The beers of Iwakuni: Dupont brewery's Vieille Provision Saison Dupont

This is one of the beers from Hilgar's poarchbomb he sent me. It is the Saison Dupont by Dupont brewery out of Tourpes Belgium. The brewery started with the Rimuax-Deridder farm in 1759 and was well known for it's Saison and honey beer. The brewery as we know it today started in 1920 when Alfred Dupont purchased the farm for his son, Louis Dupont, to keep him from buying a farm in Canada and leaving. Louis had no children, and so he gave the brewery to his nephew Sylva Rosier in 1945, who would run the business with his son Marc and daughter Claude. Marc would manage the brewery from 1964 to 2002 when his nephew Olivier would take over. The brewery grew over time, and would start exporting their beer in 1990. In 2014 production would grow to 20,000 hectoliteres, 40% of that being for the aforementioned exports. Tonight's beer, Saison Dupont would become popular due to an American importer in the 1980's, though it has been brewed at the farm since 1844 during the winter to be drank by seasonal workers in the summer.

I received this beer in a 330ml(11.2 fl.oz) longneck bottle with slender shoulders and crimpcap. The label has sort of mid century styling, with the bold "SAISON DUPONT" mixed with the cursive "Vieille Provision" against a yellow checker pattern and green background. It says on the front that it was imported by Total Beverage Solution (a company name so generic you would think it was a tax shelter) out of Mt.Pleasant SC. I've been to Mt.Pleasant, it's near Charleston. It's a nice place, because it's fairly well developed but not crowded and unlike Charleston it's just far enough from the coast to not smell like mud flats and shellfish every time it rains. On the rear it says, "Brewed at one of Europe's last farmhouse breweries, Saison Dupont is a 4-star, world classic example of the Belgian Saison Style, Blond in color with a big, rocky head, Saison Dupont is dry and refreshing. Great with all grilled food.". We shall certainly see about that, but not much of a flavor description other than "it's blonde and tastes like a Saison". I like the cap, it's a simple hop flower on a shield with "Dupont Torpes" on it. I usually don't like Saison, but I'll man up and drink it, for Science! It is 6.5% ABV. Let's pop the cap and see that (supposedly) Rocky head.

The cap makes a nice hiss when pried off, always a good sign. Nose from the bottle is both sweet and sour grain, but it's not unpleasant or strong. I should have been a little more careful pouring, it exploded into head and now I have to wait for it to settle down. It is a hazy golden color with a white fluffy head with staying power. It has considerable small bubble agitation in the glass, most lively. I see what they mean by a rocky head, it looks like a mountain range. Nose from the glass is similar to the bottle, but the sweetness is more pronounced and the sour more subdued. On first sip, It is sweet, with a little sour grain finish, slightly dry, and with a licorice aftertaste. It is a very light body, not watery though, water would be heavier than this. Almost no acidity at all, probably the most alkaline beer I've had this year.

I took these, that place is unbelievable.

Listening to a Frank Zappa vinyl set I got at Stereo Records in Hiroshima. So (like I said) I took a trip to Hiroshima the Saturday before Palm Sunday. It's sakura season here in Japan, so everyone around the country went out to see the cherry blossoms. I always wanted to visit Hiroshima Castle and needed the driving practice (I'm learning to drive a bus out here, so I needed to make riding the center line a habit, it came in handy during the test). The original Hiroshima Castle built by the Mori clan in the 1590's was destroyed by Little boy, a 15 kiloton uranium bullet type nuclear device, in August of 1945 but a replacement pagoda was built on the site of the original in 1958 and the main gatehouse was rebuilt in 1990. The site still has all of the original stone ramparts and bases, which are angled in the style of east Asian castles. Although Hiroshima castle was meant as an administrative center for the city and not so much as a defensive position as it is build on flat land in the middle of Hiroshima at the very end of the Sengoku Jidai (the end of the warring states period with the unification of Japan under Toyotomi hideyoshi but before Tokugawa Ieyasu defeats the Toyotomi forces after Hideyoshi's death and declares himself Shogun) it still retained almost all of the features of a functional fortification. These features would include sloped ramparts for the purpose of structural support in seismically active Japan as well as not allowing attackers to get right up against the wall in order to obscure themselves from the arrows of the defenders (which is a huge problem in straight walled castles), multi leveled terraces which allow defenders to retreat to a new set of walls if one set is compromised, as well as murder holes (for dropping things like rocks and boiling water and oil on attackers) and triangular and angled archer and Tanegashima (Japanese Arquabus, or military matchlock gun) holes. The masonwork of the castle managed to save a number of trees which are still alive today, and are known as the atomic trees.

 How much of a pussy can it be if it survived a nuclear attack?

Final thoughts. I loved this beer. I usually hate Saison, but I loved this one. This would be an excellent beer to introduce someone to quality beer with. It is very approachable, there is nothing heavy or intense about it, but it is not bland either. I'm glad I drank that. I give this beer my blurry seal of approval.

Information sources:
http://www.brasserie-dupont.com/Dupont/en/6971-history.html  Much of the history is paraphrased from this page.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dupont_Brewery