More Holiday Beers

I said in my previous post how much I love this season for beers and so its time for another installment of Holiday Beers.
Mikkeller Santa's Little Helper: A favorite of mine from this gypsy brewer weighs in at 10.9%. The beer changes its recipe every year tweaking each time striving to reach perfection. An ale brewed with spices this one pours a dark brown almost but not quite black with a thick tan colored head. Spicy and herbal on the nose. Notes of spruce and sweet malt. Low carbonation with a full creamy mouthfeel. Rich sweet malts up front, notes of spruce, spice, candied dark fruits, rye bread, ginger, caramel all blend together to create a Christmas experience. Santa's Helper indeed. If you left this out next to your fireplace you might wake up on Christmas morning with Santa happily asleep the empty bottle clutched in his hands. This one gets a strong A from me.
Delerium Noel: From the makers of Delerium Tremens, the last time I had this brew was back in 2008 and I thoroughly enjoyed it. A 10% Belgian dark ale that pours a light hazy brown with very little head. Candied sugar, fruity esters on the nose. Medium bodied, some notes of alcohol, fruity, plums, candied sugar, fruity, slightly sweet. Some brown sugar and vanilla notes show up as it warms. Its a little sweet for me and I'd love to see how this changes as it ages. Very plummy some sour cherries as well show up. A good beer that gets a B+ from me.
Samichlaus 2009: This leads credence to the theory that Christmas seasonal beers are the best for aging. Samichlaus is an original "extreme" beer from Austria, weighing at at a robust 14%. Unlike others though this one is a lager, not an ale. Brewed once a year on December 6th, aged, and only then is it bottled. So this one bottled in 2009 was actually brewed back in 2008. The beer pours a rusty brown color with a thin and quickly dissipating head of foam. The nose is of cherries, and alcohol, dried fruit, sherry, dark bread, chocolate. Medium body with very little carbonation. Cherries and prunes, notes of alcohol. I close my eyes and think I'm drinking a fine port. The liquid coats the tongue begging to be paired with a strong cheese or chocolate. This is simply amazing and shows what beer can be. If you have a bottle of this, keep sitting on it, as I think this one can age for many more years. A great A beer.

A Plethora of Holiday Beers

This year for the first time in a while there seems to be some new Christmas or winter seasonal beers on the shelves. At the very least they are new to me. Instead of filling numerous posts I'm combing my thoughts on a few of these beers. They'll be more of these in the next couple of weeks as I make my way through as many as I can. This is my favorite season for beers because so many beer during this time are cellar worthy as are each of the ones I'm posting about today.
Ommegang Adoration Ale: A Belgian Style Christmas ale from one of the best American brewers of belgian ales. This one has been around for a few years but its the first time I think its been available in Houston in bottles. A 10.% beer brewed with spices like coriander, cardamom, Mace, and grains of paradise. The beer pours a chestnut brown with a thick taupe colored head. Malty, fruity, spicy on the nose. I can smell cardamom and coriander. The mouthfeel is thick and chewy. Flavors of sweet malt, figs, prunes, candied oranges, fruit cake. Spicey, chewy, dark bread, dark fruit. As it warms qualities of scotch show up. Sweet but finishes dry. A very gog complex beer to sit in front of a warm fire with on a cold winter night. An A- from me.
Duvel Triple Hop: While not a true seasonal like others its been released around this time so I included it in this round up. Its your traditional Duvel recipe kicked up a bit. It weighs in at 9.5% and is brewed with Saaz, Amarillow, and Styrin hops, then again dry hopped with Styrin. It pours a pale golden color as expected with a thick pillowy white head of foam. The nose is of pale toasted malts, spicey yeasts. Medium mouthfeel, lots of carbonation, slightly sweet toasted malts, spicey and floral, yeasty bready notes. Letting it warms helps to bring out notes of pears and apples. A great beer that does great honor to the Duvel tradition. An A grade.
Gulden Draak Vintage Ale 2010: A vintaged version of the popular Gulden Draak Belgian age. Weighing in at 7.5% it pours a hazelnut brown with a thick dense head of taupe colored foam. Malty caramel notes on the nose. Brown sugar. The mouthfeel is medium bodied, god carbonation. Notes of Raisins, sweet caramel, malts, a slight hop bitterness. Carbonation is high giving this dark beer an effervescence. Notes of cherry as the beer warms, yeasty notes, figs. Spicey. A good beer that gets a B+ from me.
Golden Carolous Noel: We finish this round up as we started: A Belgian Style Christmas ale, except this time from an actual Belgian Brewery. This one weighs in at 10.5% and pours a rich copper color with a dark taupe colored head. Malty and spicey on the nose. The mouthfeel is medium bodied with a good level of carbonation. Flavors of sweet malt, spice, Christmas bread, candied sugar. Dark fruits, raisins figs, rich, rich, malt. Ginger bread, sprucy, slightly sweet. This beer tastes like Winter, it tastes like Christmas. If someone asked me to think of a scene to compare this beer to it would be traipsing through a snow covered forest in search of the perfect Christmas tree, then back at a cabin by a fire sipping on a fine beer. In a nutshell that's what this beer is. This may be my new favorite Christmas beer. A strong go out and get this grade of A from me.

The Bruery Two Turtle Doves

The last year saw a lot of new breweries came into Texas, but if I had my choice, one of the breweries I would love to see make its way to this state is The Bruery out of California. I've had the opportunity to try their beers a few times before as my wife brought them back from her travels to California. In addition to their regular beers they have started a unique line of Christmas beers: The 12 days of Christmas. Every year they will release a beer styled after one of the lines of the 12 days of Christmas. Last year they released Partridge in a Pear Tree, this year they released the second beer, after the second stanza.
The Beer: A 12% brew made with cocoa nibs, toasted pecans, caramelized sugar and a lot of caramel malts. It poured a pitch black with a thick dense head of cafe colored foam with small streaks of red in it. The nose is full of chocolate, coffee, yeast. The mouthfeel is robust, thick, coco, nutty, yeasty, candied sugar, some sweetness of front, but finishes star tingly dry. Fruity yeasts, figs and raisins. The alcohol is not apparently strong, but the beer is definitely body warming. Creamy and rich. A wonderful Christmas beer that has me eagerly awaiting the next 10 and curious as to how they'll interpret each verse. This one gets a B+ from me. Here's what the folks at BA had to say.

Anchor Our Special Ale 2004

I'm a known and unapologetic homer for Christmas beers. I love them for their diversity, complexity, flavor and although it may not be cold here in Houston, they always make me want to be next to fireplace. One of the best out there, year after year is the always slightly different Anchor Our Special Ale. Beyond being a great beer, it ages incredibly well, inspiring many to age them for years and then throw together a monumental vertical tasting. Well no vertical tasting, but due to graciousness of a fellow beer lover I did get my hands on a 2004 beer. Now some folks that are used to drinking Bud won't believe drinking a 5 year old beer, but I'm here to tell you, great beer, ages greatly.
The Beer: It pours a rich brown color with a thick dense head of chestnut colored foam. The nose is full of spices, ginger, cinnamon, malts, figs, spruce trees. The mouthfeel is full and creamy, molasses, figs, spiced bread cake, rich and nutty, toffee. It just reminds one of Christmas. Time has been kind to this beer, and surprisingly left the spices in this beer in tact and still quite powerful, but balanced well with the maltiness of the beer. This was my desert beer last night, paired with a wonderfully made ginger bread cake, made with fresh ginger and the current vintage of Anchor OSA. Truly a match made in heaven.

Scaldis Noel

Continuing my study in Belgian Christmas beers, I found one that I had actually tried before, when I was in Belgian a few years ago. Of course there, its called Bush Noel, where as over in the states its called Scaldis. This is one powerful Christmas beer.
The beer: Powerful I said? Try 12.0% and while I tried it in Belgium on tap, this one came in a tiny 8.48 fl oz bottle. It pours a cloudy brown with a thick taupe colored head. The nose is figgy, malty, fruity, yeasty. The mouth is thick and chewy, low carbonation that sits and coats the tongue. As with a lot of Belgian beers, the yeast seems to be the strongest characteristic with bready and fruity notes. Some other notes include apricots, figs, dark fruits, vanilla, and candied sugar. Surprisingly you don't get a lot of alcohol here, its just malty rich and spicy. Very very nice. This one gets a strong A from me. Here's what the folks at BA say.

Belgian Christmas Beers

One of the great things about Christmas and beer is that every country seems to have a style for the season. They are all different, unique and wonderful in their own way. I've been lucky to try some amazing US, British and German versions. Now I'm diving into some Belgian Christmas beers.
St. Bernardus Christmas Ale: This one is from the popular St. Bernadus brewery that makes some fine Belgian ales. This one weighs in at 10% and pours a dark amber with a thick white head. The nose is malty, musty, figgy. The mouth is chewy and rich, with a little alcohol burn to warm up the soul on a cold night. There are flavors of fig, prunes, raisins and other dark fruits. Slightly sweet after taste, slight sour undertones. Dried fruits coming through as the beer warms adding richness and almost cola type flavors start coming out. This one's very nice and gets an A- from me. The folks at BA seem to like it as much as I do.
Delirium Noel: This one from the great Brouwerij Huygh, makes of Delerium Tremmens. This one also weighs in at 10%, but pours a cloudy brown with a thin film of a head. Nose is rich, malty, fruity, and yeasty. The mouth is powerful, thick and chewy with a light sourness. Fruity and malty, with notes of figs, dark grapes, apricots. Smooth with a little alcohol burn. Slightly more sweet than the St. Bernardus, carmaley and effervescent like pop-rocks. This one gets a B+ from only becuase its a little too sweet for me. Again, it seems like I'm on the same wavelength with the folks at BA.

Full Sail Wassail

Well I up and forgot that the Session was yesterday. Too busy celebrating the 75th anniversary of the end of prohibition I guess. I think one of the great things about American Beer is the diverseness in our holiday beer's. There are everything from holiday stouts, to IPA's, to rich traditional winter warmers, and of course everything in between. That very reason may be why this season is my favorite for seasonal offerings. It seems breweries go all out for this season, pulling no punches. While I always go back to my familiar favorites, I also am constantly on the lookout for those that I've never tried before. Like this one from Full Sail. Their seasonal offering is actually named after a hot spiced Christmas punch served back in medieval times. This drink was not punch that we normally think of, but instead mulled beer, that would mix rich beer with spices such as ginger, nutmeg, and Cinnamon.
The Beer: This one weighs in at a warming 7.0% and pours a deep rich mahogany capped by a quarter inch tan frothy head. The nose is rich and malty sweet, caramel, orange. The mouth is creamy and chewy, very malty with a low hop profile. Coffee, toffee, licorice, Cinnamon, and just a bit of pineyness. Sprucy even. Very nice winter warmer of a beer. This one gets a B+ from me and has quickly been added to my seasonal rotation. Here's what the folks at BA think about it.

Sierra Nevada Celebration - 2008

Hmm yup its post Thanksgiving which means that its high time to dive into more Christmas Seasonal Beers. When I first had this beer last year, I said it was good, but not what I was expecting. If you remember, I wanted a malty rich winter beer, and what I got while very good was an unexpected IPA. Well the good news is this year, not only did I try it knowing what I was going to get, I wanted it!
The Beer: This one weighs in at 6.8% and pours a hazy orange color with a thick white foamy frothy head. I can smell the hops from a foot away from the glass...and it smells delicious. There are notes of hops of course, grapefruit specifically. The mouthfeel is vibrant with an explosion of Texas Ruby Red grapefruit, with slight notes of toasted pale malts underneath. This IPA is chewy and thick, leaving the soul warmed, which makes this a perfect winter Christmas beer. The only sign left after I'm finished is a coating of thick lacing along the sides of the glass. Yup this is a good one. A B+ from me.

Anchor Our Special Ale

To beer lovers around the country, Christmas Season is here. It's here because Anchor has released its Christmas Ale 'Our Special Ale'. Anchor may have been one of the craft brewers to release a Christmas Ale, and has been doing so since 1975. Every year the ingredients change slightly as does the label for the beer. Each year the label contains a graphic of a different tree. It may not be the greatest Christmas Ale, but its always worth stopping down for and celebrating the season. To celebrate it's release this season I decided to not only try this seasons ale, but last seasons as well. I've been aging it since last year and figured there can't be a better time than now to open it up.
2007 Our Special Ale: Here's the link to my original post on this beer last year. Pours a rich hazy brown with a half inch taupe colored head. The nose is spicy with spruce tips, licorice and some malts. The mouth has good effervescent up front with a chewy finish. Spicy with some malty sweetness, with a bit if spruce tip taste to it. It seemed like this beer had lost a little bit of depth over time. As it warmed some more complex flavors came out like caramel, chocolate, roasted malts to round out the spruciness. Not as much as I had hoped a year later. Not sure if something happened during the aging process or not. This gets a B- from me.
2008 Our Special Ale: This one pours a little darker than the older one, almost black instead of brown. Good half inch taupe colored head. The nose is apricots, spruce tips, brown sugar. The mouth is chewy, dried apricots, caramel, licorice, sweet malts. As it warms I get notes of figs and even more roasted malts. It has some really good lacing. The 07 has the same base of flavors as this 08 but it's lost some depth of flavor. This one is very nice. This one gets a B+ from me.

Two Saint Arnold's Seasonals

In a great example of supply and demand and how that can change even the best laid plans, Saint Arnold's has run out of one of their seasonals and had to release another one early. Even though the folks at SA brewed more of their Octoberfest than they ever have, they still ran out halfway through the month of October. This led to SA going ahead and releasing their Christmas Ale. With their shuffling I was able to buy a 6 pack of both and decided to do a tasting.
Octoberfest: This is actually one of my favorite Octoberfests, and one of the only ones made in Texas (the other is from Rahr and Sons). I've had this many times in the past and its pretty consistent across years. This one pours a slightly cloudy orange amber with a thick off-white head. The nose is sweet caramel, malts, burnt sugar, and some bitterness. The mouth is effervescent with a great body, sweet but not cloying. Some notes of caramel, butterscotch, a little bitter kick at the finish. Overall a nice silky honey like texture, creating a very smooth very solid beer that gets a B from me.
Christmas Ale: Its actually been a couple of years since I last posted on this fine beer (well during Christmas that is). The beer pours a reddish copper brown with a thin head that dissipates into a film on top. The nose is malty (as it should be, its made with five different malts). Roasted malts, caramel, brown sugar and a cinnamon-y scent. The mouth is smooth up front before bringing a spicy character. Its malty, bready, brown sugar, and spices. It reminds me of a Christmas cookies. Extremely tasty. This one gets a B+ from me.

2007 Anchor 'Our Special Ale'

In the recent Session hosted by yours truly there was one beer that was repeatedly written on. From the great taste to the passion that many felt for this particular beer, the amount of writings was amazing. Here is a seasonal beer that's been made every year sine 1975 I believe, every year the recipe is different, every year the label depicts a different tree. I had seen it before of course, who hasn't? I knew I had to buy some and try it for myself, was it really that good?
The answer of course is yes.
The Beer: The beer pours a deep dark cloudy brown capped by an 1/8 inch thick taupe head. The head disappears but there is plenty of lacing left behind. The nose is full of licorice, the smell of an evergreen forest, prunes, maltiness, and some floral hops. The mouth is the same. Its a mouthful of licorice, prunes and plums, cocoa, malts, piney hops, and a spruce-y taste. Quite frankly this beer is amazing, the amount of flavors that are floating all though this beer is incredible. I'm glad I bought multiple bottles since some will be held to age. This ones an easy A. Over at BA 99% of the folks are in favor of it.

Well that's my last post of the year, well at least from Texas. I head to Denver for the holiday's where I am sure that I'll be sampling some local beer. I'm also heading to Flying Dog Brewery on Friday so I'll post my thoughts on that visit as well.
I hope everyone has a safe and happy Holidays.

A Collection of Christmas Beers from Ridgeway Brewing

In my effort to try as many new and different Christmas beers as possible I like trying to find sampler packs from brewery's. So imagine my delight when at my local Spec's I see a collection of four Christmas beers from Ridgeway Brewing. I posted about Ridgeway's elfish beers recently, but this collection was a different sort.
Santa's Butt Porter: This is the beer that got Ridgeway into all sorts of trouble as people thought that if children saw Santa on a beer they would rush to drink it. For a while it was even banned in certain states. Alas not Texas thankfully. This is a Winter Porter and weighs in at 6% abv. It pours a pitch black with a nice tan head, a nose full of raisins and roasted malts. The mouth full of bitter chocolate, coco powder, raisins and a bit of burnt coffee. Very good, smooth aftertaste and highly drinkable, I'll give it a B+. 90% of the folks at BA give it the old thumbs up.
Warm Welcome Nut Browned Ale: Yet another offering with ole Santa on the label. Again this one weighs in at a mild 6&. It pours a golden amber color, which was definitely not as dark as I expected. Nice white head, malty and yeasty on the nose. The mouth was light, fruity with an underlying nuttiness, mild hops and smooth. Not as good as the previous and I'd give it a B-. Over at BA you still see 90% of the folks like it.
Lump of Coal Dark Holiday Stout: I love stouts so I was excited to see this one in the collection. It weighs in at a heftier 8%. Dark, very dark, with a small head on it that quickly dissipates. The nose is rich and chocolatey, with roasted malts, espresso, burnt coffee. The mouth is creamy, with very little alcohol and those same notes of espresso and burnt coffee. There is definitely that sense of chocolate covered espresso beans that I like so much in certain stouts. Very nice, this one gets an A- from me, however only 84% of the folks at BA give it the thumbs up.
Reindeer Revolt English Christmas Ale: The last of the bunch and boy was I sorry to see them go. This beer weighs in at 6% abv. It pours a golden amber with a quarter inch head. Hoppy, pale malts float on the nose. The mouth is almost buttery, with some earthy hoppy flavors, minerally maybe. Again a very smooth very drinkable beer. This one gets a B from me. Still waiting for enough folks at BA to weigh in on this one for the final outcome.

A couple of no good Very Criminally Bad Elves

I guess you could call it practice, or prepping, either way its fun. The topic for this month's Session is of course Winter Beer, so what better way to uhm, practice, then go out and try as many different winter beers as possible in prep for December 7th? I've been going out scouring the local beer stores for unique winter beer's so imagine my excitement when I saw two very special beers that I had heard so much about. What am I talking about? Shelton Brother's Very Bad Elf, and Criminally Bad Elf beers.
The Brewery: Shelton Bros. is not actually a brewery, they are importers based out of Massachusetts. They import from all over the world, importing from breweries that brew in small batches, and beer that is unpasteurized, and unfiltered. They are all craft beers. The imports come from Belgium, England, Scotland and even Brazil. These two are from England's Ridgeway Brewery, and they are pretty famous for their unique and controversial Christmas beers, most notably Santa's Butt.
Very Bad Elf: The beer is a Special Reserve ale that weighs in at 7.5%, and made with a unique malt and Fuggle hops. The beer pours a pale amber with about a quarter inch head. The nose is full of pale malts, spice, earthy hops. The mouth is toasty, smooth, spicey with a bit of bitterness. It has an unusual aftertaste that I just couldn't place. A solid beer that kept me guessing and attempting to decipher what that taste was. I'll give it a B. Here's what the folks over at BA have to say.
Criminally Bad Elf: This one is a Barleywine and weighs in at 10.5%. This is a bomb of a beer, pouring a pale golden with a quarter inch head. Floural hops, earthy, pale malts all on the nose. The mouth is syrupy, spicey, concentrated white grapeyness. Honey, and a bit of hops round out the taste. Much maltier than most American Barleywines which is exactly what I want. I really enjoyed this beer, I'd give it an A-. The folks over at BA don't necessarily agree as only 88% of the folks give it a thumbs up.

Christmas in July

As mentioned earlier this week, Saint Arnolds has released their Christmas Ale in the Summer bringing a little Christmas Cheer in the middle of the Texas heat. I tried it last Christmas, and it was pretty good, but missing something from previous years. I was eager to grab a six pack to see how Summer has affected the taste and enjoyment of the ale.
The Beer: The beer weighs in at around 7.0% abv. It pours a nice bright golden amber, capped by a thin whispy head. The nose is full of sweet caramel malts, raisins, figs, and a hint of citrus. The mouth is thick and gummy, plenty of caramel notes, maybe even honey. Just a tad of hop bitterness showing up as the beer warms. Very nice, and much better than the bottle of beer I had during Christmas. I'd give it a B+.

Weihnnacths-Bier

A man can not live by Kolsch alone...not even in Cologne. So as I have spent my time here I have looked for some other unique beers around town. Lo and behold I live just down the street from a great little store appropriately called the Bier Museum. An amazing place with a great selection of beers from all over Germany, Belguim, and Czech. This being Christmas season I found a couple of Weihnachts-bier's (think winter festival beers). These beers do not have a set style, they are more like the American version of Winter beers instead of the traditional BRitish Winter Warmer's. Meaning that they are just specially brewed beers but don't fall in to any stylistic category. Now on to the tastings
Post Brauerie Karl Meyer Nesselweg Weihnachtsbier: From a style standpoint the folks over at BA categorize it as a Helles Munich Lager. Fair enough. The beer pours golden honey in the glass with a thick one inch foamy head. The nose has some fruity tanginess, some malt flavors and some spiciness however not from hops. The mouth is full of that nice fruity flavors with just a bit of bitterness at the end. Very nice and the beer weighs in at 5.45%. Here is what the folks at BA had to say.
Neuschwansteiner Weihnachts-Bier: The folks at Ba call this a Marzen style of lager. The beer pours a nice rich brown with streaks of red a nice 1.5 inch thick pillowy tawny head that quickly dissipated into good amounts of lacing. The nose is full of sweet malty flavors, maybe some cinnamon, hazelnuts, and brown sugar. The mouth has some good layers of sweetness, brown sugar coming out with toasted malt flavors in abundance. A good level of bitterness rounds out the full flavor of this beer. Very different from what I was expecting, but I did enjoy it. The beer weighed in at 5.2%. Seems like some at BA didn't seem to like it much, but I did find it rather enjoyable

A Trio of Christmas Beers

Well I picked up three more Christmas ales this past week. I've been able to work through them and decided to post all three in short notes instead of post 3 longer posts since with the exception of one, I have tried beers from all of the breweries.
Sierra Nevada Celebration Ale: A pretty popular ale around this time, this was my first time trying it out. It poured a nice amber in the glass with a very thick foamy head. Lots of floral spicy hops in the nose. The mouth was more of the same, reminding me much more of an IPA than a traditional Winter Ale. The finish was evergreen and piney, very nice especially as an IPA, but not what I was expecting. Here is what the folks at BA had to say.
Saint Arnold's Christmas Ale: A deep dark amber brown, minimal head with even less lacing. Very nice level of carbonation. The nose had some green apple hints to it along with some malty sweetness. Mild hoppiness on the palate with just a slightly bitter finish. Very ok beer and a somewhat disappointment as I have really enjoyed this in the past. Here is what the folks at BA had to say.
Wychwood BahHumbug Christmas Ale: Last but not least comes this Christmas ale from England. The beer weighs in at 6.0% and is slightly stronger than the other two. It pours a nice brown with streaks of red shooting through it, capped with a nice thick tan head. Malts and some spice pour forth filling the nose. Very malty on the palate, spicey as well but not from hops almost a little like a German Marzen ale to me. Smooth. A pretty OK beer, not great, but not to bad either. Here is what the folks at BA had to say.