Dark Side Corruption
Foundation Brewing Company

Poured from a 16.9 oz bottle into a Dogfish head tulip

L: Cloudy dark brown pour... muddy looking with a finger of surprisingly creamy off-white head. Solid ring of lacing.

S: Dark sugars... toasted grains and dark fruits.

T.F: Semi-sweet. Brown sugar, baking cocoa, plum, and fig. Toasted grains and caramel... fig and spice with some oak/barrel. Creamy... medium bodied. Booze hidden... yeast and tobacco. Complex with more fruit and cherry at the finish.

O: A solid barrel aged dark saison. Nice Belgian character with a lot going on.

 

 

The beer pours a stout-like brown/black but with a super foamy, persistent head that almost escaped control.

You can smell this beer from across the room...chocolate, boozy, dark fruit like brandy soaked cherries...pretty awesome on the aroma.

This brew just plain tastes good. Layers of flavor - chocolate, caramel, figs and drunken cherries, brief flash of alcohol, very faint Belgian yeastiness floats on top. It all wraps up somehow with added vanilla, some sharper phenolic likely from the barrel treatment. Maybe a little tobacco, slight milk chocolate sweetness. It rolls together into a flavor that makes me think marshmallow fluff with chocolate and cherries and brandy/cognac.

Medium body at most, not heavy or "sticky" despite the strong flavors and the bit of sweetness. Slightly dry but mainly soft and lush on the finish, a little warming. It feels and drinks like a cross between a porter and saison.

This is a well-crafted and well-executed beer - recommended if you run across some.

 

From a 500ml bottle, undated. Served in a cervoise.

Pours a semi-opaque reddish-brown the colour of maple syrup with a towering head of pouffy, lumpy, mocha fluff. Retention is very good and leaves fat, sticky gobs of lacing. The only ding here is that it gushed so much I had a hard time getting enough into my glass to actually get a taste of it.

Oh, wow, that nose! Oddly enough, first impression is of saltwater taffy - brettanomyces yeast but overlaid with sweet caramel, cocoa, tobacco and oak. So, it doesn't really smell like saltwater taffy but it totally does smell like saltwater taffy.

The first sip bypasses the palette altogether and mainlines straight to the sinuses with brandied cherries, cocoa and a cloud of yeasty funk. The second sip brings thick, unctuous caramel cream, pot au chocolat, vanilla, cherry and blackberry. Finishes with the entire mouth and sinuses engulfed in smoky barrel warmth, all vanilla toffee and tobacco.

Feel is silky smooth and powdery soft, no more than medium bodied, I think - but the beer is so deep that I have to stop and think about that for a bit - with adequate carbonation and not one bubble more.

Overall, this is a masterful brew and I'm not sure why the world hasn't beaten a path to their door to buy it by the truckload. I'm not sure that it's a 'Belgian saison' but, on the other hand, I'm not sure what else it is. It's not a stout, it could be a black ale, albeit with brett or, more likely, a quad or, it could be that, having drunk the entire bottle now, I can't figure out how to end the paragraph. Anyway, it's really good. There; I'm done now.

Draft at brewery
Light creamy foamy head, decent lacing retention
Nose musty Belgian esters, fruity notes, mild phenols, roasted grains, little sweet candi sugar, little buttery oak

Taste toasted grain biscuity Belgian brown malt, candy sugar big phenols fruity esters, little booze, big buttery oak and vanilla whiskey barrel, little drier finish

Mouth med bod, decent carb but little light, hint alcohol

 

 

 

On tap at the brewery

This is more like an Imperial Porter than anything else. It is light and drinkable, the booze is very well hidden, and has no signs of syrup or sugars in the mouthfeel. I get hints of vanilla, cocoa, and a hint of banana if you're really looking for it. I really enjoyed this one.

 

 

 

My beer is labeled as an Oak-Aged Ale, but it certainly is not a typical saison/farmhouse ale; listed at 10% ABV

 

Serving: Bottle
Bottled: January 2016


A:
Pours a dark cola black with ample khaki head that is around for a while. Excellent retention; sheets of chunky lacing. (4.5)

S:
Dried stonefruits, cherries, musty wood, leather. (4.25)

T:
Wow. Rich layers of malt and barrel; toffee, dried dark fruits and Dried apricots, rich vanilla barrel flavor, rummy warmth, soft caramel finish. (4.5)

M:
Wow again. Full body with marshmallow puff carbonation and a treacley, warming, lingering, tapered finish. (4.5)

O:
Wowee! This is a really delicious, layered malt cake of a beer with a really nice, complimentary barrel character that is the icing on this supposed cake.
It pours beautifully with big Belgian-looking head and sheets of foam insulation lace. It is about as rich as a beer could be in most every way. The nose is packed with dried fruits and old workshop aromas from the barrel. The flavor follows suit. The taste and the feel are where it really goes above and beyond. A cascade through fruity, caramely, light roasty, oaky, etc-y flavors with a soft boozy finish.
I can't even fathom how much better this would be if it wasn't hot out right now. I would definitely have this one again. (4.5)