Heavyweight Saison de la Soeur Black
This one was inspired by Fantome's Black Ghost and Pizza Port's SPF8. It's deep brown in color and the combination of roast and tropical fruit flavors are strange but effective. It's hopped with English Goldings and Saaz and fermented with three Belgian yeast strains. ~6% Brewed: Feb.17 Bottled:
3.6
211 reviews
Ocean Township, United States
Community reviews
Thank you Juart for sharing. Aroma is a little bit funky. Sweet brown sugar with a slight carbonic note. Smells like a sweet stout. The flavor is dry and roasted with a fruity funk to it. It is dark brown / black in clor with a medium tan head. A heavy bitter artificial chocolate taste. The finish is a little sour. A pretty light body, despite the appearance. Leaves a roasted flavor in the mouth. Only real problem is that it looks like someone crapped on the mouth of the bottle.
750 ml bottle via trade - I drank this bottle last May. Pours a hazy brown color with a small light tan head. Very light lacing. Aroma is faint hops and esters. Flavor is much of the same. The finish is a little tart for my liking. Medium body. Another beer I would have liked to have tried fresh. A pretty good beer.
Bottle Chris O’s. Caramel dark malts some sourish tones but nothing to overpowering. Flavour is brown sugar, fruity with slight funky wet dog character. Quite like a porter.
Thanks to dpjuart for sharing! Dark brown with a nice tan head. Smells sweet, funky, grainy and gristy, with molasses and soy sauce. Strange taste. Chocolate, molasses, sweet cherry, plums, oranges. Craziness. Super complex with a lot of funk, but not all mixes well. And what is this brown crap around the rim of the bottle?
Bottle 75cl. @ chris_o’s Pre-GBBF Shindig 2008.
Clear dark brown color with a huge, frothy, good lacing, fully lasting, beige head. Aroma is caramel, chocolate, sour berry, raisin, prunes, wet dog notes, some very nice and delicate sournesss. Flavor is moderate to heavy sweet, moderate acidc and bitter, sour with a long to average duration. Body is medium, texture is oily to watery, carbonation is soft. (020808)
9/13/08 - 750 bottle shared with Exec Board. Pours black with fizzy/foamy khaki head. Nose is like a sweet stout, lactic and caramel. Tatse is roast and chocolate with lingering sour, lactic and oddly sweet chocolate taste with odd citrus/lemony after. Weird taste. Mildly sour/citric, roast and lots of chocolate. This bottle opened with a ton of gunk under the cap. Um, interesting.
Courtesy of dpjuart. This was a nasty looking bottle with gunk all over the cap and some blocked sewage pipe rusty crud in the neck after opening. Funky yeast sulfur aroma that lasted for quite a while - different people had different aromas around the table depending on when they poured the beer. Quite a lot of chocolate and mild alcohol once the nasty aroma fizzled away. Light body with heavy carbonation. Dark brown, a bit cloudy and a thin tan head. Watery tart start, with a bit of chocolate. Not what I’d call a typical saison, and I don’t think it aged that well. Not a fan of this one.
Shared w/ TheRealBastard. Pour is motor oil black with frothy off white head. Aromas of roasted malt, sour funk, and caramel. This brew drank like a porter and then as it warmed it changed into more of a sour one. Interesting and I’m very impressed with how this has held up.
shared w/Imadeadguy: Poured pitch black with pleanty of off white head. Aging very nicely, body is thick and juicy. The nose is very sour and tart. Tastes is almost like a mild porter. Has a malty full body with a mild pepper taste. Very unique, havn’t had anything like it. Quite impressive brew.
Bottle at Chris o’s… deep black ...slight sour malt nose ... roast malts, little chocolate,
Chris_o’s GBBF Shindig 08. Vinegar nose. Sweet and dark. Some bananary vanilla flavour. Tastes like a home brew gone wrong. Drinkable but strange. Points for something different, minus points for not making it taste nice.
A Mes rate: Bottle at Chris O’s Pre GBBF Tasting
Dark cloudy brown with a thin beige head. Biscuit and caramel aroma with a delicate sourness. Heavy caramel in the flavour but in a really good way. Again a slight sourness bringing through the saison characteristics. A very interesting beer.
Bottled. Deep brown colour, small brown head. Aroma is sour fruits, mould, earth and some mild notes of hops. Flavouris quite the same with a slight barnyardish touch to it.
Had this at Chris O’s pre GBBF tasting, 02-08-08 cheers for a wonderful day Chris Pours dark brown with beige head. Really very fizzy in the mouth, nice sweet and sour taste in the mouth quite tingy. This is a refreshing beer that carries some maltiness through, touch of citrus touch of chocolate its really quite nice.
Bottle at Chris_o pre GBBF Shindig 08. Hazy black/dark brown. Thin beige head. Smells of salt and vinegar crips. Bit of sourness, some hop. Odd to have a dark saison. It’s like a saison but with chocolate. Tasty, if odd.
Hazy brown with large beige head. Sweet aroma with roasted malt, spices and mild sourish notes. Flavor likewise with a lovely sour finish.
Four-year-old bottle, thanks Sammy. Insane head on this. Dark caramel brown and cloudy, sourish barnyard smells mingle with mocha. Puckering lime, salts, champagne yeast in flavour -- weird combo of sour Flemish with a cheesecake-sweet barley wine. Truly unusual, definitely great.
Tasted at WeeHeavySDs place. 750mL. Interesting smokey aroma. A little bit of feet. Sourness is very mild. Smokey, chocolatey flavor. Some malty sweetness.
750ml I got via trade, not sure with who, but relatively recently. 3rd beer of the tasting I hosted tonight, shared with bikesandbeer, wetherel and my girlfriend Cyn. Porus dark blackish brown with a tan ring. Nose is smokey and peppery. Taste is sweet and peppery, tart, sour strange and intriguing.
750mL bottle, courtesy of Stine. Thanks, Eben! Pours a very dark, cola-brown color; light tan head with patchy lacing. Lots of cola, brown sugar, and soft yeastiness in the aroma; some dried caramel oxidation; intricate, messy nose. Medium-to-full mouthfeel: lots of dried caramel, cola, and soft, sweet maltiness upfront; very relaxed presence in the mouth with a good jolt of citrus / mineral acidity; balanced; complex yeastiness; again, intricate and messy stuff. Medium finish: dried caramel, doughiness, and sustained yeast.
Poured from a 750 ml bottle. Syrupy dark brown pour skinned with thin greyish foam. Sticky aroma of chocolate, licorice, cola, cherries; light anise and licorice root. Light leafiness and earthy funk. Sweet and sugary, but never in a simple sense; plenty of nuance and reined in weirdness.
Sticky sweet taste of licorice root, raisin, belgian chocolate, and black cherries. Uniquely pungent, musky and tangy sweetness; hints of lively golden fruits, maple syrup and honey. Interesting vibe all around, that combines alot of unique, scattered tones of sweetness with surprising clarity and ease. Underlying clean tartness and a touch of black bitterness that seems a touch chalky. Consistently reaches wide of its horizons and settles in an intriguing, uncomfortable place.
Medium, syrupy and spritzy palate; finishes with a tangy sweetness of golden fruit and honey. Extremely interesting, but not completely satiating apart from its intellectual appeal. Thanks Carl!
Bottle shared by miketd: Very dark brown pour, thick and bubbly tan head. Aroma is sour and musty cellar with some apple and lemon undertones. Flavor is quite strange indeed; highly-carbonated, chalky sourness, but strong chocolate flavor and malt presence.
Bottle. Courtesy of Jimmack, thanks! Bottle is said to have been refrigerated for the past 2 years. Pours dark brown with orange hues. Good flavor of belgian yeast, apple, chocolate, and tons of malt. real good.
Bottle, shared, thanks a lot to jimmack. Black pour, brownish hint. Aroma is light leather, fruit, nice sweetness mixed with moderate tart fruit. Flavor is pleasant also, rich fruit sweetness complemented by lightly tart and citric elements.
Muddy deep brown/purple pour with a thin bubbly head. Mild tartness in the aroma. Some berry notes along with chocolate undertones. Body is slick with a nice fruity flavor. Mild dark berries come through and sour apple skin followed by a smooth roast in the finish. Well balanced and very interesting.
Bottle thanks to Matt, around 3yrs old. Aroma is sweet belgiun candy sugar, cola, spice, green grapes and slight tart fruit character. Taste is similar, with roasted barley, burnt plums, molasses sweetness. A styrange drink and thats foresure, but glad i got to try it before theres no more.
Pours extremely dark, cloudy cola brown. A huge, foamy, grayish tan head is incredibly well retained, leaving nice swaths of lacing on the glass. The nose is as unique as they come, with sour, dark fruity notes showing over chocolaty, dry cocoa. Dates and figs soaked in caramel and rum come to mind. The flavor is just as crazy. Root beer, caramel, brown sugar, and sour yeast are all present. Dates and figs are there again, as is some mild spice. Not as much farmhouse character as most saisons, as the darker malts seem to drown it out a bit. Reminds me of a light foreign stout blended with a saison. The mouthfeel is a little weak, falling on the lighter side of medium bodied. The sourness and dryness hits you in the rear of the mouth. Definitely a nice, off-the-wall interpretation of a Fantome brew.
bottle from a trade that took place awhile back. thanks to that east coaster.... pours pretty darn close to black with a toppling and overflowing frothy light brown head....tough to get around the nose of this one. mostly toasty chocolate and sweet malt with a touch of some fruity saison qualities..... flavors don’t provide any further clarification. toasty, roasted malt, chocolate, more along the lines of cocoa, provide the initial surge but then is almost immediately supplemented by a nice tartness. mouthfeel is nice,creamy, and soft..... an interesting beerthat has held up well.... perhaps this is more of a matl-forward version of salvation with less fruity tartness. still pretty good.
750 from HimerMan - thanks, Brian!!! Man, am I a sucker for all things HW. Another fine entry in this mini-series, it pours like a lively Belgian black, with abundant carbonation (though not a gusher) and a fast-rising head. Malts are everywhere, with a kind of primal, earthy quality coming from the whole rather than any one particular flavor. There’s also a strong tart and funky aroma, not surprisingly. This is very prominent in the tasting, but there’s a strange - and not unpleasant - custard taste in there too. I suppose I’d like it to have been slightly more spicy for a bit of balance. But I dig, I dig.
Bottle courtesy of the overflowing surplus of Dickinsonbeer’s apartment. Poured dark brown with a massive fizzy frothy tan head. This one was a gusher, but thankfully I was able to catch it. Inviting aroma of lemon, roasty malts, a bit of funky yeast. Flavor follows, though the flavor combinations seemed less successful than the aromas had prepared me for. Notes of roasted coffee and chocolate battle lemon and funky cheesy yeast. The flavors separately are good, but I’m not enjoying the combination as much. It doesn’t know if it wants to be filling or refreshing, and I wish it would just pick a side. Overall a decent saison with well crafted components, but yet another example of a style that I don’t think benefits from the use of dark malts.