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From the Bottle Collection: 1 Day Before Christmas Beer

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

Stark Mill Holiday

Wow. I do remember this. Stark is no longer in business. The last thing I knew Milly’s Tavern replaced it. I would assume some of the owners, or the staff, are the same since they had a beer with Milly’s picture on it: a black Lab I believe. Just an assumption. Looks like they no longer brew this according to Milly’s site. The Facebook page still uses “Stark Brewing.” There’s a coffee concern in the same restaurant: Stark had the same and a coffee beer.

I remember the brewery as a bit cellar-ish. The beer as complex… a lot of malt: deeply dark with a big, multi, grain. The abv was a tad high but not a sink into the alcoholic warmth beer. More just right for the rather substantial body. Just like the hops. Centennial? That’s a little tougher to remember, to be honest. If it twere spiced: not much. I think I would remember that.

So our highest award goes to Stark’s Holiday.
Continue reading “From the Bottle Collection: 1 Day Before Christmas Beer”

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Twas the Day Before ProAm Competition, A Seasonal Brew Nightmare

Photo courteous Moosicorn Note “ProAm” is a beer competition with both pro and amateur brewers entering.

photo

Rewritten with Christmas Love by Ye Olde Scribe

Twere the night before ProAm, when through the brew house
The brewer was heard stirring, trying to find a mouse.
Mickey and his family had decided upon a dare,
To swim in the serving tank now he’s stuck in there.

The brewer decided not to go to bed,
Would plums cover that bad taste of boiled mouse head?
Cause tomorrow he had to enter this crap
He was so tired he wanted to just take a nap

When outside the brewhouse there arose such a clatter,
He wonder what the hell what was the matter.
Near where his coat was there was a flash,
“Did someone light up my OTHER private stash?”

Out the window there was a lot of yellow snow
The hot stream fell Santa yelled, “Look out below!”
It had turned into ice and so did appear,
A falling sleigh and those eight mangy reindeer.

With a drunken holler, an alcoholic hic!
He saw a falling and flailing St Nick.
And before he hit oh how the curses they came
As he called each and every reindeer by name!

“Damn you Flasher! Pole Dancer! Gay Prancer and that Vixen!
Vanish! Comet! Stupid Cupid! I’m so Blitzened!
You made me fall and land on my Christmas balls!
Now after Xmas I’ll be as dead as most Malls!”

Out the brewery door the bewer did fly,
To save his beer he knew that he had to try
Into the tank Santa, his deer and snow flew,
Cause he knew Santa’s had lotsa good beer too

So with twinkling, and a few magical poofs
And also an addition of 32 little tasty hoofs
When the Pro Am competition came around,
A secret recipe first place in show was found.

It is Christmas Day and the brewer awakes
His OTHER stash is gone cause that’s what it takes
To dream such a demented dream one must be cracked
Tasting his brew he thought, “Nothing that beer lacked”

But tho next week it made pubsters so merry!
It also gave all of them dysentary
A while ago he’d asked, “Where’d my MAIN stash go?
But now he knows just why this ale’s white as snow

And THAT’S when the FDA and the cops showed up.

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From the Bottle Collection: 2 Days Before Christmas Beer

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

FX Matt Traditional Season’s Best

I hate apply the “don’t remember much about this beer so it couldn’t have been terrible, or great,” rule, but for the most part I do. Here’s what I do remember, maybe remember: an amber or light brown. Not highly hopped, decent head. A bit light on the body. An ale with light fruity yeast notes, at best. Not a “seasonal” according to today’s standards. But I have to emphasize: “according to today’s standards.” I’m guessing this was marketed as a “between” product: as in between Saranac and Matt’s more “traditional” market base. This was in 1989. Hey, even if this was an attempt at “craft,” for 89 this was about as aggressive as it got except for a few, up and coming, brewers and Anchor. But I’m guessing they were fishing for a wider customer base: trying to lure the old customers into the craft beer market.

I don’t know how well it sold.

At the time Matt Brewing, at the time known as F.X. Matt I believe, had just started to get into competing with craft beer. I only say “with” because, at the time, they were pretty bloody big. Kind of a minor major brewer.

I give them a lot of credit for going with a great trend rather than bucking it with smarmy attitudes and nasty, anti-free enterprise, tactics. Utica Club, Matts: the brewery, with a few exceptions, was brewing mostly Bud/Miller/Coors clones with slight variations. That’s not an insult: pretty much all brewers in America were, especially brewers of their size and bigger. F.X. Matt had just come back from Germany, convinced by a German brewer that Americans should at least try to make beer as good as the Germans.

Thus, on that day, in swaddling bubbles and head, was born unto us Saranac. In my bottle collection alone I have at least 30 styles of beer they brew, or have brewed, and I know they’ve done at least twice that. Some deserve a halo, some a thumbs up, some OK and small, small, handful: at best, a “what the… were you thinking???”

So here’s my problem: except as a conversational item you wouldn’t want to bring a bottle of this to a party of beer geeks; though not “bad” by any means. Times have changed. No Ghost of Christmas Present present can be given. But I can’t give it a Ghost of Christmases Yet to Be, because we have to understand the history, and the risk, the Matt family took back in the 80s. Plus, it wasn’t bad at all: especially for the time.

I hate giving the same “award” fr almost all of this year’s candidates, but what am I to do? I can’t give “excellent” or “stinky” to what I can’t remember all that well. I will say that, unlike Dos Equis: a large mega-brewer about to add a 7th brewing facility. F.X, one brewery in Utica, NY, was taking quite a risk back when regular east coast brewers were mostly avoiding jumping intro the craft market.

So a Ghost of Christmas Past with an extra nod at how good that past was. They have a lot to be proud of and, if you have noticed I focus on them more than others just a tad, well I think their story is one untold… few in brew world know or understand.

And, yes, I do know the folks at Saranac, personally. But if my goal here had was to promote them I would have gone with a Present present. But that wouldn’t be fair. Not that memorable.

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From the Bottle Collection: 3 Days Before Christmas Beer

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

Abita Festive Ale

Festive, why?

I used to love Abita Springs. In the early 90s I used to hang out at what was the brewery, now the pub, and have beer handed out to me from the back fridge. As the years went on they moved the brewery, and the bottling operation, and turned the cute downtown Abita Springs facility into a small capacity brewpub. At first the food was good and they had, one year, a high octane “Santa’s Helper” that kept me there way the hell too long. Not quite a barley wine, perhaps a strong, strong ale? If only they had bottled that.

This, however, matches much of Abita’s unremarkable line up since then.

Festive: a totally unremarkable ale that was, perhaps, a weak brown at best. Enough fizz, enough everything for a bland brown ale. And I hated to type it, but it’s true: that goes for most of the product line too. This was the grandfather of all the Emerald/Mississsippi/Louisiana breweries and they gave birth to so many breweries. Did the birthing poop them out, or did moving the main brewery down the road do that? They can do better. Currently they bottle an Abbey Ale that’s not too bad, and a very good 25th Anniversary beer, but still seem way to reluctant to upgrade their regular recipes. I understand: what sells is what sells. But at least try to compete a little more than one or two weak attempts?

The brew world is moving on. At least try to keep up with your kids Grandma Abita!

I think this is all because they have been through a series of brewers during all this time. Their first “child,” McGuires in Pensacola, has pretty much kept up the quality with a few minor glitches now and then. That’s because they had the same brewer for almost 20 years who developed consistency, but not afraid to improve recipes, or create new ones. Abita mostly hasn’t, and when they have the attempts have been mostly weak.

An easy to forget seasonal, just like the Ghost of Christmas Past, but the pleasing memories do remain.

Continue reading “From the Bottle Collection: 3 Days Before Christmas Beer”

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Beer Here: Jingle Bells from the Grumpy Troll

Written by Robin Shepard for isthmus.com/daily/article.php?article=35421

Tis the season for those who like holiday beers. Brewpubs, which can make small batches of unique flavorful brews, are at the forefront this time of year for using spicy, minty, nutty and chocolate accents in their beers. The Grumpy Troll brewpub in Mount Horeb just tapped a little holiday cheer with its Jingle Bells holiday ale, an altbier made with wild rice.

What is it? Jingle Bells from The Grumpy Troll of Mount Horeb, Wisconsin.

Style: Wild rice is not a typical ingredient in beer, and wild rice brews are not a style on their own, as the rice is a fermentable grain, much as malt is. For most recipes, it supplements other main ingredients like barley. When wild rice is used, it is usually by smaller craft beer makers looking for local natural ingredients. For most commercial brewers, it’s difficult to get in the quantities needed to keep the price within the range their customers are willing to pay. When done well, wild rice offers a nutty sweetness that complements the caramel tones of malted barley.

While wild rice beers are not common, a handful can be found around the upper Midwest where wild rice is available. Last spring, for instance, Capital Brewery in Middleton made a wild rice doppelbock.

Background: The base beer behind Jingle Bells is a German Altbier, a style known for its deep bronze color, hoppy enough for some balance, and just a hint of fruitiness. But the wild rice that brewmaster Mark Knoebl adds distinguishes it.

Northern Wisconsin-grown wild rice makes up about 10% of the total grist bill in the recipe for Jingle Bells. Because the rice needs to be cooked before it’s added to the mash in the lauter tun, it is prepared the day before the actual brewing starts. Knoebl doesn’t have a cereal cooker in his brewhaus, so he prepares the rice in the brewpub’s kitchen using a 10-gallon stockpot similar to what many homebrewers use.

Once it is cooked to a pregelatinized state, the wild rice is combined with Canadian-grown Pilsner, some German Munich and a small amount of caramel malts. The hops include Northern Brewer and Spalt. Knoebl uses a Düsseldorf Alt yeast and ferments the beer at a warm 62° F. Jingle Bells takes about three weeks to make, and finishes at 6% ABV. The beer sells for $4.50/pint in the brewpub, or $12/growler (refill) for take home.

Jingle Bells is expected to be on tap at the brewpub through the end of the year. Knoebl also just unveiled a new year-round beer, Hop Farm Pale Ale, made with all Wisconsin-grown hops.

Tasting notes:

  • Aroma: A light maltiness with a hint of spicy complexity.
  • Appearance: Hazy bronze color with a thin, bubbly, off-white head.
  • Texture: Medium and round mouthfeel
  • Taste: A mild, but firm maltiness with a faint fruitiness. But it’s the earthy and nutty background that makes it distinctive.
  • Finish/Aftertaste: Spicy with a medium, dry bitterness.

 

Glassware: The Grumpy Troll serves Jingle Bells in the standard bar pint. If you bring home a growler, a footed pilsner glass or the Willy Becher, with inward taper near the lip, will focus the nose, hold the head and show off the beer’s bronze color.

Pairs well with: The light, sweet, nutty tones and the natural image of wild rice make this beer a nice match for sweet meat entrées and side dishes. The brewpub’s beer cheese soup is very good with Jingle Bells. Or try it with an order of the Grumpy Troll’s sweet potato tots.

Rating: Two Bottle Openers (out of four)

The Consensus: Jingle Bells has not received enough ratings to be evaluated at either BeerAdvocate or RateBeer.

The Verdict: Jingle Bells is a nice seasonal treat. It’s medium-bodied and bears a holiday-themed name that seems just right for December. I liked the depth of the malty tones amid the nutty and earthy sweetness of the wild rice. However, I just didn’t get too excited about this beer. Christmas beers are a tough sell for my palate, and although there’s a hint of spice in the finish, I didn’t come away with the “Oh wow, I hear sleigh bells ringing” feeling.

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From the Bottle Collection: 4 Days Before Christmas Beer

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.
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Top Ten Christmas and Holiday Ales

From Beerinfo.com

Great Lakes’ Christmas Ale- The Great Lakes Brewing Company’s Christmas Ale is a repeat World Beer Championship Gold Medal winner. The full-bodied, spirited beer is copper in color and has a combination of cinnamon, fresh ginger, and sweet honey tones. Christmas Ale is crafted from American two-row wheat, roasted barley, and English crystal hops, among other ingredients and is designed to complement most holiday meals.

 Anderson Valley Winter Solstice – From the first sip of Winter Solstice Seasonal Ale , your senses will be aroused with the vision of a glowing fire, warming the hearth and home, as gently drifting snow flakes silently blanket the trees outside. Each lingering sip will gently warm your soul with thoughts of family and friends, gathering around the table for the feast. Luscious, creamy, smooth, and warming, this medium bodied ale is brewed with Caramel and crystal malts to give it just a hint of sweetness, then paired with our private blend of holiday spice. Winter Solstice Ale is great alone or as an accompaniment to any meal, and it has been known to liven and spice up nearly any social event.
 
Pyramid Snow Cap – A rich, full-bodied winter warmer crafted in the British tradition of holiday beers. This deep mahogany colored brew balances complex fruit flavors with a refreshingly smooth texture, making Snow Cap a highly drinkable and desirable cold weather companion.

Sweetwater Festive Ale – A full-bodied, high-octane brew capped off with our use of cinnamon and mace. This beer will warm you all the way to your bones. Brewed only one day a year for the holiday season.
 
                                      
 

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On the Joys of Beerhunting

Written by Tom Becham for Professor Goodales

Courtesy pencilandspoon.com

There is really no definition of the word “beerhunting” (other than a truly lame one on Urban Dictionary).  Nor is there one of “beerhunter”, though renowned beer author Michael Jackson was known by that name.

I choose to define beerhunting as the pursuit of new, different, unique and tasty fermented grain beverages.
Simply ticking names off of a list is hardly the point of beerhunting, and misses a lot of the allure of it for me.  To me, it is about the pursuit of knowledge and hedonistic enjoyment.
This includes seeking and purchasing many different kinds of bottled offerings, to be sure.  But the best and most enjoyable feature of beerhunting, is going to brewery tasting rooms and brewpubs.
I have a couple of reasons for feeling this way. First, it is an old aphorism that beer is best when consumed fresh and near the brewery.  Setting aside for a moment the exceptions like bottle-conditioned and deliberately aged offerings, that statement is largely true.

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From the Bottle Collection: 5 Days Before Christmas Beer

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

Anderson Valley Seasonal Solstice

I hate to slightly disappoint those who might expect me to be more positive regarding a craft beer early in the rise of craft to counter the even bigger dominance of AB and Miller back then, especially one trying to do a Winter seasonals few did, but I don’t remember this one in the slightest. If I hated it; I’d remember. If I loved it; I’d remember. Solution: a rather bland, unremarkable, past attempt by one of the early craft brewers.

Yes, you have to give them just an ounce of credit for doing so, but that early in craft beer I would have gone nuts over this. I didn’t. I haven’t seen this bugger for a while. Of course I haven’t looked for it. Maybe they still make it. I have read that the brewery has installed all kinds of solar array stuff and they recycle labels. The owners have changed too. One hopes the beer has gotten more impressive than this was.

So one rather bland Ghost of Christmas Past award it tis..

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.