Saison Taste Variances

[gallowd7]

One of my favorite beers is Ommegang's Hennepin, which I tried to recreate last year. Very floral, slightly yeasty, some alcohol taste. My homebrew version had all of that but a little "more" in a bad way which I chalked up to an infection. Well I have tried several siasons over the past few months, some good , some not so good. Never quite recreating the Hennepin, not as floral and "big".

Here's my point: I just bought a six of Clipper City's Red Sky at Night, saison. I am very fond of Clipper City beers, but this one tasted more on the homebrew side of saison than the Hennepin side. It is by far the closest thing to the Hennepin, but a little funky none the less.

What is a good representation of a saison? Anyone had both the Hennepin and the Clipper City? Is my homebrew (now over a year old) not bad afterall?

[studentofbeer]

from the bit ive read about saisons, they are generally spiced and their ingredients are quite secretive. often things like pepper, coriander. ommegang does a great job in recreating a belgian farmhouse ale. i haven't had clipper city's, but ive had new belgium's saison and though decent, couldn't hold a candle to hennepin.

note that saison is a very wide-ranging style with lots of variation from farmhouse to farmhouse. saison dupont is different from fantome saison which is different from saison st. pipaix, etc. though they do all have a certain common thread running through them. maybe try to find a bottle of one of these belgian classics for comparison.

lots of saisons do have a bit of a funky flavor tho, so it may be ok.

[chazwicke]

I've had the Clipper City but not Hennepin. I believe I sampled a saison at one of the breweries in PA this past weekend. I had so many different that I can't remember where though.