Retired in 2008 - re-released as draught only in 2013.
Barking Duck is our interpretation of the little known and very diverse Belgian Farmhouse beers, traditionally made by farmers to feed their workers during summer and harvest; nutritious, safe to drink (the water wasn’t) and refreshing. Made before hops became commonplace in beer so other spices were used as flavouring. It was a time before commercial breweries so each beer was unique to the family farm that produced it. Barking Duck, produced in very limited quantities, combines wheat, oats & barley, two yeasts, three hops and a blend of spices including cassia bark. We thought that since we were playing around with some different spices that we might as well get some spicy characters from an unconventional blend of hops. The hops we’ve used are East Kent Goldings for bitterness; Czech Saaz for flavour & aroma and German Hallertauer for flavour & aroma. The key thing for us is balance so we’ve kept each of the components at a low enough level so that nothing dominates but taken as a whole it’s a pretty complex beer. Although we went non traditional in the recipe, we did stay with tradition on the filtration. We didn’t do any! It’s unfiltered and unpasteurised. As a result, you might notice that the beer is a bit cloudy. That cloudiness comes from the live yeast cells left behind in the beer. Look closely and you might see a bit of funny business going on. There are two kinds of yeast in there. So Barking Duck is complex and refreshing, very fruity in aroma and flavour with mild tartness and a medium bitterness. It has a pale golden amber colour due to the blend of malted wheat and barley.