Black Saisons

I wish I could help... the only black saison I've ever seen or heard of is a local seasonal in my area that doesn't distribute. Bastone Brewery's Saison Noir. I'm mainly writing this to see everyone's responses because I'm also interested in more and the "watch thread" option has never actually worked for me. Cheers!

 

Prairie Ales Funky Galaxy may be what you're looking for.

 

New Holland Four Witches is the only one I recall having.. it was decent, but didn't remind me much of a saison at all.. it was an anise/black licorice bomb..

 

Tired hands guillemot nebula. One of my top five beers of the year so far.

 

This is the only one I've ever had. Exact same thing I thought about it.

 

What about Pepe Nero?

 

St Somewhere Serge is great.

 

I don't know if you would have access to anything from Stillwater here in Baltimore but they are experts in the style. I had their Jaded the other day and was quite tasty. However its technically a Belgian strong dark, and actually really caramel in color I don't know if it's what your really looking for. However their Folklore sounds like just what your looking for.

 

I enjoyed the Stone collaboration Black Saison at a beer fest, http://beeradvocate.com/beer/profile/147/87091

I still see a couple of them on shelves even though it was a one-time collaboration and I think it hit shelves about a year ago.

 

Magic Hat has a brown saison...

 

Unfortunately, I didn't like that one...

I'm assuming by your "..." that you didn't think much of it. Neither did I, sadly.

 

Hill Farmstead Edith is tasty as hell!

 

i had a really fantastic one at a fest once, but it was a brewery like boulevard's experimental beer (think it was boulevard), and the brewer there said it had been axed. i thought it was awesome and deserved to be bottled.

had a great one from hill farmstead i think, but other than that my memory's murky. wouldn't be surprised if stillwater makes a good one.

underrepresented style despite the beer geek trendiness of saisons. meh.

 

I had still waters a saison darkly and really liked it no idea on availability but I thoroughly enjoyed it.

 

Stone did a colab black smoked saison with Stillwater and Evil Twin. I actually just bought a bottle that I found in Portland, OR, but haven't had it yet.

Also important to note (although I may be corrected on this matter) is that I probably would not consider a black saison a belgian dark ale. Belgian dark ale may too easily be confused with belgian dark strong ale, which wouldn't be anywhere near the style of any variation of something that could still be called a saison.

 

This, Stillwater Existent, Fantome Black Ghost, and Jolly Pumpkin De Viento(best of the lot IMO) are all of the highly enjoyable ones I have had.

 

Some of the ones I came to suggest have already been mentioned... Pepe Nero (probably my top recommendation) and Stone/Stillwater/Evil Twin "The Perfect Crime" being another.

Also, I personally enjoyed the Green Flash/St. Feuillien Friendship Brew, although it seems to be a pretty polarizing beer around here. On the bright side, that probably means it can still be found pretty easily...

Lastly, Hof Ten Dormaal makes a pretty tasty "dark" saison: http://beeradvocate.com/beer/profile/23031/66686. I wouldn't call it black like the others that have been suggested, but it's definitely in that Belgian Dark Ale wheelhouse. When I had it, it struck me as analogous to a dunkelweizen the same way a standard farmhouse would be analogous to a hefeweizen, if that makes sense.

 

I've had Stillwater's A Saison Darkly and the Evil Twin/Stillwater/Stone Collab The Perfect Crime and didn't love either. Actually think my bottle of The Perfect Crime was skunky and that's why I still have 1 of the 2 I bought. Goose Island's Pepe Nero is pretty good and you'll be able to find that much easier, so I'd look for that. I have one in my cellar myself.

 

Good call, Existent is really good. Especially the barrel aged version.