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What Is a Farmhouse Ale?

Thomas Short — Fri, 31 Oct 2025 17:00:57 +0000

A while back, I wrote an article about saisons and used an image of a farmhouse. In that article (which you should read if you didn’t already), you might have thought to yourself that saisons are farmhouse ales. If we start to bucket saisons and farmhouse ales as the same type of brew, then we need to ask ourselves: what is a farmhouse ale? What’s the difference between farmhouse beers and saisons? What’s the meaning behind naming these beers? What’s the point of anything? Before we tread down that existential path, let’s start with the basics: creating an arbitrary definition for farmhouses. And no, not that the big red kind that you find on farms, though we should sit down and do that sometime. What Makes a Beer a Farmhouse Ale? Farmhouses are ales, as opposed to lagers. Back in the day, hundreds of years ago in Europe, farmers would have tons of grain. Instead of using all of that grain just for bread, farmers decided to make beer, too. Farmhouse ales came about as the beers that farmers would make in their farmhouses. But why would farmers go through the effort of making beer? Well, aside from the obvious reason (to enjoy alcohol), check out this spicy nugget from Wikipedia: “This was in a time when it was safer to drink beer than water.” Woof. So, farmers from countries like France and Belgium would brew farmhouse beers to stay alive. And now we get to meticulously judge the quality of their farmhouse descendants! Ok, back on track. We know what made beer farmhouses, but what currently makes a beer a farmhouse ale? Like most things in life, the answer is open-ended and largely unsatisfying: the brewer calls it one. Sure, brewers can adhere to traditional farmhouse brewing methods like using wild, tamed, and even feral yeasts, and they can even brew their beers in beautiful red barns. But at the end of the day, farmhouse ales generally just have a common profile with each other. It’s sort of like when you drink an IPA and say, “Oh ya, that’s an IPA.” Then your girlfriend says, “How do you know it’s an IPA?” and you reply, “Because it’s more India than a pale ale.” But also because it has strong hoppy notes and flavors and appeals to people all over, as an IPA does. What Does a Farmhouse Ale Taste Like? Farmhouse ales tend to be more bitter and tart than a traditional ale, but without being as sour as something like a sour ale. The flavor comes from the hops, but malt flavor in farmhouse ales is pretty common. The yeasts in farmhouses tend to eat lots of sugar, so these beers don’t have many sweet flavors. They can also be really fizzy thanks to increased carbonation. More often than not, a farmhouse has a crisp, blonde-looking color to it. Some darker farmhouses exist, but expect a lighter-looking beer. The farmhouse style essentially owes much of its style to the yeasts. Again, farmhouses come in many shapes and sizes, but these traits are more common than not. Is a Farmhouse the Same as a Saison? A saison is a traditionally French or Belgian farmhouse ale. It’s sort of the square-rectangle thing in that all saisons are farmhouse ales, but not all farmhouse ales are saisons. Answer not satisfying, you say? Well, what if I told you that the terms “farmhouse” and “saison” are primarily American terms and don’t mean the same thing in other areas of the world?! Yes, the terminology is that arbitrary. Saisons, Biere de Gardes, Grisettes, and So On Here’s the bottom line: beer isn’t something you create and slap a box label on. What’s the difference between a saison and other farmhouse ales? What’s the difference between a pale ale, IPA, DIPA, and the curse triple IPA? What’s the difference between a porter and a stout? To regurgitate perhaps one of the best legal quotes of all time, “I know it when I see it.“ Good brewers have a handle on what they’re trying to make. If their goal is a farmhouse ale with wonderful lemongrass notes, that’s probably what they’ll end up with. Could we call it a light and lemongrassy pale ale? Sure, if we really want. Hell, we could call it boozy lemongrass water. But the more beer you try, the more you notice the differences between, say, an IPA and a farmhouse ale. Yes, the yeasts are different and the hop profiles vary, but there’s no “perfect” way to differentiate the two. The same goes for different farmhouses. I have no doubt that saisons and biere de gardes are different. How can I tell they’re different? Because when I order a saison I expect different flavors and notes than when I order a biere de garde. So, the best way to determine what is a farmhouse ale is by drinking farmhouse ales.

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What’s an Ale?

Thomas Short — Mon, 21 Jul 2025 15:59:41 +0000

In some places around the world, people might ask for an ale when they really want to get any type of beer. It’s sort of like when someone asks for a Coke but actually wants a Sprite (I’ve seen it happen). So, to some people, ale just means beer. But there’s more to it than that, right? After all, we have all sorts of types of ales, such as the IPA, pale ale, and blonde ale. Ales come in different forms, but can we have an ale that’s just an ale? What Exactly is an Ale? To answer the whole “what is an ale” question, we should stop and break down the main ingredient. When ales were first becoming popular hundreds of years ago, brewers were not using hops. Instead, they used all sorts of other bitter ingredients and mixed them to create a flavouring called gruit. As you can imagine, this created a very unique style of beer. At some point in human history, gruit started to fade away and was replaced by hops. Flavor-wise, hops and gruit both add that sort of bitterness to your beer, so both are perfectly fine for making an ale. Sure, you can still find some old-timey breweries that might brew with gruit, but hops are considered the norm and are one of the five main ingredients in beer. The whole hops thing shouldn’t come as a surprise – after all, IPAs are hoppy and they are ales (with a few differences). Is There Such a Thing as a Regular Ale? If we were to make an ale that’s strict to the recipe – warm fermentation, hops, or even gruit – then yes, we would have one plain old beer…that somebody would be bound to categorize. The truth is that people don’t want to sit down and order an ale. It’s too boring. Why order an ale when you can order a brown ale? One of them sounds like a mystery beer, while the other is going to be brown. No mysteries in brown flavor. Why not order an IPA instead? An ale could taste like anything, but an IPA is hoppy. See the problem here? We like to subdivide all these beer types to get as specific as possible. It’s sort of like how business people use all these fancy terms. Synergize all you want, business people, I still hate your lingo. If you’ve had an IPA, brown, pale, old ale, or even a barleywine, then you’re drinking ales. It’s a style of beer that has created a million more sub-styles, so we can get as specific as possible, all while somehow also making it incredibly difficult to become fluent in beer speak. (Pro tip: I’ve compiled a list of beer buzz words you can use next time you have a beer with friends to impress them and make them like you more.) So, next time you’re out talking about beer, and as long as you aren’t drinking a lager, just keep calling your beer an ale. You’ll sound like you know exactly what you’re doing.

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Food That Goes With Beer

Thomas Short — Sat, 27 May 2023 19:15:27 +0000

Forget about pairing your white wines with whatever type of food goes with white wine. We’re here to talk beer! Finding foods that go with beer isn’t as easy as “white beers for fish” or “red beers for steak.” Alas, if only it were that easy. Beers are complex, and different styles can have wildly different flavors. Honestly, the flavor from one IPA to another IPA can be so different that it’s tough to accept that they are both IPAs. The best we can do is generalize the styles and find out what works well with them. Don’t worry, you don’t need to sit down and come up with your own pairing list – I’ve done it for you. Food and Beer Pairing: The Basics I’m sure that some culinary experts could create a list of fantastic basic rules for beer paring with food, and I’m also sure that experts can disagree on just about every point. So, here’s my amateur opinion on food and beer pairing that, considering my years of experience, holds some value. Think About Regional Trends Having sausages? Try something German. Eating a burger? An American ale or lager would be great. Cuisine isn’t just some happy accident — experts in flavor and taste have spent years honing in on regional ingredients to create the perfect dishes. It only makes sense that beers from the same region would match the broader taste profile. Drink What You Enjoy If you absolutely hate sours but some random internet article is telling you that you have to pair your meal with a sour, just don’t. Trust this random internet article instead and drink what you enjoy. Just don’t mistake this tip for “don’t try anything new,” since I encourage trying new things. But I don’t encourage intentionally having things you don’t like. Don’t Do Too Much Don’t do too much. Don’t maple syrup on a steak. Don’t deep-fry fruit. Don’t pair a DDH IIIPA with a funnel cake. Just don’t do it. Too much is too much, and you’re going to literally destroy your ability to ever taste anything again if you do too much. You’ll also gross out everyone around you, and maybe even yourself. So just don’t do it. Trust Your Gut If it sounds good, it’s probably good. If it sounds bad, it’s probably bad. Truly, pairing beer and food can be this simple. Beers to Pair with Foods Instead of doing a long list of foods and saying “drink this and that,” I’m going with the quicker, more sensical route of starting with the type of beer and suggesting the foods that pair with it. This just seems so much simpler to do, and it saves you from having to scroll down a full page of text looking for some specific meal. What to Pair with Ales The trusty ale should be paired with trusty foods, and nothing is trustier than a hamburger. Also, good with ales are just about any fried food, anything with nuts, cheddar cheese, nachos…basically anything that you’d find on a traditional pub menu. What to Pair with Lagers Lagers are going to be your closest thing to white wine, and by that, I mean you should drink a lager if you’re eating seafoods, sushi, shellfish, etc. Also, good with a lager: chicken and spicy foods, as well as many pasta dishes. What to Pair with IPAs The bitterer brother of the ale, IPAs are going to pair well with the same foods as ales. I’d also say that spicy food work well with IPAs since the bitter hoppy flavor and the spice can really pack a 1-2 punch. What to Pair with Pilsners Like lagers, pilsners will go better with seafood than most beers. However, if you’re planning a salmon dinner then you should definitely pick a pilsner. Spicy foods pair will with pilsners as well, so Mexican or Asian dishes with spice will taste even better. What to Pair with Porters Anything that feels heavy should go with a porter. Chili, barbecue and most meats are going to be good compliments to the classic porter style. What to Pair with Stouts Because stouts and porters have so much in common, you can easily get away with substituting one for the other in a beer pairing. Since stouts can sometimes run a little sweet, salty foods might taste particularly good. What to Pair with Hefeweizens Light beers like hefeweizens deserve lighter fare. Any type of salad should go well with a hefe, as well as different types of fruits. There’s a reason people put citrus in hefes, you know! What to Pair with Barleywines I’m not sure how anyone can make room in their stomach while drinking barleywine, but the only way to pair with this has to be a dessert. Something decadent and small might be good, like a cheesecake, something with cinnamon or even cookies. Just grab some dessert!

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Yeasts In Beer: What Does Yeast Do?

Thomas Short — Tue, 23 May 2023 17:47:52 +0000

At one point during in this blog I delineated all beer types into two distinct groups: ales and lagers. Is this oversimplifying? Yes. But guess what? I had a good reason to do it: Yeast. Yeast is up there with mold in the category of things that I don’t completely understand and don’t have a burning desire to learn everything about. But both are types of fungi and I do love mushrooms on pizza. And I also love beer, which uses yeast as one the main ingredients. The main yeast in beer, Saccharomyces cerevisiae, is the type of yeast used in baking, wine making and brewing. But there are various strains of this, much like there are different types of mold. Top-fermenting yeast is used for ales, and bottom-fermenting yeast is used for lagers. Top-fermenting yeast, if you were wondering, works well in warmer temperatures. It got its name because the yeast rises to the top of the beer during the fermenting process. Bottom-fermenting yeast, if you were still wondering, likes colder temperatures. It got its name because the yeast settles at the bottom of the brew. And the other differences between how these yeasts work? Well, you can learn more by reading about lagers and ales. (Spoiler: they create different types of beer.) But guess what! That’s not the only yeast involved in beer. No sir, not anymore. Gettin’ Hyphae With Yeasts Yeasts sometimes have little guys called hyphae, which is pronounced “hyphy.” I probably could have come up with a better joke or pun but I didn’t (get over it). Ok, here’s how yeasts work: yeasts are alive and they love sugar. The more sugar they eat, the more byproduct they produce, which is alcohol and carbon dioxide. Just think of alcohol as yeast poops and carbon dioxide as yeast farts, and you get the idea. So, the alcoholic content and the fun fizziness of your barley pop comes from the yeasts. Without yeasts, you would just have a sweet, sugary, flat drink. The yeasts also produce a lot of the unique flavors you find in beer. The neat thing is that we’re still learning about all the different yeasts and how they can make us better beers. Being Picky With Yeast In today’s modern world of brewing, brewers are able to use pure strains of yeast, giving them better control over beer. But this wasn’t always the case. Back in the good old days (before people really started understanding yeast), most beer was a little sour. Why? Because yeast types were mixing together! This is sometimes referred to as spontaneous fermentation. Where is this sour flavor coming from? Our good yeasty friend Brettanomyces Lambicus. Brett, for those who don’t regularly drink funky farmhouse beers, is what we call both the flavor of the beer and the goo left at the bottom of the bottle. The goo is just the Brettanomyces yeasts. What flavor does this produce, you ask? Why, the sour flavor! So, if I were to revise the beer categories, I might say there are three types of beer: ales, lagers and sours. This is because they are using very different types of yeast. Brettanomyces is making a huge comeback nowadays. For decades, brewers tried to get pure strains of Sacc. Today, brewers are looking for pure strains of Brett. As brewers gain better knowledge of yeasts, there will be many more exciting beer flavors produced!

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Tripel and Quadrupel Ales

Thomas Short — Tue, 19 Dec 2017 18:08:34 +0000

Beers are always trying to one-up each other, and the tripel and quadrupel styles are (sort of) results of that trend. A few years back, every IPA brewery was trying to make the hoppiest West Coast bad boy they could. Today, tons of popular breweries are trying to make beers so hazy that you can cut through them with a knife. But of course, forcing ABV to ungodly levels has always been important for brewers and beer drinkers alike. Why buy a 7% ale when we can get a 10% ale? This isn’t why tripels and quadrupels first came about, but Americans have taken these classic, name-brand styles and made them into the beautiful boozy monsters they are today. Tripel Ale – A History Tripel (pronounced ‘triple’) can be traced back to at least the mid 1950’s to Trappist, a dope brewery chain thing located in Europe and America. Trappist style beers are pretty much all top-fermented ales, although there are some lagers thrown into the mix. For the most part, their beers can be divided into two categories: dubbel and tripel, or double and triple. At one point in time Trappist also made singles, but those have since fallen out of favor. Dubbel and tripel beers originally measured the malt and gravity of beers, but they’ve since been used to describe a range of ABV. Generally speaking, dubbels are going to be near the 6% range while tripels hit the 9% range. Tripel, which by the 1950’s was a brand name for Trappist, slowly made its way into beerspeak, and Americans decided to take the word and slam it on any heavy ale they were making. The result? The Belgian Tripel, a classic style that many breweries have adopted. Generally speaking, Belgian-Style Tripels hit near that 9% range and don’t have particularly high IBUS. They’re light in color, pretty clear and carry a slight spice flavor. Quadrupel Ales – Straying from God’s Light At some point in history, a Trappist brewer thought, “hmm…9-10% isn’t doing it for me anymore.” They then proceeded to make quadrupels. The best way to describe quadrupels (pronounced ‘quadruple’) is any Trappist-Style Belgian ale that hits above the 10% ABV mark. While it’s a brand name for one of the Trappist breweries, some other breweries have started adopting this. With a quardupel, you’ll basically be getting a pretty dark, strong ale with tons of spice flavor – and plenty of booze. In my opinion, there are some good quadrupels out there. Also in my opinion, there are plenty of quadrupels where some brewer at some point should have taken a look in the mirror and said, “what have I become.” By forcing the ABV so high, you really start to lose a lot of those Belgian-Style ale flavors that made dubbels and tripels popular in the first place. That being said, a well-done quadrupel can be a pleasant surprise. Of course, I highly doubt that most people brewing or drinking quadrupels are looking for tons of subtle flavors. The beautiful thing about quadrupels is that they know exactly what they are, and we can love them for filling a niche that we never knew had to be filled. Next: What Makes Hazy IPAs Hazy?

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What are Saisons?

Thomas Short — Tue, 26 Sep 2017 19:00:35 +0000

There are plenty of rad craft breweries that brew saisons. Coming from the French word for “season,” saisons are not seasonal…unless they are. I’ve noticed that non-frequent beer drinkers are confused by what a saison actually is, and that makes them shy away. Instead I say embrace the unknown and drink! Or read the rest of this and learn, then drink. Defining the Saison First: pronounce the word as say-sone, or say-zone. I spent a lot of time researching this since everybody has their own pronunciation (sort of the like the word “flanger” in music, but I digress). Now as you read the rest of the article in your head (or out loud if you swing that way), you can be sure that your brain/ears are hearing the word correctly. So, a while back I said that we can basically lump every beer into two groups: lager or ale. The infamous saison is actually a type of pale ale, but with a twist. “But wait, I thought they were farmhouse ales.” If you just said that to yourself, you’re also right since there are literally MILLIONS of subshoots and genres in beer, none of which have strict definitions. Gold star. Saison beers originated in Belgium, specifically in the farmhouses of the Wallonia region. For anyone that’s been to Belgium, you know that they either speak French or Flemish – this region is French-speaking (hence the French word for season). These beers were also only brewed in very specific, cool-temperature months. Or as some might say, a specific season…but that’s probably completely unrelated. Great, there’s the neat backstory on saisons. On to the good stuff. What Makes a Saison a Saison? Saisons are going to have tons of carbonation, meaning a bigger head and bubblier drinking. I’ve always like to think of it as the champagne of beer, literally only because both are pretty bubbly (and French named). These bad boys also make use of fruits and spices, giving them a neat flavor over the common hoppiness of a pale ale. Generally speaking, modern saisons are going to have an ABV of around 5.5-8%, but brewers do all sorts of crazy stuff nowadays so how can we even generalize like that. The color of siasons ranges depending on the malt used, but don’t expect to be finding many (if any) saisons that have a dark, porter looking color to them. Typically, the color is going to be lighter, much like a pale ale or a lager. What else makes siasons the way they are? Well, they come in bottles, for the most part! You know, those cool, 750 ml bottles you’ve seen at Total Wine that have a cork and a metal-twisty thing to keep the cork in? Yup, that’s what many saisons come in. TLl;DR: Say-sones are pale ales/farmhouse ales that are highly carbonated, use fruits/spices and have a lighter color probably. They have a French name but they hail from Belgium. They remind me of champagne.

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What’s a Lager?

Thomas Short — Mon, 11 Sep 2017 23:04:33 +0000

In the past, I went over the basics of an ale. Because there really are only two main types of beer (and because I have a fun article planned for Friday), I figured it was time to talk about lagers. If you’ve had beer, then you’ve had a lager…but you might not know it. Here’s a little spoiler: if your beer is famous for being the coldest beer with the coldest mountain water, your beer is a lager. Get to the Point, What’s a Lager The best way to describe a lager is to show how it’s different from ales. First, lagers use a different type of yeast than ales – specifically, they use saccharomyces pastorianus. From here on out, we’ll replace this long, science name with our own name: lager yeast. Second, lager ferments when it’s cold while ales ferment in warmer conditions. The cool temperature is great for the lager yeast, and it allows the beer to take in all the malty and hoppy flavors. Third, lagers take quite a bit more time than typical ales. While an IPA can be banged out in a handful of weeks, most lagers will take at least a few months to reach peak-drinkability. Fun fact: lager comes from the German lager, which means storeroom, or more specially a cold storeroom. So, lagers use a different yeast and fermentation process than IPAs. Why Are Lagers Boring? Every so often I get asked (and after drinking shitty, cheap beer, find myself asking) “why are lagers so boring?” The answer? They aren’t boring, you’re boring! Lagering is a difficult, time-consuming process. There are tons of spots where a brewer can make an error and the lager can come out tasting like liquid garbage. When done correctly, the result is a flawless, crisp beer. However, there’s beauty in simplicity. A well-done lager should be appreciated for what it is – a well-done lager. No, you aren’t going to have some hazy, juicy, hoppy lager. If that’s what you want, buy an IPA. Also, have you ever had so many IPAs that you can’t imagine drinking another? Yup, any beer seems boring when you drink it enough. Lagers will always have a place, and there will always be a time when you want a lager. Oh, by the way, you probably drink lagers, anyway. Lagers You Know And (Hopefully Don’t) Love Here are some famous lagers: Budweiser, Miller, Hamms, PBR, Ranier, Olymipa, etc., etc., etc. Why do these guys make lagers instead of ales? Because it’s cheap and easy for them. Yes, it does take them roughly 6-7 weeks to get a batch of beer out, but the process is so simple for them by this point. “But Thomas, you said lagering is harder than making ales!” It is…if you want a good beer. Beers produced by these big companies, by all standards, are not good beers. Look, I can point out myriad reasons on why these big companies insist on making lagers instead of ales. Instead, I’ll point out one truth consistent among any large corporation: They cut costs. They are brewing as cheaply as they can. They know what they’re doing. These types of beers mostly get a bad rep in America because of these big guys, but if you’ve ever had a European style Helles, Pilsner, Dunkel or other variety of lager, then you understand why people ever liked them to begin with.

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