Black Saison
Southampton Publick House

 

 

 

2011 Vintage

A: Pours black with a two finger khaki head

S: Slight tartness, earthy funk and dark fruit

T: Opens up with a mild tartness (lemon) that fades into a bittersweet chocolate finish. Bone dry.

M: Light/medium mouthfeel - nicely carbed

O: Contrary to majority of the reviews this beer has received, I was really impressed with this bottle. In my opinion, this is a stand out saison - unique for the style, extremely flavorful, and perfectly balanced.

 

 

 

pour is a dark black with tight light brown head. The nose is strange, a bit of a sour cherry note, maybe infected? Lightly smoky and some dark malts, oily hop in back. The taste is sweet, some dark malt, syrupy, citrusy and light cherry. Almost no Saison characteristic. Light oily body and moderate carbonation.

It lives up to its name with a black pour and a tall khaki head. Mostly roast on the nose with a little bit of yeast. A hint of fruit with a fair amount of pepper. Lightly tart, perhaps a bit of lemon aroma. The flavor is fairly heavy on the mineral/iron along with lots of roasted malt. Not very much going outside of that. Maybe a hint of tartness.

 

Had a SMBDC Stout tasting thanks to Amy and Michael, but don't remember who brought this one.

Lighter fizzy head, yeast chunks, dark molasses brown color.

Nose has a dry funky like farmhouse, malty wheat, spices, dry saison, and some yeast.

Taste is light malts, a slight tart sour that I'm not sure if it is infection or just crazy farmhouse saison, wheats, dry malts, rustic farmhouse dry bready with a light barnyard funk, saison spices and yeast, hint of sweet malts and darker molasses malt flavors, tart dark fruits and malts, hint of bitterness, dry funk and bready malt finish.

Mouth is med bodied, dry with good carb.

Overall not bad, not sure if the sourness is supposed to be there but seems more like infection, otherwise a decent saison with darker malts. Drinkable.

 

 

 

A - Dark, black as night with a ridiculous amount of foam despite a rather gentle pour. Solid 4 to 5 fingers of light brown foam sits on top of just a smidgen of beer. Head slowly fades and leaves chunks of foam on the glass.

S - Sour cherries, dark bread and just a hint of raisin. This smells alot more like a soured porter or stout than a saison. While I like the aroma quite a bit, I feel it missed the mark if it wanrs to be a saison.

T - Tart, under-ripe fruit up front. Hints of lemon, sour cherry and maybe even a little banana. Dark breads and just a hint of roatsed grain mid-palate and into the finish. Again, I like the tase but I am not seeing saison here.

M - Medium bodied and very crisp and lively on the tongue. Definitely hits the mark for a saison's mouthfeel.

O - I like this beer. It is an interesting combo of sour fruits and dark, roasted malts. I just have a hard time calling this a saison. Roasted malts aside, I still dont get a whole lot of the Belgian farmhouse saison out of this one. I would certainly like another bottle though. I graded to style the best I could and then gave it a bump on the overall just because I like it.

 

 

picked this up at last year's IRS release. 2011 vintage.

a - bottle was wrapped and capped...opened both and filled my stillwater wine glass. the brew poured a watery brown that settled in the glass as black. there was a huge frothy yeasty head that was mocha white in color. it slowly bubbled away, but really hung out and was frothy was huge chunky lacing.

s - zesty!!! spicy lemon with a hint of orange peel. bubblegum. clove. some sage. quite nice. a bit sour and funky.

t - whoa! what the hell was that? super funk. is this infected? is this a sour beer? it is mouth puckeringly sour. checking some other reviews, seems this was intentional. it is like a really sour warhead type of candy. lemon and citrus. took me a while to get used to the flavor and then it had a lot of white wine qualities that are nice, but overall i expect and look for a bit less tartness in a saison.

m - pretty icky. leaves a sour expression on my face. fizzy and tangy. white wine like and a bit dry.

o - overall, didn't really know what to expect with a black saison...but southampton is a brewery that i respect, so i took a chance. would've been a lot happier with a small sip than a full bottle. if you are a fan of super tart sours, you may actually dig this a lot. as a saison...not really what i look for...as a sour, perhaps. i did not drain pour any of it and by the end of the beer found myself enjoying it...kind of like drinking one of those weird short's beers.