Vermont’s Magic Hat has changed owners three times in the last five years, but the refreshing apricot flavor of its flagship #9 Not Quite Pale Ale and the hippie-trained-in-Illustrator charm of the brewery’s labels have held steady throughout. At 5.1% ABV and 20 IBUs, and with good distribution across the northeast, Magic Hat #9 is a reliably good choice for occasional beer drinkers who want flavor with their buzz.

Magic Hat’s late-summer/early-fall seasonal offering, Séance, is billed as a saison, but if you’re expecting a champagne-like blonde similar to Saison Dupont, you’ll be surprised — this beer is part of a new style trend: the black saison. Nevertheless, at 4.4% ABV and 27 IBUs, Séance fits the general description of the style pretty well. It would make a perfectly good drink to provide farmhands as part of their daily wages and board (the style’s original métier) — it’s refreshing, the miscellaneous grain, spice and fruit flavors blend well, and it’s not so strong that you’ll be done for the day if you have two.

A chalice, key, owl, candle, ghost and hand reaching from the ground are featured on the thriller-themed orange-green-tan label — an appropriate lead-up to the Halloween season. The brewery’s spiral/starburst/moon insignia is repeated on the cap and embedded in the design, and there’s enough of a rebus in the rest of the packaging to absorb your attention if you’re the first to arrive at the party and your smartphone is out of juice, or if you simply miss the golden age of psychedelic album covers.

The beer pours porter-dark brown with a brown dome head and a surprising amount of fizz. There’s a pleasant sour fruit bouquet to the nose, and a sour first taste that evens out to a full-bodied bitter. It tastes heavier than it ends up feeling, letting it pair equally well with brunch (it went fine with coffee and pancakes) or dinner (duck and lamb works out well). Unless you’re a farmhand in Belgium, though, you may not want to take it for breakfast.

You can still find stores with Magic Hat’s summer seasonal boxes that don’t feature Séance in stock, but this likeable beer is only scheduled to be available through the rest of September. Consider it a good pumpkin-free way to welcome back the months of darker beers.