it's the most wonderful time of the year for beer drinkers Part 4: Winter Comes Early

Well, winter came early this year and I had the perfect beers to be drinking when it did. All but two of the Christmas/winter beers I tried on the third weekend of December were beers actually named "Winter Ale." So, as mother nature dropped around two feet of snow throughout much of the Delaware Valley before the official start of winter, I was sipping on ales from Brooklyn, Geary's, Oppigårds, Ipswich and Nøgne Ø breweries. I also tried Miller Coors Blue Moon Grand Cru and Nøgne Ø Sunturnbrew.

Brooklyn Winter Ale is a Scottish ale brewed in New York. I've seen this beer for a long time but just got around to trying it now. At first I thought this beer came across as being a little flat for the style, but then I got to thinking. This beer is probably very similar to an actual Scottish ale. I've gotten so used to everyone making wee heavy style Scottish ales, that I forgot that all Scottish ales aren't huge alcohol bombs made even more intense by American craft brewers trying to appeal to many a beer geek's desire for extreme everything. Sorry, I'm getting off point. This beer isn't going to scream "Christmas" in your mouth, but it is a very easy-drinking winter ale that is full of caramel and nutty flavors along with slight citrus and cherry. At 6% ABV it might not thaw your bones, but you can knock back a few with good friends without embarrassing yourself.

Geary's Winter Ale is an India Pale Ale brewed in Maine. I never really think of IPAs being all that wintry or Christmasy, but a beer such as Sierra Nevada Celebration, an IPA, is one of the most sought after holiday beers around. This one wasn't quite as good as Celebration, but I might not have had the best example of this beer. It didn't seem skunked but the bottle was very dusty when I picked it up in the store. This is also a more British rendering of the IPA style, where Celebration is a very American and more specifically West Coast IPA. The Geary's has an almost honey-like malt with some cracker, oranges, peaches and apricots; and the hops are rather floral. It doesn't come across as very wintry flavor-wise, but it does seem to have a slight warming effect, which is a little surprising due to the fact that it is only 6% ABV.

The beer I was sipping when the snow began falling was Blue Moon Grand Cru, a beer brewed in honor of there being an actual blue moon on New Year's Eve this year. If you think the original Blue Moon is incredible, this one might be a little too much for you; but if you think the original is a nice stepping stone beer to get more people drinking craft beer, you will wish they made the Grand Cru all year long. It is basically an imperial version of the original in both flavor and ABV (11%). There is some biscuit in the flavor, with plenty of candy sugar, oranges, spices and even a slight funk. With the oranges and spices it comes across as a little Christmasy too.

The Oppigårds Winter Ale is surprisingly British for having been brewed in Sweden. The flavor is a little hop heavy in the beginning, but when it warms up a little it balances better with the malt. There are caramel and nutty malts, and all sorts of hops — perfumy, piney, resinous and herbal. There is also some sour fruit and citrus rind with hints of chocolate and coffee and an ever so slightly off, sour smell. It's a beer you could drink all night at just 5.3% ABV. It was much different than I was expecting when picking up a beer from Sweden, but surprises are part of trying all different beers.

The Ipswich Winter Ale, at 6.2% ABV, is a little hard to define. The brewery calls it a Scottish ale, RateBeer calls it an English strong ale, but I think it seems like a brown ale, but definitely a British brown ale. It is very malty, but a bit too hoppy to be considered Scottish. It has nutty, toasted and caramel malts, a little hint of cocoa, herbal and perfume hops, a little sour fruit, slight toffee, tea and citrus.

The Nøgne Ø Winter Ale, known as God Jul, in its native Norway, is quite good. It is particularly beautiful to look at. What you can't see above is that in direct light there is a reddish brown glow. It is very malty and chocolaty with a perfect blend of hops that almost makes it seem like there are spices in it, which it doesn't. (Their spiced beer, Peculiar Yule or Underlig Jul in Norway, is one of the most spiced beers I've ever had). At 8.5% ABV it is slightly warming. In a way it reminds me of those chocolate oranges I used to get for Christmas as a kid. It also goes well with chocolate chip cookies, so this might be a nice one to leave out for Santa.

So the day before the winter solstice, I decided to try Nøgne Ø Sunturnbrew, a beer brewed on December 21 as the sun turns and changes direction. The label states that this turning of the sun is something Norwegians believe in. Whether you do or don't, it is a fact that cultures were celebrating this time of year because they knew that after the solstice, days would start to get longer again. These celebrations were around a long time before Christmas and led to the birth of Christ being celebrated at this time of year, which is something I will get into more in my next post. But back to the beer in hand. It's pretty much a smoked barley wine, that hides its 11% ABV incredibly well. It is surprisingly easy to drink for a smoked or high ABV beer. Part of that is due to the fact that it is not overly smoked. There is just enough smoke to make it interesting. It really is like drinking an ancient beer and oddly enough I do think of it as Christmasy. The flavor is way more complex than the aroma, but the aroma is fairly complex to begin with. An excellent example of something similar to what people might have been drinking while hoisting stone drinking vessels to their lips in celebration of the sun's lengthening of days.

I really need to post more often during this project to avoid these long posts. I hope you enjoyed these latest beers. As I post this I am starting an 11-day weekend and hope to have more time to try more Christmas/winter beers. I have a few more "winter ales" to go and then I'll be getting into the specifically Christmas and Jul beers. Here's hoping my liver survives the journey. If it does I'll tell you about some more beers. If not, I hope you will continue to drink it in.

The Bruery's Holiday Party this Friday!

I don't know if anyone from California will be seeing this, but I figured I'd pass on this e-mail that I received today.

It's that time of year to get out your favorite holiday sweaters and come on out to the Tasting Room! We're having a holiday party this Friday (December 18) and we're inviting you to come dressed in your favorite holiday sweater.

This will also be a charity related event for Project 23, benefitting homeless and families in need here in Orange County. We ask that you donate an unwrapped, first use toy for girls under the age of 12.

As a thank you for your participation, we'll be raffling off some items including a few of our favorite beers from our archive to those who contribute.

Humulus XPA will be featured on cask dry hopped with hops grown right on premise. We'll also have a few light snacks because what's a holiday party without snacks?!

Speaking of snacks, on Saturday night our friends at Kogi BBQ will be stopping by to serve some of their delicious Korean BBQ for your enjoyment (and ours) so come hungry!

You can also pick up some last minute holiday gifts like Bruery Reserve Society memberships, Bruery gear (including our new beanies!), and gift baskets.

It's the most wonderful time of the year for beer drinkers Part 3: Preludes and Pirates and Bears, Oh My

It took me a little longer to get this post ready because I am trying something new with the photos of the beers I mention. I made photo spreads for each beer and it took a little longer than I thought it would. I'd love to say that this was a great idea that I came up with all by myself, but I saw similar spreads on John Lemasney's now defunct beer blog, Beer Critic, and was inspired to do something similar. I'm just giving credit where credit is due. John decided to stop blogging about beer and pursue other interests. He describes the reasons best on his blog. While there are no new posts on John's website, it is worth taking a look at, since his detailed reviews and beautiful pictures are inspiring. I will apologize ahead of time, though, for the quality of my photos. They are, for the most part, taken with an IPhone camera. I would use a better camera, but I find that currently this is the fastest way for me to get the photos onto the blog. It also allows me to use just one device to take pictures and look up information about the beer I am trying. I do hope you enjoy the spreads.

Well, the second weekend of December has passed and I have barely put a dent in the Christmas/winter beers that I stockpiled, but I did try a few nice ones since my last post. There wasn't anything that blew my mind, but you'll never hit a home run if you don't swing. I tried Mahrs Bräu Christmas Bock, Boulder Never Summer Ale, Philadelphia Joe Coffee Porter, Shipyard Prelude Special Ale, Clipper City Heavy Seas Yule Tide and Long Trail Hibernator.

Mahrs Christmas Bock, a 6% ABV German beer, was a bit confusing to me. RateBeer.com lists the beer as a heller bock, which I believe was the beer in my bottle; but Beer Advocate lists the beer as a bock, which I believe I tried at a winter beer festival last December. Many of the reviews I looked at described the beer as being dark, which I thought it would be when I bought it because of my own experience last year; but the beer I tried Thursday night was definitely golden. I tried to investigate on Mahrs Bräu's website, but there really wasn't any information on the beer. Maybe it is a case of alternating beers from year to year, or maybe there are two versions bottled each year and part of the Christmas surprise is finding out which beer you received. I was hoping for the dark, malty beer I sampled last year, but will have to describe the golden beer that was in this year's bottle, because I wasn't taking notes at the beer festival. This beer is very German, but not very Christmasy. Heller bocks are not a style that I particularly like, but this one isn't half bad. It certainly doesn't seem like a special gift for Christmas, though. It's almost a more malty version of a pale lager. It has a lot of hay and straw flavors with some malt sweetness and then the metallic and grassy hops take over. These are not flavors I enjoy very much, but it is crisp. I'd recommend drinking this on the colder side as, unlike most beers I drink, it becomes harder to drink the warmer it gets.

Boulder Never Summer Ale, a spiced beer brewed in Colorado, is a lot easier to explain. It is fairly Christmasy and at 6% ABV, you can knock back a few. It has just enough spices to make it interesting. They aren't overdone. It has fairly British malt and very American hops. It's a nice blend of UK and US. Overall, it's a nice, easy-drinking, winter ale.

The Joe Coffee Porter, brewed in Philadelphia, is one of those beers that doesn't really market itself as a winter beer, but it is only available for a short time right around this time of year so I'm counting it. The only thing I can really say about this one is, that if you like coffee, you will like this. This 5% ABV porter has flavors of coffee with a little cream, some sour coffee and fresh coffee grounds.

Prelude, Shipyard's winter offering, is an English strong ale weighing in at 6.8% ABV. The beer is made in Portland, Maine, but tastes very British. It isn't spiced, but is fairly Christmasy. It has nutty and caramel malts, metallic and herbal hops, toffee and a little stewed fruit.

Yule Tide is part of Heavy Seas new 22 oz. bomber series. The beer, which is brewed in Baltimore, is a 10% ABV abbey tripel. I was hoping for more from this one because the other three beers in the series are quite good. This one is a bit sweet for the style. It seems to not be fully attenuated. If it was, the ABV would probably be through the roof. As it is, it doesn't hide the alcohol all that well, but it doesn't finish too boozy. It has flavors and aromas that are fairly Belgian. It is only slightly Christmasy. It also doesn't seem like much of a special Christmas gift, considering the high quality of the other beers in the series. This one has spicy yeast, apple, white wine, tons of candy sugar, oranges and hops in the flavor. The aroma is much the same, but I could swear there is a hint of vinegar there too. It isn't awful, but when I was drinking it, I hit my glass with my elbow when I went to sit down and spilled more than half of the beer and wasn't too upset about losing it; and I am the kind of person who usually does cry over spilled beer.

Finally, I'm getting to that bear beer I mentioned in the title to this post. Hibernator is an odd name for a so-called Scottish ale, since a beer name ending in "ator" usually denotes a doppelbock. Beside the misleading name, this really isn't a great example of a Scottish ale. They are supposed to be malty and this one, at 6% ABV, is a bit too hoppy for the style and doesn't come across as being very malty. It isn't horrible by any means, but it is a bland example of a great, full-bodied style. It also doesn't really seem much like a winter warmer. This beer, brewed in Vermont, seems more like an Autumn transitional beer to me. I had this a few years ago and remember it as being way more malty and enjoyable. Maybe this was just a bad bottle.

That's all for now, but I'll be back soon to post more about the most wonderful time of the year for beer drinkers.

Drink it in.

Just prior to the most wonderful time of the year for beer drinkers

I felt it was necessary to also mention the other two winter beers that I tried prior to Thanksgiving, which was the kickoff for my Christmas/winter beer tasting frenzy. There were only two, but I felt like I was punishing them for arriving to the party a little early.

I tried Magic Hat Howl, a 4.6% ABV schwarzbier from Vermont, the night before Halloween. I knew it was a winter seasonal when I tried it, but the somewhat scary label drew me in. It may not be the best example of a winter warmer, but with its low alcohol content and full flavor it does make for a nice session beer. It was roasty with with notes of coffee, a little chocolate and some nuttiness. It was flavorful but fairly light and easy to drink.

I tried Founders Backwoods Bastard the weekend before Thanksgiving because I just couldn't wait. When I bought the four pack, I knew it was a bourbon barrel-aged scotch ale and I assumed that it was just a bourbon barrel-aged version of their year-round Dirty Bastard Scotch Ale, but it wasn't. The Dirty Bastard is 8.3% ABV and big enough, but the Backwoods Bastard trumps it at 10.2% ABV. You gotta love an American brewery that puts out two scotch ales. Everything I've tried from Founders, which is based in Michigan, has been great, and this was no exception. It is currently in my top five beers that I tried for the first time this year. (But who knows if that will stick with all the great Christmas/winter beers I still have to try.) Backwoods isn't really marketed as a winter beer, but is only available from November to January. It had tons of flavor and the alcohol was noticeable, but not nearly as evident as you would think for the ABV. There is caramel malt, cherry, whiskey, wood and lots of vanilla. It isn't very heavy either and while it is a sipper, it does go down easy. Keep watching to see if this one hangs around to make my top 13 beers I tried this year.

Well, now I've told you about all the new winter/Christmas beers I've tried so far this season. Tomorrow I'll start trying more. Until then you might want to check out some of these other Christmas/winter beer lists that I've discovered over the past few days: The Beer Advent Calendar at The Brew Site and Draft Magazine's 25 Holiday Beers.

Drink it in.

It's the most wonderful time of the year for beer drinkers Part 2

Here is another installment of my series on the new Christmas/winter beers I am trying this holiday season. A new feature in these posts will be my little traveling Santa who will appear, facing the camera, with all the Christmas beers. He will also appear to be admiring the bottle or glass of any beer that is a winter seasonal, but not officially Christmas related.

During December, I usually try to take Fridays off from work to give me an extra day of trying new beers each week since I don't make a habit of trying new beers on days that I have worked and have to work the following day. With that explained, I tried Anchor Our Special Ale 2009, Victory Yakima Twilight, Ommegang Adoration Special Winter Ale and Gritty McDuff's Christmas Ale between December 3 and December 6.

Anchor Our Special Ale, brewed in San Francisco, is thought to be

the first truly American craft Christmas beer. It has been brewed since 1975. Each year the recipe changes a bit and the brewery never reveals any of the recipes. Each year may be different but they are all spiced with seasonal tasting spices. With every edition of the beer there is also a new label depicting a different tree. I may or may not have tried this beer years ago, but it was long before I started taking notes and rating every beer I try. So I'll think of this as my introduction to this classic holiday beer. This beer has tons of holiday spices. It just tastes like Christmas, and smells that way too. It's definitely Christmasy, but I think they could have eased up on the spices a bit. While drinking it I felt like I had poured dried spices into my mouth and tried to wash them down with a great craft beer. As it warmed that sensation decreased a little, but I still think it would be better with a little less spice. The Grey Lodge Pub is scheduled to host "An Anchor Christmas Carol," where three years of Anchor Our Special Ale will be on tap (2009, 2008 and 2007) on Friday December 18 from 6-9 p.m. It should be an interesting night.

Victory Yakima Twilight isn't really marketed heavily as a winter beer, but it is only available from November to January so I think it fits the bill. RateBeer.com lists the beer as an American Strong Ale, but I choose to call it a black or dark India Pale Ale (IPA). These dark beers that are hopped like IPAs are becoming more and more popular and will hopefully soon have a category all their own. Prior to this year the only one I can recall having tried was Dogfish Head India Brown Ale, but this year I must have tried at least five that could be put in the category. This one, brewed in Downingtown, PA, is very nice. It was malty and hoppy and the two flavors were well balanced. I'm a bit confused by the whole concept of umami, the fifth taste that scientists found we have (sweet, salty, sour and bitter being the others), but I think this beer has it. And when you understand that the Japanese describe umami as deliciousness, you will know that I am paying this beer a compliment. At 8.7% ABV it also makes for a wonderful winter warmer.

I tried Ommegang Adoration this weekend because I figured with the feast

of The Immaculate Conception on December 8 it was a nice way to remember the religious side of the season. I was told at a winter beer festival that this was based on Scaldis Noel a famous Christmas beer from Belgium, which I tried last year. If it is, the Adoration is huge improvement. I'm sure the Scaldis tastes nearly as good in Belgium, but the Adoration, having been brewed in Cooperstown, NY, didn't have to cross an ocean to get to me. In other words, it's super fresh. Adoration is brewed with coriander, cardamom, mace, grains of paradise and sweet orange peel; and it tasted a bit like Christmas. It was very Belgian and was spiced perfectly. The spices weren't overdone. This big beer, weighing in at 10% ABV also hid the alcohol very well.

On December 6, I decided I needed to have a beer with jolly, old St. Nick on the label since it was the Feast of St. Nicholas. I went with Gritty McDuff's Christmas Ale. For not being spiced at all, this beer was fairly Christmasy. It is a rather malty beer with notes of toasted and nutty malts with just a hint of chocolate. The more I think about it, the more I think my reason for thinking it was Christmasy is because it reminds me of the chocolate chip cookies my mother makes this time of year. Don't get me wrong, there are also a good amount of hops in this one, but the malt is what really shines. The hops are there more to balance the malt than anything else. At 6.2% ABV this might not warm you up too much, but you sure can knock a few back and not pay for it in the morning.

I picked up a bunch more Christmas and winter beers last night, so there will be plenty of material for several more installments of this series. Hopefully my posts can keep up with the beers. Drink it in.

It's the most wonderful time of the year for beer drinkers

This will stand as my first official post chronicling the new Christmas/winter beers I am trying this year. There is no better time of year for trying new beers. Just about every brewery and brewpub puts out a special beer at this time of year. There is no set style definition for a winter/Christmas beer. These beers are just a chance for the brewer to try something different and offer it as a gift to their dedicated customers. Another plus is that they might gain some new customers in the form of people who want something festive to drink around the holidays and see something with a beautiful holiday or winter scene on the label or a description that mentions an ingredient that the shopper might have never thought they would see in a beer.

Some of my favorites are Tröegs Mad Elf, Samichlaus, De Dolle Stille Nacht and Jolly Pumpkin Noel de Calabaza. Sometimes they can be a familiar taste that I know I can only have around this time of year and they conjure memories of times sharing those tastes with friends and loved ones on Christmases past. Other times, the spices that are in the beer just make them taste like Christmas, taking me back to a time before I knew what beer was and a great Christmas treat was a spiced cookie with milk that I would share with Santa Claus on his busiest night. Still others are just heavy, warming, comfort beers that burn the belly just enough to keep the winter chill out of my bones. But this is supposed to be a post about the new Christmas/winter beers that I'm trying so I'll get on with that.

On Thanksgiving weekend I tried Kulmbacher Eisbock, High & Mighty Home For The Holidays and Huvila Arctic Circle Ale.

While the Kulmbacher isn't a Christmas beer or even really marketed strongly as a winter beer, it still belongs in this category because the eisbock style was created in the winter when a regular bock beer was left in the cold and froze. When the ice was scraped away there was a more flavorful, concentrated beer with a concentrated alcohol content as well. This particular modern version weighs in at 9.2% ABV and is brewed in Kulmbach, Germany where the label proclaims the first freezing incident occurred. The beer is also labeled as being "the original German eisbock." What better time of year would there be to drink such a beer? The beer was nice, but not very special. I'm not a huge fan of lagers, but this is one of the good ones. It was sweet, malty, full-bodied and warming.

The Home For The Holidays beer is a 7% ABV brown ale brewed in Massachusetts. It was better than I expected, but I really picked it up because profits from the beer will be donated to Iraq War veterans organizations. It's a great way to support returning troops. The beer, itself, is a real malt bomb that is rather nice at first, but becomes cloyingly sweet by the end,where some metallic hops also introduce themselves to the tongue. If you try this one make sure you share it with someone, because a little is nice and more than that is just OK. It isn't a spiced beer, but it did seem to be somewhat Christmasy.

Huvila Arctic Circle Ale is marketed as a "special winter ale." It is brewed in Finland to an ABV of 7.3%. The more unusual ingredients in this beer are juniper twigs and dark rye malts. I'd have to put this one in the same group as Mad Elf and Samichlaus — they are all beers that I can't fully explain the reasons why I like them. This one was kind of like juice, liquor and beer all mixed together. Which, I guess, is also a little bit like the other two in the group. Except with them I would probably say wine instead of juice since they have almost double the alcohol content of this one. It was fruity and malty, with notes of dark bread, toasted malt and a little smoke. It almost seemed barrel-aged. There were also slight notes of whiskey or port, a little cola, a hint of chocolate, toffee and hops. All in all a very nice winter beer and the best I had in the category that weekend.

Look for the next installment about the most wonderful time of the year for beer drinkers soon.

Christmas test

I'm writing this on my phone to see how this new app works. Hopefully it will and over the next few weeks I can keep you up to date on all the Christmas and winter beers I'll be trying. I had my first last weekend. It was High & Mighty Home For The Holidays. It was big and malty, but was a little cloying by the end. It was nice, but not great.

- Posted using BlogPress from my iPhone