Christmas 2 months late

Over the weekend I picked up Joe Sixpack's "Christmas Beer" book. It was a late Christmas present to myself to cap off my 2008 Christmas beers experiment. With inspiration from a series of articles about Christmas beers by Joe Sixpack I set out to celebrate the holidays with my fiancee and friends. Many thanks to the Foodery (Center City), the Best House (West Philadelphia) and Beers of the World (Rochester, NY) for offering a wide selection of holiday beers to start a new holiday tradition.

To kick off my new Christmas tradition I invited a few friends to my apartment for a sampling of my first round of Christmas beers.

Anchor Our Special Ale.
Sierra Nevada Celebration.
Flying Fish Grand Cru Winter Reserve.
Corsendonk Christmas Ale.
Bells's Brewery Winter White Ale.
Allagash Grand Cru.

My fiancee and I celebrated the 12 days of Christmas by enjoying a Christmas beer each day before we left for Thailand.

Samichlaus.
Scaldis Noel.
Affligem Noel.
Samuel Smith's Winter Welcome.
Troegs Mad Elf.
Stoudt's Winter Ale.
Sly Fox Christmas Ale.
Weyerbacher Winter Ale.
Delirium Noel.
Gouden Carolus Noel
Lancaster Winter Warmer.
Stegmaier Holiday Warmer.
Jolly Pumpkin Noel de Calabaza.
Heavy Seas Winter Storm.

After all our beer drinking merriment we decided that the top beer this season was Troeg's Mad Elf followed by Anchor, Corsendonk, and Goulden Carolus. To honor the top Christmas beer we drank a round of Mad Elf. What else would you expect?




Next year I'll have a new reason to get excited for a visit from Ol' Saint Nick.

Valentine's Day

Starting a blog about my love for beer with a post about my drinking adventures on Valentine's Day could not be more perfect. So let me begin by raising my glass to everyone with a passion and a sweetheart.

My fiancee and I spent cupid's day preparing for our wedding in May. This seemed appropriate and welcomed because finding free time to focus on wedding planning has been difficult. So we spent the day discussing music, food, drinks (for a another post) and driving to Jeweler's Row to check out wedding rings. After all the talking and running around we headed to the Foodery in Northern Liberties to buy our Valentine's drinks for the evening. When we returned home and had our homemade V-Day dinner, we relaxed with our drinks.

The 4 beer selection for Valentine's Day was an experiment. Earlier in the week we were inspired by a pamphlet from The Best House in West Philly called "Love & Beer" from Origlio the beverage distributer. It listed a variety of beers for sharing with your valentine, chocolate and beer- the perfect couple, and the most romantic beers. It concluded with the suggestion of 2 beer cocktails; Chocolate Covered Cherry and Black & Cherry.

For those who are interest about the other listings let me share...
"Beers Perfect for Sharing with Your Valentine" according to Origlio are:
Scaldis Prestige
Chimay (Red) Premiere
Young's Double Chocolate Stout

"Most Romantic Beers" according to Origlio are:
Lindeman's Framboise
Cherish Framboise
Kasteel Rouge
St. Louis Kriek
Verdi Sparkletini
Samuel Adams Cherry Wheat

The first beer cocktail was the Chocolate Covered Cherry. It is equal parts Lindeman's Kriek and Young's Double Chocolate Stout. It reminded me of a beer I had a few weeks earlier in Buffalo with my fiancee, brother and some friends, the Obamagang from the Ommegang Brewery. Which was heavenly. Our experiment was not heavenly, but tasty. The only thing was that the Kriek dominated my taste buds.



The second beer cocktail was the Black & Cherry. It is half a pint of Sam Adams Cherry Wheat with Guinness Draught gently poured over a spoon on top. I'm always amazed with the sweetness of the Cherry Wheat (and this from a guy with a major sweet tooth), its like a cherry lollipop beer. Visually it was beautiful, the golden Cherry Wheat on the bottom half and the Guinness on top. I don't know if I'd repeat this experiment, some things are left better on their own.



For Valentine's Day next year I'll hold off on experimenting with the beer cocktails and settle down with a bottle of Chimay with my wife.