Black Oak Summer Saison

Brewed by Black Oak Brewing
Style: Saison
Etobicoke, Canada

Dark reddish brown with thick moka head. Almost maple toffee aroma. Nice burnt caramel brule, like flan syrup, with notes of raisins. Very sweet but invigorating, especially after shoveling this heavy icy snow. Nice little hops in finish. Bottle. From North York Sammy, thank you sir!

341 ml bottle courtesy jercraigs. Cloudy deep golden orange colour with a frothy, rocky, and creamy off-white head. Floral, citrus, spicy, and peppery aroma. Dry, peppery, and spicy flavours with a lingering peppery bitter finish. Yeasty flavours build as it warms. Light to medium bodied, dry and very lightly fizzy mouthfeel.

Bottle, shared with CapFlu, tiggmtl, Rastacouere, Beerhugger, Radiomgb, and DumDum in Ottawa. Smoky amber, lightly hazy, little head. Flowery, perfumy nose...flavors sharply bitter, spicy and smoky-burnt flavor; a bit too sour. Drinkable, not bad, but boring.

Bottle pours cloudy golden, frothy off-white head, superb lacing, with low carbonation.   Slightly floral & herbish on the aroma.   Somewhat bready/yeasty flavor, with very light spices.   Kinda reminds me of a German Hefe in some ways.   Medium body and mouthfeel.   Finishes wheaty, with very little spices.   This is a saision?   Something is missing...   Thanks goes out to radiomgb for the trade!

Floral and mildly spicy nose. Amber-copper colour with thin, white head. Lightly phenolic with some tart peach/pear-like fruitiness and a gentle finishing floral hop flavour and bitterness. Soft palate and low carbonation. Overall a bit too ale-like without the characteristic saison yeast flavours. Bottle enjoyed with beerhugger, CapFlu, DumDum, muzzlehatch, radiomgb and Rastacouere.

12oz: Thanks radiomgb for a new collectible saison. Nice cloudy amber body, thin off-white cover. Good herbal nose, slightly floral, minty, fruity (pears) with notes of coriander. Herbal palate provides a very approachable balancing bitterness through mild hops reminiscent of goldings. Decent biscuity maltiness, soft body, quite low carbonation. It is quite yeasty actually, but this yeast strain just doesn’t boast the same maturity than a Dupont’s or blaugies. Finally, this didn’t feel like a saison all that much although I’m glad to see a Canadian brewery give the style a try. It definitely lacked some carbonation and needs more original summery hay, funk or whatever flavour, more head would be fun too, maybe next year? By the way, this is said to be far superior on tap.

(Bottle) Thanks to RadioMG-b for bringin this up to Celebration November 2004. It pours a thin, white head with a light carbonation. Hazy orange body. I found the nose sour and lactic with a mild malt. Not what I expected from a saison. The flavours where rather sharp, perhaps a bit too orangy. Not my favourite.

Sort of like a good witbier on steroids, or perhaps a milder/wheatier version of Unibroue’s Fin du Monde. Orange in colour with average carbonation. Yeasty and spicy aromas, cardamom and orange in particular. The flavor is quite wheaty, along with notes of orange rind and a slight bit of horse blanket. Lacks a bit of the refreshing effervescence of Saison Dupont, but this is still a very high quality beer. Thanks radiomgb!