2016 Advent Beer 11: Winter Saison by De Molen

Despite its humdrum appearance, I was delighted to see today's beer emerge from its receptacle, recognizing the signature label style of De Molen, one of the best breweries in the Netherlands. I'm neither hot nor cold on the saison style; I've enjoyed a few over the years, and come across a few duds, same as most beer varieties, but was intrigued when I looked at the ingredients and saw Szechuan peppers listed.

Winter Saison pours a hazy gold with a hint of orange in the depths, crested with a sturdy white head. Olfactory-wise, it's a subtle brew, even deep sniffs revealing little else than a tangy yeast affect and a hint of the floral, probably from the juniper berries.

A sip brings a light-tasting but still robust ale, flavour, relatively mild, supported well by spice and floral elements. The peppers are brilliantly subtle, arriving as an understated afterthought to the tingly finish of the beer. The carbonation is fine, but enough to bring a degree of liveliness to the mouthfeel.

Another great combination of the traditional and the iconoclastic from a great brewery!

In terms of pairing, all I can think of since reading the word 'Szechuan' is Chinese food. I am this close to calling Happy Palace and getting an order of their Special Egg Foo Yung or some Shrimp in Lobster Sauce sent over. I think this Winter Saison would be a wonderful accompaniment to fresh bread and butter, or a ploughman's lunch.

2016 Advent Beer 10: Equinox Triple IPA

There was a time, and it doesn't feel like it was all that long ago, where I would have looked at a California-style Triple India Pale Ale clocking it at 100 IBUs (International Bittering Units) with a considerably more jaundiced eye. After all, my tastes tend towards darker, more malt-forward beers, and the shocking, bitter tartness and piney, resinous aftertaste of these beers for committed hopheads was not to my liking, at least initially.

But the first time you have a strong, crisp, citrusy slap in the chops from a big IPA, preferably on a hot and humid summer day, it's an experience bound to open some new frontiers on your beer palate, that's for sure.

Equinox hails from Barcelona, a surprising place for the collaboration of Belgian triple fermentation and West-Coast weaponized IPAs, and yet, here we are. Citrus scents, especially grapefruit and maybe a bit of lime, are detectable even before the beer is poured, and an enormous, aromatic head results from even a gentle pour. The reddish coppery gold is hard to pin down on the spectrum, but no less pleasing to look at.

More citrus, and maybe a hint of pine can be smelled as I wait for the head to settle, as well as a hint of the high alcohol sweetness, as Equinox weighs in with a respectable abv of 9.4%!

The first mouthful is a potent 1-2 punch of WHAM HERE'S YOUR HOPS followed quickly by WOW LOOKS LIKE THAT HURT HERE HAVE SOME ALCOHOL. The grapefruit gets a little overwhelmed by a slightly piney/resiny quality, but that is quickly washed away by the high-alcohol sweetness. All the carbonation seems to have been utilized in the creation of a shockingly resilient head, so this loud beer has a relatively quiet mouthfeel and relatively smooth finish.

Obviously Equinox is not the kind of beer one would want a six-pack of, but as far as IPAs with a borderline stunty amount of both hops and alcohol, it is surprisingly palatable.

I'm pretty sure I have an allergy to certain kinds of hops though, and Equinox has generated some wheezes in me, so I am unlikely to partake in it again. It was good while it lasted though! Now to find my inhaler...

2016 Advent Beer 9: Deep Space

As an afficionado of beer in general and the Craft Beer Advent Calendar in particular, I try to approach each day's selection with the appropriate level of attention and respect, but today was difficult. Today was the day that the Rare Hipster and Totty and I finally convened to consume the legendary Utopias I had obtained for us last week.

We had some brilliant but frankly pedestrian beers before and during supper while dining on the steaks I had grilled, and today's offering, Deep Space, languished until after supper and the first glass of that legendary elixir from New England.

You see, described as a "foreign extra stout" from Poland, today's advent beer seemed less likely to satisfy as an accompaniment to a meal, and better served to be an interstitial course between servings of Utopias.

Deep Space decants as a luxurious deep brown, not quite Guinness-black, and coffee and toasted malt scents are discernible right from the pour. A finger of off-white foam caps the glass.

The burnt coffee and toasted malts continue to oppress the olfactory in a most copacetic fashion, and a sip confirms what the nose has suspected: these malts have been scorched. A hint of smoke permeates the proceedings to be sure.

The coffee gives way to bitter chocolate and bread malts, with a bitterness that owes little to hops and more to carbonization, but is balanced.

Deep tannins give Deep Space a satisfying finish and rich mouthfeel to round out the experience. At 6.5%, this is a poor choice for a session ale, but I would have another, if offered.

This beer would excellently complement a plate of bbq ribs, pulled pork,  or anything else with a strong, smoky flavour. I'll be looking for this beer after the advent season!

2016 Advent Beer 8: Silver Bottle Beer

Well, well, if nothing else, the battle for 'coolest bottle of week 2' just got more interesting. I gave it to Sweet Krampus for week 1, and thought The Crimson Bird from yesterday was a likely winner, but now we have at least one other contender.

The bottle for Eggenberg's Silver Bottle Beer is aluminum, and the ultramodern typeface design really makes it a standout. It's also astonishing just how much lighter the aluminum bottle is compared to glass.

Schloss Eggenberg, from Austria, made a notable contribution to the calendar back in its inaugural year of 2012, with a festbock, a style I have quite a liking for. This year they tempt us with a marzenbier, Austria's most favoured brew.

It decants a pale, clear yellow-gold, and the scent wafting up is... well, nothing special, really. It smells like beer. But there is maybe a hint of something floral lurking in there. A moderate crown of white head tops off the pour, presenting the classic image of a beer at home in its natural environment.

A mouthful of marzen is crisp, clean, malt-forward, and only the barest amount of hops for balance. The floral hint is barely discernible (and may be imagined), but Silver Bottle Beer has a silky smooth finish with almost no bitterness or bite to speak of. And at 4.9%, it would make a very palatable session beer. Ideally suited for Oktoberfest, I would imagine.

My only regret is that I have no hot pretzels or sausages to have with it!

2016 Advent Beer 7: The Crimson Bird

Today's beer seems appropriate for the season in both rusticity and taste, as it is a saison (a Belgian ale originated by farmers) flavoured with raspberries.

I am at a complete loss, however, to explain why such a beverage, named The Crimson Bird, would feature such tremendously eerie artwork on the label. I guess they were bored with cardinals? I mean, it's not that I don't like it - it is really well executed and supremely detailed, reminiscent of the work of the comics work of Berni Wrightson and evocative of Mike Mignola - but the skull and bones scattered throughout the raspberry bush from which flees the titular avian, as well as the semi-gothic font, feel more in keeping with a northern European death-metal band than a craft brewery from - wait, Spain?

The Advent Calendar moves in mysterious ways.

A reddish tint is discernible from the first pour, with the resulting rose-gold cloudiness being topped with a pink-white foam for the head. The scents of tangy fruit and tangier yeasts waft up from the glass, and the back of my tongue clenches in anticipation of what is to come.

The Crimson Bird is tart right out of the gate, but in a friendly enough fashion. The taste of raspberries carries though both the middle and finish of each swallow. At the end of a 13 hour workday, I regret that my thirst overcame my desire to savour this beer, but only a bit. It was a pleasing quencher of a beer, well balanced and not too sweet despite the addition of fruit and an abv of 6.1%

I always think of saisons as summer beers for some reason, and think The Crimson Bird would be an ideal accompaniment to either an afternoon on a patio with friends, or to a strawberry and spinach salad. Creepy on the bottle, but delightful within it, I would definitely purchase this beer again.

2016 Advent Beer 6: Sweet Krampus

The Austrian brewery with a Latin-sounding name, Biermanufaktr Loncium, brings us a beer that is dark, sweet, and a bit spicy, and thus, well-named: Sweet Krampus.

Sweet Krampus looks delightful, a deep, rich, reddish-brown, with a sturdy off-white head. Caramel notes waft up from the glass even while the beer is decanted, and a more interrogatory sniff brings more of the malts, plus a slight tang of orange peels and a hint of spice.

The mouth confirms what the nose has deduced: a sweet, bready mouthful, with the 7% abv adding to the sweetness. The taste of cinnamon and orange peels finishes the tasting off delightfully; so far this year, Sweet Krampus is the beer that tastes most like Christmas.

If one were lucky enough to find it on tap at a gasthaus, it is easy to imagine having a bootful of Sweet Krampus alongside a plateful of schnitzel and spaetzle, but it would make an excellent after-dinner beer all on its own.

2016 Advent Beer 5: De Mons Belgian Abbey

Today's beer has very little to do with the New World, being a Trappist-style Belgian ale brewed in Perth, England. Both of these locales are fairly Olde Worldy, but I am far less committed to theme than I am to well executed beers.

Early signs are good; I poured De Mons (clever name, that) into a suitable glass, and was rewarded with a golden-coppery beer, much clearer than the previous couple of offerings, and with only light carbonation. The head dissipated quickly, leaving the telltale ring of pearls about the perimeter of the glass.

The label describes figs and raisins, but the fruit that comes through for me in the scent is more apple-ish. There is also the bready yeast aromas characteristic of this style, so I might be getting my fruit signals crossed by the esters.

A light, clean mouthfeel, almost reminiscent of an off-dry Riesling, carries the breadiness through to the palate, followed by the promised fruits. There is less apple and more the fig/raisin flavours, and the slight bitterness of the yeast is offset by the sweetness of the finish, unsurprising in a 6% beer.

As the beer warms, the fruit scent becomes a bit more pronounced along with the sweetness, but not in a cloying way, just richer and more complex.

Not exactly a winter warmer, but a step along that road, I see De Mons as less of a meal accompaniment and more of a slow sipper to enjoy with some nuts and cheese, and some good company of course.