Black Oak Summer Saison

Brewed by Black Oak Brewing
Style: Saison
Etobicoke, Canada

Orange color with a thin head. Aroma is sweet with some spice and fruit, citrus, oranges and tangerines. Flavor is sweet and fruity, light spice. More of a fruit beer than a saison for me. A bit of a heavy body too.

341 mL bottle from the brewery. Hazy orange-gold with lots of minute sediment and a small off-white head. A little on the sweet side of the typical saison aroma, with a touch of honey added to the spice and funk. Pretty much the same can be said of the flavour, although the initial sweetness turns bitter about half way through. Medium body, medium to high carbonation. Refreshing.

12 oz bottle. Pours a slightly hazy gold body with a small tight bubbled white head that retained as a thin wispy covering. The nose is typical "American" Saison, too much citrus peel and floral spices with not enough yeast influence or much of a hint of farmhouse funkiness. Heavy perfumy, herbal, and floral flavor that dominates the Saison base. Coriander and orange peel overload! Where’s the farmhouse character? A little too heavily bodied for the style as well with too much clinginess. Moderate fizzy prickly carbonation. OK to drink I guess, but the perfumy spices got to be a bit too much. Not exactly a classic interpretation of the style.

(BCTC, 12oz bottle) Medium white head atop cloudy apple juice body. Aroma is medium sweet, yeast, some pepper, clove, banana. Taste is medium sweet, banana, yeast, some pepper. Low carbonation, light-medium body.

On tap at Volo. Pours a slightly hazy gold with good sized white head. Citrus, grains, and slight spice in the aroma. Citrus seems a little more pronounced in the flavour though still moderate with grains and spice also present. Decent refreshing beer.

On tap at C’est What? (Toronto, ON). Pours a light honey color with thin white bubbly head. Aroma is sweet and floral with notes of spice, brett, flowers, clove, honey, yeast, wheat, banana, some caramel. Flavor is sweet and floral with notes of brett, spice, honey, wheat, yeast, some light funk. Generally light to medium body with a pleasing sweet finish.

Bottle: Hazy golden with a dense off white head. The aroma is estery, grainy with a touch of crackery malt. Perhaps a coriander note. Simple aroma. Fluffy body with a dry flavor. Mild crackery grains and a touch of honey. There’s a mild coriander like note and later noble hop presence, yet it’s restrained. Not bad, not good either. One dimensional.

Kind of sweaty, lightly oxidized aroma, a touch of black pepper and cheese. Light foamy cap. Thinnish flavor, poor malt definition, light hops. Weak backbone.