Tuesday, December 25, 2012
The Naughty and Nice Beers List
If you are like the Beer Run Blog crew, you like to do your Christmas shopping late - specifically after Christmas, when everything goes on sale. And if that's the case, you might be able to find a good bargain among this year's Christmas beer offerings, which liquor stores are going to start pushing off their shelves soon.
So, in the spirit of always writing this column as late in the holiday season as humanly possible, it is worth giving a shout out to some of the beers that made the past month seasonally fun, especially as they start disappearing. Like searching for Santa, you'd better look quick before these are gone. And you'd better realize whether you've landed on the naughty or nice lists to figure out what you're getting.
Very, very nice - and knowledgeable about beer:
* Five Golden Rings - Saying that The Bruery's annual seasonal beer is the best on the market almost feels cliched. But when it adds pineapple juice and subtle spices to a Belgian strong golden ale to give it a hugely sweet and slightly tart feel, it's just the best thing out there.
* Tis the Saison - Denver Beer Co's offering was a thinker. You had to swirl its floral flavor around a few times before realizing that what made it unique was the peppermint and spearmint added to it. And then you ordered another one.
* Santa's Little Helper - Port Brewing makes another year-to-year top Christmas beer, but unlike The Bruery, it just stays consistent with a reindeer-butt-kicking imperial stout that warms you completely.
Quite nice
* Upslope Christmas Ale - A medium body and a bold taste made this spiced Belgian-style dubbel a full mouth experience with a slight spice to its backtaste. This Boulder brewery may just be becoming the new king of seasonal surprises.
* Hibernation Ale - Those who make the mistake of going a year without enjoying Great Divide's classic strong ale may forget how its woody, caramel-lined body backed by a strong hop backbone really is one of the most solid Christmas beers around.
* Winter Warlock - Bristol Brewing seemed to add a slight bit of sweetness to its traditionally dark oatmeal porter this year, giving it just a touch of pleasant newness.
Just plain nice
* Winter Tartan Scottish Ale - Maybe the surprise of the Christmas season was this vanilla-laced Scottish ale served up by Rock Bottom Downtown Denver, a unique addition to the holiday pantheon.
* Brr Winter Ale - The other great surprise was a hop bomb by Widmer Brothers that featured a berry-fruit taste rather than a traditional citrus fruit palate with its hops.
Naughty
* Big Shot Seasonal Ale - Fort Collins Brewery offered up a big brown ale that was malty, decently hopped on the back - and no different than a year-round decent brown ale would be.
* Newcastle Winter IPA - Yes, British IPAs are much subtler than American IPAs. But it's still extremely hard to identify the hop presence in this extremely easy-drinking caramel-base beer. It's not awful, just dull - not the kind of thing you want to put in a beer aficionado's stocking.
Merry Christmas, everyone.
If you are like the Beer Run Blog crew, you like to do your Christmas shopping late - specifically after Christmas, when everything goes on sale. And if that's the case, you might be able to find a good bargain among this year's Christmas beer offerings, which liquor stores are going to start pushing off their shelves soon.
So, in the spirit of always writing this column as late in the holiday season as humanly possible, it is worth giving a shout out to some of the beers that made the past month seasonally fun, especially as they start disappearing. Like searching for Santa, you'd better look quick before these are gone. And you'd better realize whether you've landed on the naughty or nice lists to figure out what you're getting.
Very, very nice - and knowledgeable about beer:
* Five Golden Rings - Saying that The Bruery's annual seasonal beer is the best on the market almost feels cliched. But when it adds pineapple juice and subtle spices to a Belgian strong golden ale to give it a hugely sweet and slightly tart feel, it's just the best thing out there.
* Tis the Saison - Denver Beer Co's offering was a thinker. You had to swirl its floral flavor around a few times before realizing that what made it unique was the peppermint and spearmint added to it. And then you ordered another one.
* Santa's Little Helper - Port Brewing makes another year-to-year top Christmas beer, but unlike The Bruery, it just stays consistent with a reindeer-butt-kicking imperial stout that warms you completely.
Quite nice
* Upslope Christmas Ale - A medium body and a bold taste made this spiced Belgian-style dubbel a full mouth experience with a slight spice to its backtaste. This Boulder brewery may just be becoming the new king of seasonal surprises.
* Hibernation Ale - Those who make the mistake of going a year without enjoying Great Divide's classic strong ale may forget how its woody, caramel-lined body backed by a strong hop backbone really is one of the most solid Christmas beers around.
* Winter Warlock - Bristol Brewing seemed to add a slight bit of sweetness to its traditionally dark oatmeal porter this year, giving it just a touch of pleasant newness.
Just plain nice
* Winter Tartan Scottish Ale - Maybe the surprise of the Christmas season was this vanilla-laced Scottish ale served up by Rock Bottom Downtown Denver, a unique addition to the holiday pantheon.
* Brr Winter Ale - The other great surprise was a hop bomb by Widmer Brothers that featured a berry-fruit taste rather than a traditional citrus fruit palate with its hops.
Naughty
* Big Shot Seasonal Ale - Fort Collins Brewery offered up a big brown ale that was malty, decently hopped on the back - and no different than a year-round decent brown ale would be.
* Newcastle Winter IPA - Yes, British IPAs are much subtler than American IPAs. But it's still extremely hard to identify the hop presence in this extremely easy-drinking caramel-base beer. It's not awful, just dull - not the kind of thing you want to put in a beer aficionado's stocking.
Merry Christmas, everyone.
Labels: Bristol Brewing, Denver Beer Co, Fort Collins Brewing, Great Divide, Holiday beers, Newcastle, Port Brewing, Rock Bottom Brewery, The Bruery, Upslope Brewing, Widmer Brothers
Saturday, December 24, 2011
Holiday Beer Week, Part Five: The New Champion of ChristmasFor the past two years, no holiday beer has brought more to the season than Port Brewing's Santa's Little Helper, a fiercely dark imperial stout that could keep you warm if you were sitting outside in the snow. It just seemed that nothing would dethrone it as the Christmas beer king.
Then came Four Calling Birds, this year's addition to The Bruery's now-4-year-old collection of rotating holiday specialties. And it just yanked that title away.
Four Calling Birds (the one on the left with less head in the photo) brings its own inky darkness to the table, a trait that leaves even more of an impression in your mouth with the resounding hint of high alcohol in its backtaste. But it adds both the smoothness that defines Belgian-style strong ales and a spice presence - largely, gingerbread - that floats through your mouth. Thus, it becomes the rare beer that will both pound your taste buds with its flavor and soothe you with a cookie-like flavor profile, leaving you thinking this is the beer you really want to leave out for Santa.
Don't get me wrong: Santa's Little Helper (on the right in the photo, with the thick head) remains a rare highly drinkable imperial stout in which you can literally chew on the roastiness of the malt and be wowed. But, at least this year, it's only second on my list of the beers that I want to keep drinking throughout the winter.
And if you need to decide yourself, head down to Freshcraft, which should have both of the offerings on tap throughout most of next week.
This is the last of a five-part series examining the beers of this holiday season. Merry Christmas and happy new beer!
Labels: Freshcraft, Holiday beers, Port Brewing, The Bruery
Friday, December 23, 2011
Holiday Beer Week, Part Four: Nowhere Near Style
There isn't an official style for "Christmas Ale." But if there was, there are several beers that it would not include - some of which should feel very proud to be outside the lines.
Firs
t among them is Jolly Pumpkin's Noel de Calabaza Special Ale, a beer that combines so many different flavors that trying to tie any description to it would do it injustice. But know this: This might be the most appealing beer yet produce by the Michigan brewer of barrel-aged ales.
t among them is Jolly Pumpkin's Noel de Calabaza Special Ale, a beer that combines so many different flavors that trying to tie any description to it would do it injustice. But know this: This might be the most appealing beer yet produce by the Michigan brewer of barrel-aged ales.Noel, like most Jolly Pumpkin beers, has a wild-yeast sour flavor to it. But this version backs it with a malt body that lays down such a solid cushion to the tart character that it evens out the bite and spreads it across the entire palate. This really is an extraordinary beer, one that defies any expectations of a Christmas beer - like most of what comes out of the brewery - but manages to be extremely pleasing despite the complex body.
Gift of the 
Magi, Lost Abbey's Christmas offering, serves up Brettanomyces, but not in as palatable an offering. This one is equally style-breaking, but more sharply alcoholic. And its fairly translucent amber body gives way to a sharp ale that presents itself more as a melange of flavors than as a coherent taste profile, leaving it too open to interpretation to make it an easily enjoyable package.
Magi, Lost Abbey's Christmas offering, serves up Brettanomyces, but not in as palatable an offering. This one is equally style-breaking, but more sharply alcoholic. And its fairly translucent amber body gives way to a sharp ale that presents itself more as a melange of flavors than as a coherent taste profile, leaving it too open to interpretation to make it an easily enjoyable package.Then there's Breckenridge Christmas Ale, a beer that very well could have gone into the first part of this series as a dark, wonderful ale. But it has such a cult following that you feel it really ought to stand out somewhere else. This is a beer that blends malt darkness with just a touch of hops to make one of the most balanced beers of the year. It is dark, yet it is special. And that's how a beer goes beyond any particular labels.
This is day four of a five-part series examining the beers of this holiday season. Merry Christmas and happy new beer!
Labels: Breckenridge Brewery, Holiday beers, Jolly Pumpkin, Lost Abbey
Thursday, December 22, 2011
Holiday Beer Week, Part Three: A Belgian Christmas No one knows quite how to do the holiday season quite like the Belgians, do they? A cold country that's used to serving complex, warm beers, saving up what they have for one big month. Americans shouldn't even compete, right?
With the kinds of lush offerings that Belgium offers, that was once a rational mindset. But this year, at least one U.S. brewery produced an extraordinary Belgian-style offering. And so, it seemed worth a little comparison shopping to test its merit.
The American beer of note is Grand Teton Brewing's Comi
ng Home 2011 Holiday Ale. A medium-bodied but thick-tasting golden ale reeking of cotton candy and orange, it is one of the most accessible and yet enjoyable European-style holiday offerings to come out of a U.S. brewery in recent memory. It has a soft feel, and its 9% ABV weight warms you considerably. And it is infinitely drinkable.
ng Home 2011 Holiday Ale. A medium-bodied but thick-tasting golden ale reeking of cotton candy and orange, it is one of the most accessible and yet enjoyable European-style holiday offerings to come out of a U.S. brewery in recent memory. It has a soft feel, and its 9% ABV weight warms you considerably. And it is infinitely drinkable.Paired against two notable Belgian holiday offerings, it stands the test.
Affligem's Noel Christmas Ale (pictured above) went over less well with the Fearless Tasting Crew. An amber-brown offering that sits somewhere between a Belgian double and triple, it presents a licorice-heavy front taste that sweetens with warming but still leaves an anise presence in your mouth after it's gone. It's interesting and, in some ways more simplistic than the multi-layered Coming Home, but it doesn't make you refreshed and warmed in quite the same way.
St. B
ernardus Christmas Ale, a Belgian abbey ale with a sweet, rich amber body was far more enticing. With candied sugar and tastes of dark fruit such as plum and blackberry, it almost seemed to be made for a holiday associated with sugar-plum ferries dancing in your head. The mouthfeel is not overwhelming, but it carries a deep, burgeoning richness.
ernardus Christmas Ale, a Belgian abbey ale with a sweet, rich amber body was far more enticing. With candied sugar and tastes of dark fruit such as plum and blackberry, it almost seemed to be made for a holiday associated with sugar-plum ferries dancing in your head. The mouthfeel is not overwhelming, but it carries a deep, burgeoning richness.Still, Grand Teton's effort just struck one note more original, more pleasing, more for a holiday celebration. And both the Idaho-based brewery and American beer drinkers should rejoice in that.
Labels: Affligem, Grand Teton Brewing, Holiday beers, St. Bernardus
Wednesday, December 21, 2011
Holiday Beer Week, Part 2: Hoppy New YearThe concept of a hoppy holiday beer - as fun and alliterative as it may sound - is still a relatively untouched idea in the American beer spectrum. But why should it be?
The idea behind most holiday beers is adding a little something extra to the standard recipe or brewing with spices that you use only once a year. So, why not take hops that are normally outside of a brewery's line of ingredients, pair them with a typical malty backbone and create something new? It can be done without making the Christmas season an excuse to rev up the IBUs on a recipe just for the heck of it.
Maybe nothing demonstrates that better this season than Full Sail Brewing's Wreck the Halls, a 2011 brewmaster reserve that doesn't hold back on the hops. Rather than trying to do anything too dazzling, this creation simply layers Centennial hops onto a deep amber body, giving you a mouth full of grass but also a pleasant malty backtaste to minimize the sting. And thus, it proves you don't have to use cinnamon to designate that you make make a special beer in the winter.
Odell Brewing's Isolation Ale approaches the concept of a hoppingly refreshing beer from a different angle - that of a beer that presents its caramel characteristics first and foremost but surprises you with a sharp hop backtaste. In that way, the hop is the special flavor of the season, bursting into what otherwise would be a more standard medium-colored ale and warming your palate beyond what the malts can do.
Newcastle seemed to be going for a similar taste this year in its first-time Winter IPA, a take on the style that is decidedly light on bittering hops and that comes with just a hint of holiday caramel in the body. It's about as far from Wreck the Halls as you get in terms of intensity. But, more than being a hophead's delight, this is the kind of hoppy beer that you can serve to the whole family gathering and use it to ween people onto the idea that holiday beers with a different taste don't have to mean an overpowering malt or spice base.
This is day two of a five-part series examining the beers of this holiday season. Merry Christmas and happy new beer!
Labels: Full Sail Brewing, Holiday beers, Newcastle, Odell Brewing
Tuesday, December 20, 2011
Holiday Beer Week, Part 1: Dark and Daring Holiday beers come in many styles, from the hopped to the heavy, but none seems as prominent as the dark beer that just reeks of warming on a cold winter night.
The bad news is that a number of the holiday darks push, like summer light ales, adventurouslessly toward a color rather than a unique flavor. But there are those that can pull of the label "dark and daring," and for them we should all be grateful.
*Bristol Brewing's Winter Warlock has long been a favorite of mine for its chewy roasted oat flavor, and this year the Colorado Springs brewery just cranks up the goodness by putting it on nitro (at least at the brewery). This smooths it out and lets the softly burned chocolate flavor stand out above the carbonation. Try it if you can find it this way.
*Great Divide's Hibernation Ale is another old standby - at 8.7% ABV it was the first big beer sold throughout Colorado. But this beer feels fresh every year. It's a big hit of both malt (on the aroma) and hops on the back of the tongue. And the high alcohol really does leave you warmed.
*If you're looking for something of the sweeter variety, Tommyknocker's Cocoa Porter seems to be picking up that characteristic more every year. It has just a hint of a vanilla cream taste and a medium-sized body, making this a perfect post-ski beer if you're stopping at the brewery on the way back down I-70.
*Left Hand's latest iteration of Paint It Black should only be drunk when not exhausted, as it's a jolt to the system. Ink black and thick as soup, the 2011 version outstrips the daring 2010 Baltic porter version because this adds just a hint of chili fire on the backtaste that lights up an otherwise fully dark mouthfeel.
*Finally, for those who like their Christmas beers like the ones that would have been drank in the 19th Century, there is Lump of Coal Dark Holiday Stout (pictured above) from Ridgeway Brewing of England. While British porters often tend to leave you with a mouthfeel of wet rope, this provides you with a dusty, even musky chocolate taste that feels it's blending old-world and new-world beer sensibilities.
This is day one of a five-part series examining the beers of this holiday season. Merry Christmas and happy new beer!
Labels: Bristol Brewing, Great Divide, Holiday beers, Left Hand Brewing, Tommyknocker Brewery
Friday, December 31, 2010
Cheers to 2010's Great Holiday Beers
* Santa's Little Helper from Port Brewing continues to be the standard-bearer for this season. So dark that it's like the winter solstice. So charged with underlying hop character that it's the imperial stout you wish you could find all year round. It's the perfect stocking stuffer that, in the Christmas spirit and for sobriety's sake, you'll want to share with family and friends.
As the Christmas season winds down - and, as all of the liquor stores discount the holiday beers to make way for new arrivals - let us pause for a moment to honor those brews that have made this season special and just a bit warmer.
Last year I did a feature on the 12 beers of Christmas. And while I thought about that this year as well, I realized that much of the list would be a repeat. My number-one beer wouldn't have changed, and that just gets boring after a while.
So, this year, I just want to call out a few particularly special creations that lit me up like a Christmas tree. If I missed anything particularly special, please feel free to let me know. But without further ado:
* Santa's Little Helper from Port Brewing continues to be the standard-bearer for this season. So dark that it's like the winter solstice. So charged with underlying hop character that it's the imperial stout you wish you could find all year round. It's the perfect stocking stuffer that, in the Christmas spirit and for sobriety's sake, you'll want to share with family and friends.* Left Hand's Fade to Black is like a Santa's Little Helper, but you can actually drink more than one glass in a setting. It's an especially thick foreign stout whose appeal grows more as you look less for the "special" Christmas-ale ingredients of cinnamon or nutmeg and more for a beer that just goes well with the cold weather.
*Moylan's White Christmas Spiced Lager is that beer that will bring smiles to anyone who waits all year long to taste certain ingredients. Though it features a light body, it asserts its spiciness with every sip, as the coriander and orange zest virtually pop off of your tongue.
*Mikkeller Santa's Little Helper 2010, meanwhile, is the combo of the dark and the spiced, a 10.9% ABV Belgian ale that creeps surprisingly easily across your tongue and meets the back of your throat with a hint of licorice and a zip of what can only be called "citrus pepper."
Good drinking to all on this New Year's Eve. And here's to a 2011 with even more challenging and interesting beers to come.
Labels: Holiday beers, Left Hand Brewing, Moylan's Brewing, Port Brewing
Friday, December 25, 2009
The 12 Beers of Christmas: Day 1Santa's Little Helper
In all of holiday beerdom - through the spicy, the dark and the not-quite-either - there is one beer that seems to crash down the chimney with more ferocity than any other of the season. And that beer is Port Brewing's 13-year-old tradition, Santa's Little Helper.
The 10% ABV imperial stout is steeped in both dark, roasty malt and in harrowingly bitter aftertaste hops that sing of its strength. Pouring as thick as the motor oil in the fat bearded guy's sleigh, this presents an alcohol flavor that is certainly present but also is masked somewhat by the prominent chocolate and peat tastes.
Yet, through all this darkness, you keep coming back to the hops, the lingering characteristic under all of the burly, chewy taste that gives it its outstanding foundation and ridiculously loud flavor. It is wildly satisfying, like a brilliantly written subplot to an already top-notch movie, and it works in concert with the rest of Santa's Little Helper's personality to create the biggest burst of flavor to come along in winter beers.
I hope you've enjoyed these past 12 days. I know that I sure have. Merry Christmas.
Labels: Holiday beers, Port Brewing
Thursday, December 24, 2009
The 12 Beers of Christmas: Day 22 Turtle Doves
Note: I'm a fan of holiday ales, and I want to use this forum this year to lay out 12 beers that just seem essential for holiday party drinking. Plus, I want to see if I can sit down and write for 12 days in a row, a feat I've never pulled off on this blog.
Even at a time of year when you're overwhelmed by all the forms that chocolate can take, this year's seasonal by The Bruery will make you believe again the power of dark sweetness to be the official taste of the season.
Two Turtle Doves is a Belgian-style dark ale brewed with cocoa nibs and toasted pecans and coming out at a marshmallow-roastingly 12% ABV. Like many holiday beers, it employs the flavors of dark malt and chocolate, but this gift from the Orange County, Calif. brewery brings its own very, very unique style.
The chocolate here has a liqueur sweetness drifting through it rather than a straight cocoa darkness. Considering this is a medium-bodied beer despite the ridiculous alcoholic wallop that it packs, the chocolate runs through it like a river of added syrup, becoming the filling inside the big, bold, dark candy, if you will.
You can chew it or swirl it between the roof of your mouth and your tongue, but the sweetness is the ultimate compliment to the big body.
I give special props too to The Bruery for coming up with the 12 Beers of Christmas concept in a more more interesting way than a writer can - by producing a different winter seasonal each year for a dozen years (this is the second effort, following last year's Partridge in a Pear Tree). I can't wait to see what comes next.
Labels: Holiday beers, The Bruery
Wednesday, December 23, 2009
The 12 Beers of Christmas: Day 3Winter Warlock Oatmeal Stout
Note: I'm a fan of holiday ales, and I want to use this forum this year to lay out 12 beers that just seem essential for holiday party drinking. Plus, I want to see if I can sit down and write for 12 days in a row, a feat I've never pulled off on this blog.
There are big winter beers and there are dusty, pleasantly dark winter beers that aren't overpowering. And somehow, Bristol Brewing combines these two seemingly diverse genres into one spectacular bottle.
Having lived for six years in Colorado Springs, I learned that Winter Warlock is slightly tweaked every year - maybe it's a little more roasty or just a little more chocolaty in any given winter cycle. But the thick-tasting, medium-bodied combination remains, a testament to the ability to combine what is best about several winter styles and produce one of the most drinkable, most satisfying seasonal beverages available in stores.
Warlock's secret brilliance, though, is it's mixing commercial appeal with beer-geek craftsmanship in its oatmeal bedding to its lightly murky feel. Churn the two together, add a little roasted quality and you have something that defines the best of the season.
Labels: Bristol Brewing, Holiday beers
Tuesday, December 22, 2009
The 12 Beers of Christmas: Day 4Anchor Our Special Ale
Note: I'm a fan of holiday ales, and I want to use this forum this year to lay out 12 beers that just seem essential for holiday party drinking. Plus, I want to see if I can sit down and write for 12 days in a row, a feat I've never pulled off on this blog.
There aren't many beers that are brewed with a different annual recipe that you keep coming back each year, knowing that no matter what the brewery threw in, the end result is going to be rewarding. But Anchor Brewing's annual Christmas Ale, Our Special Ale, constantly rewards its quaffers, and the 2009 edition is a rather exceptional one at that.
A combination of cocoa, caramel and cotton candy hits your tongue immediately, and the individual tastes swirl together to form overlapping layers that keep rolling back at you. A few sips into the bottle, the taste of licorice begins to appear, slowly and quietly rising to add to this beer's considerable backbone.
As it settles, the licorice blends with the cocoa to produce a unique dark but edgy flavor. This fine brew comes in both 12-oz. bottles and magnums, and I can assure you from very recent experience that bringing a magnum to a holiday party will make you a very special guest.
Labels: Anchor Brewing, Holiday beers
Monday, December 21, 2009
The 12 Beers of Christmas: Day 5Great Divide Hibernation Ale
Note: I'm a fan of holiday ales, and I want to use this forum this year to lay out 12 beers that just seem essential for holiday party drinking. Plus, I want to actually see if I can sit down and write for 12 days in a row, a feat I've never pulled off on this blog.
At age 14, Great Divide's Hibernation Ale is reaching its adolescence, but it has a maturity way beyond its years.
A dry-hopped English-style old ale, this dark and dense sipper presents an intriguing combination of flavors. Part of it is is a woody caramel that speaks to its 8.7% ABV strength. And part is the late-building taste of its aging, an almost intangible largeness of body that just makes this rest a little longer on your palate and taste a little heavier going down.
A strong, echoing taste of toffee leaves a signature personality of this beer behind. There are feelings of dark cold nights quenched by a malt-and-hop fire that just resonant with this holiday masterpiece, which is tasting better than ever.
Labels: Great Divide, Holiday beers
Sunday, December 20, 2009
The 12 Beers of Christmas: Day 6Black Cauldron Imperial Stout
Note: I'm a fan of holiday ales, and I want to use this forum this year to lay out 12 beers that just seem essential for holiday party drinking. Plus, I want to actually see if I can sit down and write for 12 days in a row, a feat I've never pulled off on this blog.
In the cold, cold days of winter, nothing seems so warming as a thick, dark, full beer. And though it is a new entry this year, Grand Teton Brewing's Black Cauldron Imperial Stout jumps to the front of the pack as one of the most frost-killing, more-appropriate-for-spooning-out-than-sipping versions of a winter seasonal that has come along in quite some time.
Both smoky and sweet, this blaringly thick concoction features beechwood-smoked malt and raisins and dried fruit soaked in cherry. The smoke mellows as it warms, but the thick body stays, building up in fortitude.
This is a wonderfully complex, rich beer that you drink just one of in any given sitting. But the appreciation of its craftsmanship grows with each mouth-filling taste, and you're left both savoring it long after you've finished and pondering what taste buds each swish over the tongue will enliven as you slowly work your way through it.
Labels: Grand Teton Brewing, Holiday beers
Saturday, December 19, 2009
The 12 Beers of Christmas: Day 7Avery Old Jubilation Ale
Note: I'm a fan of holiday ales, and I want to use this forum this year to lay out 12 beers that just seem essential for holiday party drinking. Plus, I want to actually see if I can sit down and write for 12 days in a row, a feat I've never pulled off on this blog.
Avery Brewing's Old Jubilation Ale may pack a more complex combination of flavors into one 12-ounce bottle than any holiday beer sold in six-packs in Colorado.
This 8% ABV concoction is highly hopped buy still dark and chewy, presenting the hops and malt in balance (BIG balance, but balance all the same). The combination is a full-on malty bitter deluge of the taste buds.
Old Jubilation's official designation is as an English strong ale, but it is very American in terms of the amount of flavors it crams into one bottle. It falls into the holiday-ale category of beers that bathe us in warming malt for the cold season, but it goes well beyond that simple description lavishes as full a presentation to your tongue that you will find.
Labels: Avery Brewing, Holiday beers
Friday, December 18, 2009
The 12 Beers of Christmas: Day 8Left Hand Fade to Black
Note: I'm a fan of holiday ales, and I want to use this forum this year to lay out 12 beers that just seem essential for holiday party drinking. Plus, I want to actually see if I can sit down and write for 12 days in a row, a feat I've never pulled off on this blog.
I was somewhat distraught when Left Hand Brewing announced this year that it was discontinuing Snowbound Ale, its spiced holiday beer that ranked near the top of my annual Christmas sipping list.
I was far less bummed, however, after I tasted its replacement, Fade to Black.
This foreign export stout doesn't just greet you with the scent of espresso - it comes on with the smell of coffee that's been left to warm just a little longer, burning slightly onto the bottom of the pot in a way that ensures its attractive scent is lingering for all. And the taste follows as such: A highly palatable, medium-bodied affair with a roasted tinge that extends around the edges of your tongue and lights up your mouth.
After the introduction, you become aware that the hops in Fade to Black are present and accounted for, but it's the six types of malt that hold the upper hand in this drink. It fills you, it coats your taste buds and it leaves you wanting to leave the lights out so that you can contemplate it in an atmosphere as dark as it is.
Labels: Holiday beers, Left Hand Brewing
Thursday, December 17, 2009
The 12 Beers of Christmas: Day 9Sierra Nevada Celebration Ale
Note: I'm a fan of holiday ales, and I want to use this forum this year to lay out 12 beers that just seem essential for holiday party drinking. Plus, I want to actually see if I can sit down and write for 12 days in a row, a feat I've never pulled off on this blog.
A few sips into this seasonal, you begin to say to yourself, "How exactly is this a Christmas beer? There aren't spices, there isn't a profusion of dark malts. In fact it really tastes like a classically hopped , excellent northwest pale."
Then, a few sips later, the thought crosses your mind that you don't really give a damn if Sierra Nevada Celebration Ale meets some kind of style guidelines, because this bigger (6.8% ABV) offering is just a well-made creation that works well in any season.
Celebration Ale leaves an almost spicy hops lick on the back edges of your tongue, tinging your taste buds with its dry-hopped assertiveness. It deposits a penetrating back taste that envelopes your mouth for quite a while. And, like Santa leaving presents, it leaves you no doubt that it's come to visit.
This is one of the oldest holiday beers made by an American brewery, and it remains one of the finest. It's good to know that some things don't change.
Labels: Holiday beers, Sierra Nevada Brewing
Wednesday, December 16, 2009
The 12 Beers of Christmas: Day 10A.C. Golden Winterfest
There are those guests at every holiday party who want something lighter, something that's not as, well, overwhelmingly Christmas-y as a Breckenridge Ale. And this year, even beer geeks can feel good about giving them something that fits their parameters and still delivers quality flavor: A.C. Golden's Winterfest.
The experimental Coors brewery has come up with a rich lager that isn't spicy or heavily malted but adds just enough texture to be part of the holiday style. Its red-brown color gives away its caramel personality, and the lighter body helps the caramel to be soothing rather than overpowering, like some other major-brewery holiday experiments.
Despite the lighter body, there is an almost British malty aftertaste that lingers in your mouth. This combination of attributes makes it both drinkable and memorable, and should please a wider swath of your guest spectrum than you might expect something coming from Golden, Colo. to do.
Labels: A.C. Golden, Holiday beers
Tuesday, December 15, 2009
The 12 Beers of Christmas: Day 11Yule Fuel
Note: I'm a fan of holiday ales, and I want to use this forum this year to lay out 12 beers that just seem essential for holiday party drinking. Plus, I want to actually see if I can sit down and write for 12 days in a row, a feat I've never pulled off on this blog.
Sitting in the Bull and Bush tavern, which is modeled after a 17th-century English pub, you feel right at home drinking Yule Fuel, the Denver brewery's winter-specialty spiced beer. For in its thick, viscous body served lukewarm and its spiced aroma, you conjure up images of something very old-fashioned.
Though cloves, malt and honey are all apparent in its scent, it is the honey that takes on the strongest characteristic in this libation that reminds one of a more drinkable form of mead. It takes over as the beer warms even more, making this a very sweet, very drinkable concoction perfect for fireside sipping.
Yule Fuel is not for everyone, especially those who like their beer in classic styles. But if you want something less definable and more experimental, this is worth putting in your gas tank ... er, I mean, gullet.
Labels: Bull and Bush, Holiday beers
Monday, December 14, 2009
The 12 Beers of Christmas: Day 12Breckenridge Christmas Ale
Note: I'm a fan of holiday ales, and I want to use this forum this year to lay out 12 beers that just seem essential for holiday party drinking. Plus, I want to actually see if I can sit down and write for 12 days in a row, a feat I've never pulled off on this blog.
Breckenridge Christmas Ale is a curious hybrid - the caramel malt-heavy classic American microbrew winter creation with just a tinge of dusty English characteristics to it.
Few holiday beers seem to create as much of a following as this offering, a relatively big (7.4% ABV) mouth-filler that takes on a distinctly more old-school feel than many of this daring brewery's newer creations.
And while I might not put it, say, alone in a pear tree as the top beer of Christmas, it's still a must-have for any holiday party, both for its popular sentiment (both beer snobs and casual beer-drinkers have broken this out at gatherings the Beer Geekette and I have attended this year) and its chewy wintry quality that makes it a great beverage to warm the person who just had to park halfway down the street and trudge back to the party in ankle-deep snow.
Get a dozen, but certainly don't try to drink them in one night.
Labels: Breckenridge Brewery, Holiday beers
Friday, December 26, 2008
What a Difference a Year MakesNo respectable beer snob can talk about big or dark beer these days without bringing the idea of cellaring a few bottles and seeing how their tastes change over time. This, however, has two drawbacks. One is that you have to be patient enough to let good beer sit for a year or more without drinking it. Second, you have to remember exactly when you cellared the beer in order to know when to open it.
While I have no proposals on how to make the first drawback acceptable, I found an easy way to get around the second one: Buy a holiday seasonal beer and open it one year later. And for my first cellaring experiment, I chose what is my favorite annual dip into Christmas beers: Left Hand's Snowbound Ale.
The 2008 version, which is rushing quickly out of stores, is a magnificent specimen of complexity. Brewed with crushed cinnamon, honey, chopped ginger, orange zest, cardamom and cloves, it is especially clove- and ginger-heavy, and its 8.6 percent ABV body takes a surprising back seat to the abounding spices. All in all, it is a very enjoyable beer.
After a year, spices remain stand-out and Snowbound is still something you want to be cooped inside with when the blizzard hits. But two big changes set in when consuming the 2007 version.
First, the beer frankly feels bigger. The head seems a little heavier, the darkness in the body feels a little more prevalent and while the spices raise their voice, the lingering taste is a little more hoppy bitterness showing its personality.
Second, the tastes feel a little more layered. Yes, they're all swirling together to bring about the same warming mix. But with age you can feel the steps more: The honey is on the nose, the ginger is in the initial bite, the cloves are on the full mouthfeel.
So, what's to be learned from this? Well, it's really the same message that many crooners say about Christmas cheer, rather than Christmas beer. Grab it and let the spirits be enjoyed all year through. Those spirits, after all, might be even more enjoyable if you let them nestle in your fridge long enough.
Now I can't wait to see what my 2007 Alaskan Smoked Porter is like after two years . . .
Anyone else got good cellaring stories or ideas?
Labels: Cellaring, Holiday beers, Left Hand Brewing
