Saison: Black Saaz
Partizan Brewery

 

 

 

Stout-like appearance with legs and some floaties.
Tar, flowers, earth and a bit of rubber on the nose.
Crackery malts, some roasty sweetness, clovey-rubbery yeast and a grassy end.
Acidic black malt finish and herbal linger.
Clean, some cling, lt-medium.

More porter than saison - yeast is fairly quiet. Nice sweetness with a touch of clove. Interesting and pleasant, if far from style.

Purchased from the brewery recently, coming in a 330ml slim brown bottle, bottle-conditioned; bottled on 07/10/2013, BB 07/01/2014, served lightly-chilled in Gulden Draak’s short-stemmed tulip-shaped sniffer.

A: pours a nearly black colour, coming with rather lively carbonation in support of a thick and tight khaki frothy head.
S: dark chocolates and sour apple-ly funks mingle quite well upfront, coming with just a moderate level of tartness; as the beer head retreats somewhat, the aroma shows lovely hints at red grapes, plums and also roast nuts. Given a very good swirl, the hop aroma comes to the fore to render a second layer of aroma in addition to chocolate malts and tart fruity elements.
T: lively but not OTT, the entry is in fact quite like a Black IPA(!) with just a little extra kick of… oxidised fruity notes, as the funks do not really manifest well while the (supposed) late addition of black malts and aromatic Saaz hops instead render a nicely bitter and aromatic body all in all. Moderately roasted coffee-ish, earthy, bitter chocolaty and chewy hoppy in the finish, along with mild leather-ish and faint apple-ly undertones more in line with the tradition of a Saison/Farmhouse ale.
M&O: very well bottle-conditioning, delivering a refreshing palate with lively but fine fizz to lift up the dark malt dominated flavour profile, while hops do lend extra enjoyment in terms of aroma and bitterness all in all. I like this beer, but I have a feeling that the Saison yeasts employed perhaps have done little to impart sufficient funky characters to the already flavoursome hoppy dark beer base. This does not take away the credit of it being a tasty and unusual beer, though.