Monday is here, and it’s time to start another week. Pick of the Weekend is our weekly post where we recap our favorite brews of the weekend past…

We closed June out with a selection of some of our favorite beers, but the Pick of the Weekend was unexpectedly not from a traditional American craft brewer.

After enjoying a post-dinner pint of Pliny the Elder at Blue Palms on friday evening we spied a rare sight: Saison Dupont on tap. Saison Dupont is the most well-known and well-regarded of the Belgian farm-house ales, and it is often cited as the hallmark saison. We’ve run into one big problem whenever we’ve sampled Saison Dupont though: skunked beer. The Belgian import is most-often found in green-glass 750ml bottles, and we’ve never had a bottle was wasn’t rendered nearly unpalatably light-struck.

So when we saw it available on draught we were excited to finally try a glass that had never seen the light, and we were not disappointed. The subtle fruity esters and delicate maltiness were evident from the first sip. The beer quickly jumped to the top of the list of our favorite saisons. Dry and delicate; Saison Dupont was easily our favorite beer of the weekend. Even a weekend filled with our current favorites. You can occasionally find Saison Dupont in 11oz brown-glass bottles, which should prevent the beer from skunking, and if you are a fan of the style they are worth the price, even at $5 a bottle.

One other beer from the weekend demands a mention: Stone Brewing’s recently bottled Smoked Porter with Vanilla Beans. Our favorite variation on one of Stone’s best beers, the bottled version is a positively masterful example of balance. Big notes of smoke, dark malts, and a smooth and subtle vanilla flavor progressively hit your palate, one after the other. The porter is not to be missed, but act quick as the bottles are going fast! Hopefully Stone will brew and bottle this beer again, hopefully even making a seasonal release out of it.

What was your favorite pint of the weekend?