Beer Advent Calendar Window 19

Beer Advent Calendar Window 19 - Blitzen

I swear I'm trying. I'm still drinking all my Advent beers in time, no matter the struggle, but the times for posts is eluding me. I'm afriad it's all just so damn social at the minute. It'd probably be nice to spend some time staring at my beautifully decorated living room and watching a Christmas film at last, but instead I am out celebrating. It's great Christmas, but it is crippingly exhausting.

Blue Mountain Brewery and Barrel House are an 8-year-old Virginia based brewery. I know relatively nothing about them, but their Christmas beer Blitzen is welcomingly part of this Beer Advent Calendar.. It is the brewry's take on a French-Belgian Biere de Noel and is presented beautifully in corked 750ml bottle.

Surprisingly for the style, the beer label encourages you to enjoy this beer before the best before date presented on the cork of July 2014. I thought that a 7% dark beer such as this may actually have got better with age so let's find out.

"Santa is real. And he's the most wonderful person in the world."

Blue Mountain Brewery - Blitzen Biere de Noel 7%

Murky deep bramble brown, there's a very heady aroma. Oh yes, plums, sherry, damp woodland, burnt sugar, cinder toffee and prunes. It is one of the greatest beers I've ever smelt. The taste is initially a little disappointing and I refer back to that cork. This isn't ageing as one might hope. The flavour is a touch tart from the off, like unripened plums. It's sharp on the tongue,biting almost but in some ways a touch like a blackberry fruit wine. It makes me think of a beer that's aged too long, but equally I'm transported to picked fresh blackberries from the trees with my grandad as a child. That nostalgia taste makes me enjoy the beer more. Once it mellows, the other fruity flavours and a nice port-like burn begin to develop. It's warming and always emotive of winter berries. Pictures cutting into a fresh, warm cherry pie comes to mind once the nostalgia has left. The tongue tastes it long after the rest of the mouth has forgotten. It wasn't at all what I was expecting, and judging by that wonderful nose this definitely would have been much better fresher. Yet, there's still something uniquely enjoyable about this.

Mince Pie Pairing Rating: 7/10

Best Paired With: A fresh version of this beer I imagine

Comments

he said…

thank you for sharing, very useful for the reader , and the site is very prioritizes quality , very nice and best regard

Samsung ml-2851nd Driver
Samsung ml-2851nd Driver
Brother MFC-J285DW Driver Download
Brother MFC-J825DW Driver Download

15 January 2016 at 09:09

WHEN CELEBRITIES DIE - THE INFINITY OF PUBS

Recently I was stood outside Huddersfield Railway Station waiting for my Replacement Bus Service. I was eating much needed food from a nearby fast food outlet and contemplating my next move. Other match-goers had gone home but I had over 50 minutes to wait for my bus. We’d already been to a few of our post-match regular spots and so I was contemplating somewhere new or different to pass the time now. I stood in St George’s Square, behind the statue of Harold Wilson, and pondered where I should waste my next hour. And pondered and pondered. After deliberation that ate into much of my allotted time, I walked down to the familiar setting of The Sportsman, realising that there wasn’t anywhere different to go at all. But whilst I deliberated, I cast my eye over the currently scaffold-covered George hotel opposite the station; a place I had been in once with my Dad. It’s downstairs public bar had stood as a firm and available option to match-goers fo...

The Pubs of Stalybridge Part One: The Stalybridge Seven.

And a touch more ... Rififi Nightclub - once the town's cinema - has stood empty and unused for four and a half years This is the continuation of my posts of regular pub crawls to try and get myself in more pubs and discover more. Whilst I grew up in an old hamlet that most were quick to distance themselves from, my address clearly stated that we belonged to Stalybridge. However distant the town centre felt I was a Stalybridger, a Stalybridgian, a Stalyian: you know I don’t think I’ve ever heard us given a name before. I’m going with Stalyian. After a few moves around the country and through various relationships, I didn’t expect to find myself still local to the town in 2017. Whilst my address hasn’t stated Stalybridge for 3 years, I still spend plenty of time in the town – not least as it houses my “local.” To many in the north-west, it is famous for its nickname of Staly Vegas , that came about (as far as I’m aware) through its late Nighties-through-to-N...

Advent Calendar Window 14 - La Goudale de Noel

"Keep my distance, but you still catch my eye, Tell me, baby, do you recognise me? Well, it’s been a year, that doesn’t surprise me" La Goudale is an interesting French enigma. I searched for this under the label Brassee a L’Ancienne believing this to be the name of the brewery. After some fruitless searching, I learnt that this is not the name of a brewer, but rather a French saying that, roughly translated, means “Brewed in a Traditional way.” La Goudale is actually from the Brewery Gayant based in Douai, North-east France that aleso houses other well-nown brews such as Amadeus and La Biere Du Demon. The real reason I find them an enigma though is for the discovery the other day that two of their beers – the Abbey and Wit – are sold in Aldi. They are in 750ml bottles and are £2.49 and £1.99 respectively. Housed here, the repugnant snob in me thinks they look cheap and unappetising on these shelves and managed to slightly put me off my La Goudale...

Beer Compurgation

Search This Blog