Black Saison

Saison should be ok, probably a bit muted, but still there.

 

I've never seen a black saison. Was it good?

 

Thank you for sharing! I love dark malts so I will be on the look out for something like this.

 

Their "existent" is another nice black saison.

 

why call it a Saison when it is obvious from your description that it is not a Saison? Might as well call the 'style' a Black T Shirt, makes as much sense.

 

Why not? Got a better description for a beer where the brewer who specializes in saisons swaps out light color malt and puts in dark color malt?

 

Right on. It could easily be argued using a saison yeast contributes more to the beer's character than the malt.

Also, I find the stout/porter sub-categories to be somewhat crowded and varies widely, so I appreciate the more descriptive "black saison" even if it's atypical. Ultimately, it's up to the brewer to call the beer whatever they think is best.

 

I've had Existent, I really liked it, almost as much as Saison De Silly...another dark Saison...I'm guessing the age would soften some roastiness from the malts a little

 

Bastardized Ale. Probably should also have Bastardized Lager as well. This overall naming of styles as "black [insert traditionally pale beer style]" is not particularly helpful in helping me understand what is inside the bottle.

 

Well, just so you know the brewer didn't "name" it a black saison, he used that term in describing the beer to communicate what he'd done with it. So reading the description does provide a clue as to what to expect.

As for naming of styles, once upon a time there was no such thing as an IPA and so that descriptor was new when first used to describe and differentiate one breed of Pale Ale from another. Similarly once upon a time there was no such thing as a German style Pils and so that descriptor was new when first introduced to describe and differentiate one style of Pils from another. Naming conventions have to start somewhere and once upon a time they were all new. Some survived and some didn't pretty much for the reason you suggest, we want to know what to expect from the description/name of the beer.

Saison, Porter, Pils, etc., etc. are/were also, by your recommendations, bastardized ales, lagers, and beers.

 

But it's newfangled, so I hate it.

 

The Germans might take issue with calling a black lager a bastardization, seeing as how the schwarzbier, or "black" beer, has been around since at least 1390.

And as far as being a useful descriptor calling every dark beer a stout or porter doesn't serve much purpose to me.

 

Pipeworks poivre noir is also a nice black saison

 

With the "tweaking" of styles, if brewers were to put a complete description of a "tweaked" beer on the label, the bottles would all have to be bombers so that all of the printing would fit. Now, you don't want all of your beer in bombers, do you?

 

I've yet to have a black saison that didn't taste like a stout/porter. I just call them "farmhouse stouts" and leave it at that. Farmhouse yeast just isn't potent enough to override roast character.

 

Prairie funky galaxy I think fits this style

 

This is a nice representation of the style from DDC.

http://www.beeradvocate.com/beer/profile/1141/53111/