Red Bear Brewing - "Krampus Shuffle" quadrupel & "Scream Inside Your Heart" barrel-aged saison

A few days ago, I was in NoMa running some errands for a friend and found myself within one block of Red Bear Brewing, located in the U-Line Arena. Back when I worked at my old job, one of our buildings was a block away and we used to hang out after hours at Red Bear. Last May, I also did an in-depth interview with founders Simon Bee and Bryan van den Oever (along with a lot of beer!) Well, it has certainly been a minute since I went to a brewpub, and I had some time, so I figured I'd stop in and support our DC brewing community and see what they had on tap. 

The first thing that caught my eye on the tap list is "Krampus Shuffle", a 10.20% ABV Belgian-style quadrupel. Quads are not super common these days, it seems, and it's always interesting to see how brewers put their mark on an established style. I ordered a 10oz snifter (in a socially-distant way, using their no-contact method of ordering through an app.) 

I had my first experience with this style many years ago and have reviewed numerous quads on this blog, but none local. Most of the ones I've tried seem to be heavy, which is the archetype for this kind of beer. Red Bear's variant is much lighter, actually. It's super fresh, naturally, as I'm sipping it sitting only twenty feet from where it's made. I'm surprised by the light body and silkiness of the beer; in my experience a lot of this beers are big and boozy and therefore quite thick. True to style, there's pronounced malt and biscuit notes with a healthy dose of raisin, cloves, and caramel sweetness. The finish is a bit grainy with a dash of spice. Overall quite nice, and good to see this style being made locally. Another good one, along this same flavor profile and body, is "Silver Century" from Silver Spring, MD's Silver Branch Brewing Co.  

Rather than keep drinking on-site, I noticed they had a crowler machine as well as some special-release stuff for sale. I'm a big fan of "off season" beers, and so when I saw "Scream Inside Your Heart", a 6.60% ABV barrel-aged saison, I snapped it up and took it home. 

This saison is aged bourbon barrels from Republic Restoratives, a local DC distillery which makes fantastic stuff (their "Borough Bourbon", aged in Armagnac casks, is excellent.) I cracked open the 750mL of "Scream" and poured into a Belgian glass. It generates some funky, woody aromas, and I let it warm up for about five minutes. 

I really like this - it's super funky, thanks to a major dose of Brettanomyces yeast which gives that "barnyard" flavor. As the beer develops, there's also a crispness, when paired with the solid tang from the oak-aging, gives quite a punchy flavor. What's most interesting to me is the body of the beer - it's pretty serious and makes it one of the heavier saisons I've ever had. There's not much bourbon sweetness or spice, though, so good for folks who like bourbon-barrel beers but don't like the flavors that usually come from that. Overall, the beer is similar to Boulevard Brewing Co.'s "Saison Brett" (which has seemingly gone away), so this is a great replacement for that. In terms of food pairings, I matched this with homemade, oven-baked macaroni and cheese with mushrooms, gouda cheese, sundried tomatoes, and panko. The crispness and gentle spice of the beer formed a nice counter to the thick, cheesy dish.