Christian Drouin Cidre Brut Grande Cuvee' 2014

Christian Drouin Cidre Brut Grande Cuvee' 2014

This delicious unctuous cidre pours a medium golden ochre color with nice clarity and tons of tiny bottom rising bubbles that create a finger of foam on the pour.  Initially the nose invites you in with nice baked apple that on deeper inhale exudes layers of woody forest funk, light barnyard characteristics and subtle smoked deli meat.  On the palate the flavors are rich and pronounced with a medium to full mouthfeel adding depth and complexity to the already complex flavor profile. The harmony of skin to juicy flesh apple notes are fine tuned and play nice counterbalance with the flash adding texture weight and a slight fruity baked apple focus. To contrast that the skin adds a spicy tannic bitterness that integrates seamlessly opening the palate to more intricate nuances of garden thyme, white pepper, chamomile, baking spices and a touch of twig tea lingers in the finish. 

Twelve Beers of Christmas - Night One

Harvey's Christmas Ale

2012 Vintage

It was on a Christmas Eve that the bottle forager decided to crack a beer that was slapped with a Santa Claus image. It went down very nicely with the Gingerbread cookies and few fingers of bourbon that we left for daddy, cough cough I mean Santa. It also kept me good company while spending an hour or two in the cellar putting together wooden toys for under the tree!

Either way the beer put me in the spirit and although the flavor profile was a bit past its prime and nothing to bellow through the town center waking the beer masses and telling them to "buy this beer" it suited my palate just fine on the eve of Christmas 2018.

Toffee, raisin, light red fruits, orange peel, leather, salted caramel, old pipe tobacco, anise.

Twelve Beers of Christmas - Night Two

Oxbow Brewing Sasuga

2016 Vintage

Zippy tartness leads the palate into a floral, grain driven farmhouse funk. Perfect carbonation, silky mouthfeel and great harmony of unripe tropical fruit undertones and rustic earthy fieldgrass notes throughout.

Fuji Apple, lemon zest, mandarin pith, floral jasmine rice,  apricot pits, pineapple cores, mango skin, dusty hay.

Twelve Beers of Christmas - Night Three

Orval

2013 Vintage

Yes, I understand, not a rare cellar beer but then again... isn't that a good thing? I will say the ability to locate these on the shelf has become more and more difficult as most bottle shops do not have space for the classics which in my humble opinion is a damn shame! I asked a decent size liquor shop where their Belgian section was the other day and they pointed to a shelf that had Spencer 4pks and Ommegang As Seen on TV bottles from the US. But somehow they managed to find space for dusty expired old IPA's up and down the aisles. That's when I get disappointed as a beer lover... the amount of beer enthusiasts in this world that have not experienced the full breadth of styles and beers that helped shape the craft of beer making for centuries. Im not saying in order to appreciate beer you need to spend a year abroad traveling from country to country harvesting grains, sampling water sources, learning alpha acid chemistry and analyzing yeast strains under a microscope. But god dammit maybe try a proper german pilsner or hefeweizen next time you make a purchase and while your at it grab a saison dupont, rochefort 10 and please please also grab an Orval!

 Orval pours a deep golden color with fingers and fingers of billowing pillowy laced out foam. The nose is fruity with classic unripe pineapple brettanomyces mingling with rustic malts and dry grassy hay. The palate follows the nose nicely with great mouthfeel from the beers structure and well integrated carbonation. Refreshingly bitter with tons of complexity under the guise of a chuggable delicious beer!

Floral Hay, Unripe Pineapple Cores, Bitter Grass, Bosc Pear, Toffee, Fruit Esters, Herbs.

Twelve Beer of Christmas - Night Four

Le Coq Imperial Extra Double Stout

2003 Vintage

This was another cellar dwellar that made the trip to visit my mother in MA for the family holiday party. I forget exactly when I got this but I know most of its cellar time happened at the importer B. United cellar that is carved into a hillside down in Connecticut. 

Hailing from London this pours a mostly still black umber color with just a trace of dark khaki foam. There is lots of oxidation happening here but somehow it works and transforms the flavors into a Madeira like profile with lots of that classic stout char playing counterpoint to the complex aged components of this beer!

Tar, Soft Caramel, Nutty Sherry, Shoe Polish, Raisin, Old Madeira, Light Tamari and Anise.

Twelve Beers of Christmas - Night Five

Haandbryggeriet Odin's Tipple

Dark Norse Ale

(2013 Vintage)

Ok well I decided to go dark tonight with the Winter Solstice on our doorstep I figured Id reach out to one of my favorite imperial stouts from Norway! You will not find variants of this containing single origin coffee that some weasel shit into the fermentor nor did they decide they needed to add 100# of candy bars or pastries... shit they do not add anything but water, malted barley, hops and yeast. Funny fact is they even use a single strain of wild yeast on this stout and the results are far more complex than 95% of the bourbon barrel aged triple chocolate, donut infused coconut stouts that are piling up all over beer shelves across America.

Anyhow lets talk about the beer experience that is in my glass tonight. Odin's Tipple pours a viscous black burnt umber color with a finger of gaseous khaki foam. The nose is dark bakers cocoa, rich roasted notes dance around with little hints of dark fruits and leather. The palate is bold and full bodied with nice compliments of bitterness to balance the sweet chocolate undertones. The roast level is off the charts and there is the the perfect carbonation to let the flavors ride into the dark space left in the absence of another bottle.

Dark burnt brownie, charred wood, bakers cocoa, licorice, composted coffee ground, dark fruit esters. 

Twelve Beers of Christmas - Night Six

Birrificio del Ducato Brett Peat Daydream

(2015 Vintage)

Coming from Italy and another brewery that I feel every beer they make is worth trying and this one is about as complex and interesting as they get!

Brewers Description:

This beer is a blend of a rauch beer aged in used old Scotch Whisky barrels for a period of over 2 years, blended with another beer fermented in wood with Brettanomyces (aged 1 year) and a young beer brewed with some peated malt. You can say it is all the same beer, with similar recipes : a part aged in whisky barrels and a part fermented in wood with brettanomyces.

Campfire smoked peaches, dusty old funk, wet wood, cured meat, nectarines, salted lemon, caramel, wet straw, horseblanket.