The Boy Who Cried Wolf
Mad Fritz

Beautifully dark reddish-brown with a tall khaki head.

Unexpectedly yet fittingly Christmasy, esters and phenols play sugar plum and pear notes with allspice and anise accents as a little gingerbread and maybe even candied apple come out in the finish.

In spite of all that, the fluffy body finishes dry and toastily semi-bitter with perhaps a bit of chestnut. This goes down insanely easily for how flavorful and strong it is.

 

this is a pretty sturdy and robust take on the style, a little bigger of a beer in terms of both abv and body than i have known from these guys before, awesome stuff, always such a pleasure to drink beer from mad fritz! a deep caramel color on this one, some haze from the bottle, and a white head quickly settling back to a thin film. aroma of wine tannins and oak, long cooked malt almost like a barleywine, with brown sugar and toffee elements, topped with a lightly estery and also quite vinous saison yeast, subtle but unique at the same time, which is how a lot of these beers are in their fermentation profiles in my experience. quite a bit of structure here, holding up caramelized grain sugar and an earthy almost soil sort of complexion, minerals and straw and dried red apple, honey, and golden raisin. a light champagne character here too from the yeast and the wine barrels, a generic red fruit profile as well, finishing somewhat drier than expected in a warm oak hug. cool beer overall, plenty complex and a cool yeast strain on display. the malt profile is also unique to me, and thats really what drives this one. these guys are making some really fine beers, they always live up to my lofty expectations. this is a really cool example of the style...