Advent Calendar Window 18 - Christmas Ale 2012

Window Eighteen in this quickly progressing Advent Calendar is Goose Island Christmas Ale. It turns out I was lucky to experience Goose Island Christmas Ale as it no longer exists... OK it DOES exist but is now renamed Sixth Day for its 2013 release. Mine was the 2012 release and final under the name Goose Island Christmas Ale. It's had a fair while to age, bottled in May 2012, but being not entirely sure of the beer style I can't be sure this will be a good thing. This particular year is 7.3% and I see the first version of Sixth Day, this year, is 8.3% but apparently each year of Christmas Ale has been different. Let's see how this compares.

"It's the warmest time of year,

Your Christmas whiskey means good cheer,

A greedy smile from ear to ear..."

Goose Island Christmas Ale 2012 7.3% is a Nut Brown Ale that pours with a thin carbonation and rosewood Hue. It smells near sickly sweet with a spicy, earthy underlay and a piney hop hit. You need big mouthfuls of this to really enjoy this brown ale. It's not decidedly complex, a good muddy earthiness, dried figs, Christmas cake, sugared plums and pine. There's marmalade and a little lime zest that counteracts the hints of caraways and nutmeg. It's not overly spiced and a little thin on the finish. Truthfully it needs a fuller body to make a lasting impression but it is very good drinking, just a skip away from excellent. Here's a Christmas Ale that would have benefitted from a big, fat mulled spice hit.

Purchased from Beers of Europe, February 2013

Comments

THE STATE OF CASK part 2: The Cask Consumers

In what has become one of the most written about subjects amongst beer communicators for a long while I am going to follow on with my own thoughts about cask beer. Yet these ideas are formulated from potential posts I've been writing the odd paragraph about for around 18 months but never managed to construct into something relevant. I have much to say on the subject; so much so that rather than making this into one enormous read I've split it into three sections regarding the current trends and effects on cask beer as I see it. Today I look at the problem with consumer's and the immunity of one Timothy Taylor's Landlord. Part 1 can be read here . On the first Saturday morning of June 2016 I travelled to Stockport Beer Festival with my Aunt Marie and Uncle David; famously more traditional beer drinkers. They enjoy a day out in Stockport as, coming from Dewsbury way, they don’t actually see much beer from my side of the Pennines, incl...

National Winter Ales Festival 2013 - A Reasonable Farewell

Perhaps if this had been three years ago I would really have lamented the loss of the National Winter Ales Festival in Manchester . Not only has it long been held in my home city, but it was also my first ever beer festival, signifying a special place in my heart. That first visit was in 2006 and the event was then held in a co–operative building near Victoria station. At the time, my young ale loving mind was rather gobsmacked by the wondrous multi roomed, multi floored experience as barrels and casks of the good stuff stood waiting for me to try at no more than 90p for a generous half pint. Breweries and beer styles I had never heard of were present. It was also where I had my first taste of rauchbier, an encounter I have never regretted. I paid £3 to enter that day as a non CAMRA member. The organisations members that did travel with me on the occasion entered the festival for free (so they say, I’m inclined to believe they paid at least £1.) “They’re not a money making ...

Beer is Available in Supermarkets

Thanks to @Adam_G_Manning for the photo and everyone else who offered to help on Twitter This beer blog has become a near eternal snake of content but at least I’m distinctly aware of it. First comes the repeated speeches every time a brewery sells up to a large multinational. Then comes the turn of brouhaha because a supermarket has changed its range of beers. It must be that time of year and I still feel as impassioned to comment. It was, once again, the major retailer T esco who increased their range two and a half weeks ago - this time with additions including North Brew Co and Magic Rock - for the second time in 6 months. I felt the need to make comment about the bewildering excitement then, just as I did in 2016 with the arrival of Dale's Pale and Pinner . This time there has been further furore, both from people that see the positives and negatives, aided by successful marketing tactics that has led to an awful lot of commentary. Late to...

Beer Compurgation

Search This Blog