New Holland Four Witches Black Saison

Brewed by New Holland Brewing Company
Style: Saison
Holland, Michigan USA

Serve in Tulip

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Black color, eggshell head. Nose is light perfumed fruit with a roasty flavor. Juicy flavor that doesn’t match the appearance.

I’m not exactly sure what this style is...black saison doesn’t make sense, because the malts so overwhelm the essential qualities of a saison. However, I’m going to go a very different direction from the norm and say that I really liked this. The nose is strongly medicinal/liquorice, but it has a richness and a spice that go really well together.There are some light fruit notes, like orange marmelade. Moderately oily. Big liquorice and leather. Quite intriguing and delicious. Bottle.

Bottle. Musty yeast and light toffee malt aroma. Dark brown with large tan head. Dry musty chocolate toffee malt flavor. Nice body and blending. Very nice.

12 ounce bottle into tulip glass, 2012 vintage. Pours fairly pitch black color with a 1-2 finger fairly dense khaki tan head with good retention, that reduces to a thin cap that lingers. Some decent spotty lacing clings to the glass. Aromas of roasted malt, licorice, raisin, chocolate, caramel, molasses, cola, pepper, clove, herbal, earth, and yeast spices. Pretty nice and very unique aromas with good balance and complexity. Taste of chocolate, licorice, roasted malt, raisin, prune, caramel, molasses, herbal, clove, earth, biscuit, rye, nuttiness, toast, and yeast spices. Light roast and fruity tartness on the finish; with lingering notes of chocolate, dark fruit, roasted malt, biscuit, toast, clove, earth, rye, and yeast spices on the finish for a good bit. Nice flavor complexity and balance; with no cloying flavor notes at all, very well blended. Medium carbonation and body; with a fairly creamy and slick mouthfeel that is good. Alcohol is well hidden with only a small warming noticed after the finish. Overall this is a very good black saison. This was certainly an interesting and unique experience as I expected. It turned out to be nicely complex and balanced; and quite enjoyable stuff.

12 oz bottle. Pours dark brown to black with a tan head. Lots of aniseed in the aroma, raspberry and other fruits. Anise leads the flavor again, though with a lot of earthy peanut, roasted flavors. Kind of a suggestion of fruit rounding it out, even though no particular fruit flavor is there. I like it (I’m a fan of anise and peanut flavors in beer), though I’m not really sure how much of a saison it is.

On tap at New Holland Brewpub. Wow, this one has some bad ratings so far but all from bottles. Dark brown with ruby lowlights and a creamy medium tan head that sticks a bit. Aroma of dark roasted malt, black licorice, peated malts, yeast, rye and a hint of sugar. Taste of chocolate, roasted malt, fruit, dark candi sugar and yeast. I thought this was pretty solid and much prefer it to the blander saisons out there.

2012.09.08 - 12oz bottle in pint glass. Pours dark brown to black, opaque. Caramel colored head is moderate, subsides quickly leaving a bit of a cap. Aroma... I can get a bit of the black licorice as mentioned, and roasted malt, maybe a trace of breadiness. Taste is, at core, roast and burnt grains balanced with some tart to sweet favors, licorice on the back end. Alcohol pretty much non-detectable to me. Body and mouthfeel is medium, a bit of creaminess. Not being that much into Saisons thus far (I've drank quite a bit of Weyerbacher Seventeen, that's mostly it) I am not bothered by how well this does or does not represent the style. I take it for what it is, and it's a tasty unusual beer. Shout out to /r/beer. Saw this mentioned there and happened to see it the next day so I bought a 4 pack.

Pours a dark brown color with a light tan head. Aroma is of banana, roasted malts, slight rye, and some wheat. Flavor is strong of the rye and banana with roasted malts and wheat. Very intriguing beer for a saison.

Draft at Crunchy’s, East Lansing. Deep opaque orange-red-brown body, thin to medium tight beige head. Lots of licorice in the nose, sweet and spicy. Complex body with licorice and cola elements, toasty with brown sugar and coffee. Bubblegum and grape notes develop with warmth. Vinous and dense but the flavor profile cleans up nicely with spice and smoke, and the body is not syrupy or cloying. A wacky beer that would likely rate a tad higher but for its unfortunate "Saison" label.

12 oz bottle, pours a surprising dark with a deep fluffy tan head. aroma of acidity, toast and caramel, and roasted barley. not as much "tang" as i expected from something labeled saison, but perhaps the dark malts are overpowering it somewhat. flavor is toffee and straw and peppery rye, and strawberries and licorice. an interesting beer to be sure, but kind of lacking direction.