Duck Duck Bear
MadTree Brewing

Dry and spicy, yet robust and complex, a collaboration beer is born of the MadTree and The Village Idiot brewer and chef mindsets. Mirrored after their famous Duck & Waffles dish, the brainchild ale may be avant garde to those new to the culinary arts scene but the base style is of a dark and toasty saison that's known more historically to the southern Belgian and northern French farmhands.

Duck Duck Bear's aroams spill onto the nose with a verbose spice blend of thyme and rosemary. After a brisk tingle of the nose, the ale catches the eye with its medium brown and hazy mahogany hues. As a creamy head mounts, additional aromas of toast, peppercorn and citrus guides the senses into the first taste. Steely caramel, light sweetness and the dry breadiness that's remiss of rye mingles on the front of the tongue and proves short lived.

As the ale aligns along the tongue, its sweetness further retracts and is spices continue to project. Leading with copious amounts of rosemary and sage, a taste of Christmas arises in the dog days of August as a resinous spice of fresh cut spruce comes to mind. Hints of orange tease the middle palate while the beer's natural esters provide a hint of toasted grapefruit, lemon and pear. On the contrary, its peppery spice carries a bold and toasty dryness, nuttiness and nature of scorched earth in a light campfire finish.

Medium light on the palate, the beer's creamy and nearly sprite effervescence allows for a rounded texture that slighlty off of the champagne pop that those lowland versions would provide. Still, a dry and spicy taste ensures that the base saison is firmly in control and ultimately defines the beer as quintessential saison although those high spice additions are just as mesmerizing as they are distracting.