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.
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