Saison Dupont, produced by the Dupont brewery in West-Hainaut, Belgium, was named best beer in the world by Men's Journal. It scores a 99 on Rate Beer and an A- on Beer Advocate. I had it for the first time tonight, which is strange for I am a disciple of the saison. There's no doubt that it is a tasty beer, but I feel that it is definitely over-hyped. For me it does not crack my top 20, and I would say that it is not even my favorite saison of all time. Full disclosure, I am a member of what BYO describes in it's July-August issue as the "cult of American saison". I feel that American brewer's have taken this style to new heights with the use of American hops and by drying out the beer especially on the finish. That being said, I would go with a Fantome over a Dupont any day of the week if I'm going for a Belgian saison.
Like I said the beer is tasty and full flavored, no doubt. It has some good spice and funk to compliment the fruitness of the the yeast and hops and the grainy pilsner back bone. All that is good, but the beer has this overtone of beeriness, or what I call "old man flavor". It's hard to really explain or even pinpoint what that flavor is. It basically tastes like someone poured out a case of miller lite into the 30 barrel batch right before it hit the fermenters. It might be that they used old or possibly too much pilsner malt in the grist. Not really sure, all I know is that I taste a flavor that I consider to be off.
As far as the ratings and accolades go, I'm not saying it deserves poor marks. But a 99 on Rate Beer? It's good, but not a 99. If we're doing Beer Advocate scoring, I would give it B-. If they cleaned up that one off flavor I'd push it to a B+ or maybe higher. For some good American Saison, check out McKenzie's brew house in Malvern PA, Brooklyn's Sorachi Ace, or Ommegang Hennepin. Cheers.
