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Sweet Beer Reminds Drinker of Christmas’ Past

Written by Steve Goble for zanesvilletimesrecorder.com

Cherry cordials — whole cherries covered in sweet goo inside a shell of chocolate — are always linked to Christmas in my mind.

My mom loved them, and usually had a box handy during the holidays. A friend of mine makes some, fortified with vodka, and passes them out at Christmas.

They’re a rich, tasty indulgence, something I enjoy one or two of at Christmas time — and then I’ve had enough. So pardon me if my review of Cherry Chocolate Beer from O’Fallon Brewery seems less than enthusiastic.

This holiday seasonal beer aims to create that cherry cordial sensation, and it succeeds admirably. The beer seriously tastes like chocolate-covered cherries. I like chocolate-covered cherries, but not 12 ounces of them. If you wolf cordials down by the handful, however, you might want to get a 12-pack of O’Fallon’s brew.
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Brew Biz: Werts and All

Ken Carman is a BJCP judge; homebrewer since 1979, club member at Escambia Bay and Music City Homebrewers, who has been interviewing professional brewers all over the east coast for over 10 years.

The Topic: Christmas Beer

Going through “The Bottle Collection,” getting ready to start a Christmas Beer series, I realized there’s a value to collecting, beer education-wise. And I had just kicked back into that comfy lounge chair called: “A Christmas Beer is usually an ale with Christmas/pumpkin spices.”
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He’Brew Helps Customers Build Beer Menorahs

This beer menorah, uploaded by Ben Shaevitz on Shmaltz Brewing Co.’s Facebook page, is part of a new He’Brew Vertical Jewbelation beer set.

On the sixth night of Hanukkah, I’m really regretting not asking my loved ones to gift me one of these: a He’Brew Vertical Jewbelation set that doubles as a menorah.

The set includes eight 12-ounce bottles of beer — one of each of the past six years’ Jewbelation releases (6), this year’s release (1) and a new blend of all of them that was aged in Sazerac rye whiskey barrels (1) — plus an empty bottle to hold the “shamash,” or middle candle.

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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.

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

Snowballs Chance

I have dreamed about this beer. OK, from what I remember: no spice. But certainly Santa would rather have this by his fireplace than cookies. A strong ale with plenty of dextrinous goodness and maybe a little carmelization to add complexity. I don’t remember the hopping being all that significant. I have read some claim it ruby brown, but I seem to remember more edging towards brown and a bit like some barleywines, in color only. Not a ton of alcohol by any means. Some claim it’s an English Brown. To me it edges more towards a Scottish 80, at least. Made by Wild Goose Brewery.

Bring this to your Christmas party and Tiny Tim will be begging to share. Don’t do it. Soon he’ll be walking and begging for more. And Bob Cratchit will have you tossed in jail for serving a minor. Of course, he’ll take all the beer. Think you’ll see it when you get out? Not a Snowballs Chance in Hell.

A Ghost of Christmas Present for this one.

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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.

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

Young’s Winter Ale and Young’s Winter Warmer

I have a problem here. The Winter Ale is labeled 89-90. The Winter Warmer
is newer: probably early 2000. Are they the same product? I doubt it, but the Ale may have morphed into the Warmer. I’m sure the recipe has probably changed a tad.

The Warmer was a bit spicy: more than likely spicy English hops, a deep amber. A nit chocolate and sweet. Complex, but a bit light bodied for a warmer… but that’s more from an American perspective.

I can’t rate it well because, though I love Youngs, I have found distribution a bit problematic in the past. When it’s fresh, it’s grand. When it’s not… well that’s what happens to beer when it sits in some warehouse, or out in the sun. I seem to remember these two were more than a bit cardboard-like, though different. The Warmer a bit heavier and higher abv.

Normally I’d do a Ghost of Future beer here, but blaming this all on Youngs is a bit unfair. maybe this is just a way for distributors to get even for all that Redcoat stuff, oh, so long ago. But I couldn’t give them a… Present. So a Ghost of Christmas Past it is.

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From the Bottle Collection: 3 Days Before Christmas Beer

One Bottle Collection beer for every 5 days 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.

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

Market Street Winter

What exactly made this a Christmas/Seasonal beer I don’t remember, but I do remember that this came into my collection towards the end of Bohanan Brewing being a Nashville phenomenon and into being a Nashville scourge. They were the first in craft beer world to take Nashvillian beer lovers by storm and they were pretty good. I rememeber a vanilla beer that was tasty.

For some reason they got burned out just as the competition started to heat up and stopped caring. Their local product was phenolic and loaded with DMS. Various versions of Gack! I don’t know how they achieved this, because as far as I know they had no bottling line: they vended out, but the bottled stuff was as bad or worse. Let the barf begin! Like chewing on the coal left in your stocking because someone was a bad brewer.

Bring this to the party and there would be no need to wait for over

You see the Ghost of Christmases Yet To Come? Yeah, he’s telling you all the other brewers are eagerly dividing your brew equipment up while laughing.

So sad. Didn’t have to be that way. And poor Tiny Tim? That’s may be why the beer was so bad at the end. Did he fall into the kettle and you used him as an adjunct?

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