Saison Noir
Bastone Brewery

 

 

 

This beer was served on tap at Bastone in Royal Oak, Michigan. It arrived in a generic pint glass, showing a dark chocolate brown coloring, with deep mahogany hues let up around the edges. It held a one and a half finger tall head of coppery cream, showing decent retention. This left sticky honeycomb lacing all around the glass. A thick haze obscured clarity, but no sediment was noted. Carbonation appeared to be light. The aroma offered rich and syrupy red cherry and plum fruitiness, warmed pumpernickel breadiness, margarine, cloying simple sugar sweetness, light citric hops, chemical phenols, rum raisin cake, light fusel booze, cream cheese icing, and more of a banana ester sweetness with warmth. Our first impression was that the flavoring was brightly Belgian, with sweet esters mixing well with the mildly bittering funk of the malts and the grassy hops. As we sipped, the taste began with soured brown and charred chocolate malts, raw barley, warming honey tea, baked ham meatiness, chlorine, chemical phenols, white flour, and potpourri florals. The middle came to a peak with red and dark cherry fruitiness, lemon rind, fusel booze, vanilla cream, maple sugars, and pale and bittering brown malts that pulled us to the finish. Here we received limey citrics, bittering phenol bite, burnt wheat bread, caramel sugars, cranberry sours, aluminum, honey, caramel malts, and dark toffee to finish things off. The aftertaste breathed of milky lactics, dark chocolate, chalky white flour, tinny metallics, candied walnuts, pinot noir grape bite, cinnamon, sour cherries, and burnt popcorn. The body was medium, and the carbonation was medium. Each sip gave light cream and froth despite a lesser slurp and smack. Finishing pop was wet and crisp. The mouth itself was left satiated, with eventual toasty astringency across the back of the hard palate. The abv was appropriate, and the beer drank easily.

Overall, the best thing about this beer was its aroma and its flavoring. To start, the aroma was nicely sweet and fruity, helping to curb the malt bitterness and the distant stylistic mustiness. We felt much the same way about the flavoring, but did find it to be cloying at times, taking away from the final balance of it all. Additionally, the feel was only okay, with no real creaminess or softness to again, help curb any inherent bite or funk of the style, which in itself was light, but palpable. Otherwise, this was a sweet and inviting offering, and while it may be a bit of a departure from your typical saison, it is an interesting find.

 

Excellent seasonal from Bastone! Better than their actual saison, which isn't listed here, but I've had it and forgot enough details to do a full review of that one myself.

A- Looks like a dubbel. Has a dark brown color, like soda; not completely opaque. The head is fairly average but the lacing goes all the way down the glass.

S- Smells like candy, with the barnyard smells typical of saisons, but those aren't too strong or funky.

T- Tastes really sweet, like the normal saison but with more sugar and perhaps fruit.

M- Not too thick or thin; a great outdoor beer.

Overall, I loved it enough to have two when I was there, when I normally like to jump ship and try a bunch of things.