One Bottle Collection beer for every day before Christmas. Rating system: not actually meant as a “tense” comment. All these beers either don’t exist anymore, or I tasted in the past. Hopefully, if not so hot before, they’re better now. If they do still exist. Or hopefully, if not better they’re as dead as the… Dickens.
Note: the ghosts have varied a bit over the various versions, but even Mr. Magoo’s version the Future was bleak. In the pictures chosen for this series the most visually pleasing ghost was Present.
Ghost of Christmas Present… remember him? Jolly, fun: the kind of guy you’d invite to a party for the season, and the kind of beer you could bring to a festive affair and not be totally laughed out of the room by festive beer geeks. That’s the best a beer gets in this series. Now Ghost of Christmas Past isn’t a great award. You can see from the picture he can be a bit of a grump. Probably from mediocre’ beer. And best not bring a Ghost of Christmas Past Beer to a beer geek festive affair. You’ll be the limp wet noodle of the party. A Ghost of Christmas Future beer? You remember that guy, right? If you want to be laughed at, have to bring most of your offering home and feel like you’ve just attended your own funeral instead of a party, bring a Ghost of Christmas Future beer. Some Ghost of Future Beer might best serve as embalming fluid.
Written by Ken Carman
1995 -Nache-Beuno?
I honestly don’t remember much special about this beer. South of the border beers tend to be fair to poor, though there are exceptions. It’s from Dos Equis. I find Dos Equis, how should I put it? Oh, “vastly over rated.” Relatively a clean tasting, yet inferior, version of what used to be a classic German Style: Vienna. What made this “Christmas?”
I’ve had decent Vienna. Dos ain’t it. And I’m not even sure what to classify this one as.
Nothing I know of. Unlike other reviews I read: no nose except the slightest hint of corn. Ya gotta “love” what they did to a classic style south the border, and this slight bounce off that classic style: if you love going see a love story at the movies only to find out the mad butcher kills everyone in the middle at the wedding.
“Seasonal?” Not spiced in any sense. There was no sense of a fresh, crisp, almost fresh hop snow like hop taste like Saranac’s Big Moose Ale. A little more malt, perhaps, but nothing that makes it “ho, ho, ho.” Certainly not ABV so high Santa burns his toes while sipping it by the fire quaff… and doesn’t notice. More than anything it’s just a slightly darker amber version of Dos without even much of a darker malt sense, a slight roast. Mouthfeel not that malty. Pours sort of brown. Good carbonation especially in mouthfeel. Clarity good. Nice head that lasts. Moderate, unremarkable malt with no hop taste. Nothing that screams out the season. All in all except to cash in on the season, why the hell did they bother?
Oh, that’s right: to cash in on the season.
Though I have qualms about its supposed seasonal nature, since it’s an OK beer, just another slightly more irritated “so what” bland Ghost of Christmas Past award. Tis better than Dos… marginally.
Without intent, I have collected well over 1,000 beer bottles since the early 70s. When something finally had to be done about the cheap paneling in this old modular, I had a choice. Tear down the walls while, oh, so carefully, replacing the often rotted 1X3s. Or: cover them with… The Bottle Collection.
