THIS BEAR BY ANY OTHER NAME WOULD STILL BE A TREAT: ELDER BEAR ALE

Growling Bear, Woodbridge, Virginia Elder Bear Ale, Fruit Ale, 6%. Tasted in January 2016.

20170111 (Our Beers of the Day in January look back to some of our favorites of 2016) Our list of favorite beers contains a handful of Saisons – topped by DuPont’s original masterpiece and including a few rare brewpub successes such as Mad Fox’s version that uses the DuPont yeast. On the whole, though, saisons here are often wild and are, we suspect, more often the result of experimentation and a bit of guesswork than a proven and reproducible recipe. Once in a while, like stopped clocks, they’re near perfect, but we’ve had to wade through so many mistakes that we are ambivalent about the hunt

We’re even more skeptical, however, about the plethora of peach and papaya pouring from the vats of breweries trying to find something that hasn’t been done on the other side of town. We love visiting Growling Bear in Woodbridge, Virginia. We’re always greeted like lost friends and it’s a comfortable small and modern place to drink. Their bears can wander off the path occasionally looking for berries maybe?– and while most of their beers have been pleasant to drink, and their strong IPAs have been predictably tasty, but we held our breath as we began to sample what they called simply a “fruit ale” made with elderberries.

Surprise! There was some fruit to it, but the elderberries that we haven’t loved in a number of breweries kept a respectable distance from the forefront of the taste. The result, remarkably, was a beer that reminded us of a very good saison. Dryly chalky, with drying sugar and soft fruit and some spiciness from the yeast, it almost brought a halt to our pub crawling for the day.

Reproducible? Frankly we doubt it, but it was a clear reminder that the best way to find great beers is to …. taste as many as you can find.

Tomorrow- another Woodbridge wonder, Ornery Gremlin Red Ale