking outside in this weather.  So I quasi-blackened the chicken in a skillet.  Still quite good.

I chose the beer because I was hoping it might be closer to a Fantome-style saison than a Dupont-style saison. Because the label tells me it was imported by the Shelton Brothers, and they really know their sh*t.  They are the ones that bring Cantillon lambics to the U.S., which are the finest in the world IMO.

So I was hoping for maybe a little tartness, which I felt would go beautifully with the lemon-balsamic vinegar-dill flavors destined to predominate in the dish.  No dice.  Saison Voisin is a fine saison–better than Saison Dupont–with some nice earthy flavors.  And it did work with the chicken souvlaki. Good, not great.

I found myself longing for a hefeweizen.  Plenty of lemon in the marinade, and some lemon in the tzatziki sauce, and that really would have worked just right with a hefe.

The recipe is definitely worth revisiting, and next time I’ll put it with some world class Olde Towne Hefeweizen.

Not Hennepin. Not Saison Dupont. Or is it?

Beerwise, I pulled out something I was sure would work, but didn’t:  Victory Brewing’s Saison

I have encountered two very different takes on the saison style: those brewed by Brasserie Fantôme, and everything else.  Fantôme saisons are all crazy earthy and funky, sometimes tart, and incredibly complex.  Sometimes using fruit in very subtle, non-cloying ways.  All others seem to be little more than slight variations on Saison Dupont, which is just barely distinguishable from a common Belgian pale ale.

Considering the history of the style, which involved Belgian farmers making “house” beers with a wide variety of ingredients they had around the farm, it seems safe to assume that Fantôme gets closer to the saisons of days long past.

Like so many others, Victory’s take on the style seems to be little more than a typical Belgian pale ale fermented with the Saison Dupont strain of yeast.  Which makes for a very good beer, don’t get me wrong.  It just falls short of the complexity and earthy/funky glory of the Fantôme lineup.

All that said, the matchup here was not right.  Although the beer was very good by Belgian pale ale standards (as opposed to Fantôme standards), it just didn’t work with the leftover chicken alfredo bake.  Strange clash.  A bit of that harshness I’ve encountered with my ill-fated malty pairings, even though this is not at all a malty beer.

Hmm.