Come Wassail Away - Barrel to Bottle Gets Festive with Winter and Christmas Beers

You're listening to another episode of Barrel to Bottle. It's the holidays, and that means winter and Christmas beers. We've got everything spicy in this episode. We're going to be tasting everything from Belgian beers to stouts. We've got some wild adjuncts that we're going to be dealing with here. Buckle up. This is a lot. Buckle up, buttercup. My name is Roger. I do beer for Binny's. In the studio today, we have... Jim, Communications. Chris, I do wine. Lexi, I'm on social. All right, so this is the time of year when some people are ecstatic, other people groan and grimace. I feel like pumpkin beers became the seasonal a few years back, and then people got kind of shamed into not drinking pumpkin beers. But a big part of pumpkin beers is, of course, the spices. Long before pumpkin beers were really all the rage, there were a lot of Christmas beers that were, again, spiced with these sweeter dessert spices that we think of around the holidays. Your nutmegs, your cardamoms. Indeed. Cinnamon, of course. The pie spices. The pie spices. Around this time of year, I tend to think of Belgian beer. I've always been a very big fan of Belgian ales. Some of those, the Belgians were definitely, if Germany had like the Reine Heizkaboad and banned brewing with anything other than the traditional hops water and malt. Belgium was a little more free thinking. They, I think, approached beer from more of a culinary standpoint. So they weren't afraid to add spices to beer. Also, Belgian yeast strains tend to have a spicy character to them. So when they brew a beer and add some spices, it's kind of accentuating a spice component that's already there. So with that in mind, I would like to start things off today with a beer that I was very excited to see was available again. It's been a bit of a dry spell from this brewery. During the COVID times, they kind of, we didn't see their beer for a little bit. So excited to welcome back Gouden Carolus. And this is their Christmas Ale. Gouden Carolus is a reference to Golden Charles. So, yes, for you history nerds. Chris's nickname in high school. That's right. For you history nerds, we're talking about Charles V, the Holy Roman Emperor. Why of all the seemingly somewhat bizarre thing to pay homage to, it is because the beer is brewed at the Het Anchor Brewery, which is located in the town of... Mechelen. It's brewed in the town of Mechelen, where they've been making beer since the 15th century. The Van Bredum family purchased a brewery in this town, and they started brewing a beer to pay homage for Charles V, who raised in the town of Mechelen, and then he ruled from there for a little bit as well. That's the call out for Gouden Charles. But that beer is called Cuvée Van de Keizer, and in the old school beer nerd realm, it was always something that made the best beers lists, and it was always very well received and highly rated. The Head Anchor Brewery wanted to capitalize off, well, we're most famous for this Charles V beer, so they have a whole lineup of Gouden Carolus beers now. Their Christmas Ale is like a lot of celebratory Belgian Christmas beers, big, higher in alcohol, sort of in the spirit of like a Belgian style quadruple that some of the monastic or Abbey style breweries might make. But since it's Christmas time, this is made with six herbs and spices. Oh, not 11. Yeah, so I'm going to have to try to contact the Colonel here and catch up with the Colonel, guys. I'm curious to see what we're working with, but I'm curious to see what you all think if you can kind of suss out any of those or have any guesses. Again, I'm going to reach out and see if they'll divulge it. Some breweries don't want to. It's the secret. Much like the Colonel, they're not talking. I mean, it tastes like a gingerbread cookie or what are those little windmill shaped cookies? Oh, yeah. I assume you and Chris know what those are. Dutch windmill cookie. Yeah. But they're almonds. Are they gingery or no? I think they're spiced. Yeah, absolutely. They're a riff on the more, even more obscure and nerdy like Stroopwafel. Well, the Stroopwafels are more waffly. Yeah. Usually have like a caramely filling. Yeah. What's the thing I'm thinking of? Not Feffernuss, but. Not Feffernuss. I mean, it would be broadly in the Feffernuss family. Peppernuss. These are great desserts to Google. The Feffernuss family. It's a German spice cookie. Translates to peppernuss. Duh, Jim, you didn't know that? Yeah, I mean, of course. It's Feffernuss. Feffernuss came up like a week ago in our weekly meeting. That's true. It's actually because of the beer we're going to drink later. Oh, okay. The Cookie Exchange from Great Lakes. Oh, right. Right. Yeah. Anyway, this beer is bottle conditioned as well. And this beer sees a re-fermentation that's three months, allowing a beer this big for all the flavors to meld for the herb and spice component to marry and be one harmonized flavor. But I would say that's happened because it is very difficult for me to suss out an individual spice or herb here, although it is spicy. And I mean, I think the yeast really dominates the nose, it's very, very fruity in the nose. Almost like dead on, slightly underripe banana. I don't know. That's what I get. And on the palate, it's moderately sweet and caramely and rich. It's pretty delicious. I'm just stuck on the fact that this is a 10 percent. This doesn't taste like a 10 percent to me. Right. I love that. I think we're so used to a lot of heavier, higher alcohol beers being heavier in body, and this is like pillowy soft. It just glides across the tongue. It's that bottle conditioning, which I never shut up about, is in part because the carbonation, the way it feels in your mouth, the fineness of the bubble, it gives it that mousse-like texture that we talk about with champagne. And I definitely pick up on some kind of licorice component here. So, I'm thinking maybe there's star anise maybe or just normal anise. I'm curious since they said herb, I've seen breweries before use rosemary, and I feel like there might be rosemary here that has that piney-ness to it. I think you nailed star anise, but I'm finding this difficult to pull apart. That is only to say that it is a seamless expression of deliciousness. Yeah. I'm a big fan of this beer. I think there's just so much going on. The spice component is pronounced, the sweetness is in check. Some of these really big Belgian beers can be a little sweet, especially the holiday ones, but there's a nice balance here. There's three hops as well, so there's a little hop element here as well. You were talking about Belgians have a looser relationship to the Reinhardt's Kaboot or any beer laws, but there seem to be a lot of Belgian Christmas beers, because doesn't Chimay have one? Chimay does not. I think you're probably thinking of Saint Bernardus. I thought there was a Chimay that was not labeled as a Christmas beer, but it is or was at one time brewed at Christmas. Maybe I'm thinking of something else. But yeah, Saint Bernardus, Delirium, Tremans. Does Schuf have one? Schuf has one, for sure. Roquefort, I think, was originally like a New Year's or Christmas, like one of those. True. I think the eight, I think, was originally brewed for a celebration. It's not labeled as a Christmas beer. No, and it's year round. Yeah, and now it's year round, but originally it was like a Christmas beer. It had that same profile. DuPont, Brewery DuPont makes their New Year's, Christmas New Year's beer. I put together a class that was on the holidays, and that was an excuse to talk about Belgian beer. But one of the things that I was trying to emphasize is that the flavors in Belgian beer are often so complimentary to different cuisines. They always think of beer and food together. And there's so many of these flavors, the spiciness and the caramel and the richness and things like the fruit character of things like dates and figs and apricots. These are all things that we enjoy around the holidays. They'll be on your charcuterie trays or they might be in a cookie you like that your grandma always made. There's so many complimentary things that even before American breweries started emphasizing Christmas beers, I think Belgium became well known for these. A lot of the Belgian beers are served in those 750ml bottles with the cork and the cage. So that has more of like a celebratory feel to it. It's something that's easy to give as a gift. Yeah, you're definitely right in that people, you know, tend to think of Belgian beer around the holidays and they should think about it more than just the holidays, but especially the like bigger, richer Belgian beers are especially nice in the For sure. Grand Chimay Reserve is the one I'm thinking of, the blue one, that was originally a Christmas beer. Though is that the Barrel age one you mean? I don't think so. I think it's just a dark brown ale, but it's just in the blue label. The blue? Yeah, but originally it was a Christmas beer. Oh, okay. Well, yeah, that makes a lot more sense. That's much more well known, but... Yeah, I mean, Grand Reserve is great beer. Yeah, it's fantastic. So, Gouden Carolus Christmas Ale, available to Binny's near you. It comes in a four-pack gift set and you get two adorable Christmas tree ornaments with it. 28.99 on sale for 24.99. Next up, we have a beer which I have not seen in quite some time, The Ghost of Christmas Past here. This is Schlafly Christmas Ale. Oh. Chris, I always want you to be on. We enjoy Schlafly. You were always early in on this brewery. Yeah. And- Well, they're the year they opened, and I think I've been back every year since. So Schlafly is most well known for their pumpkin ale, at least up here. If you like Schlafly pumpkin ale, I think you are going to like Schlafly Christmas Ale. Again, we haven't seen this in quite some time. A lot of Schlafly's beers are inspired by classic brewing traditions. They make great English style beers, have like a Scotch Ale and ESB. In more modern times, they're known for things like their IPAs, but they really struck a chord with their pumpkin ale, big rich malty beer, 8% alcohol with a blend of spices. So the Schlafly Christmas Ale, very similar approach. It is also 8% alcohol. It is inspired by like a British winter warmer slash wassail and mold wine. Shall we go wassailing? This is the stuff that Chris and I are made for. So, obscure, old timey references, galore here. If you're not familiar with wassail, it was the practice of essentially, it kind of like predates the caroling tradition and then also represents a drink that would be served and enjoyed while people are singing, both associated with the Yuletide. The Yuletide, indeed. Yeah, the song Come Sail Away was actually originally called Come Was Sail Away. That's right. You know what? It was originally a Christmas song. That's right. The local man, right? Anyway. All right. So this guy is brewed with pale caramel Munich and chocolate malts. Munich, you'd recognize if you're a fan of Octoberfest style beers. The chocolate here I think is used in moderation. It's kind of more like a dark amber color. It's not particularly brown or anything. It's brewed with a blend of spices. Again, secret here. American ale yeast traits, spicy boy. Spicy boy. But what do you think? I think it's nice. I think it's soft. I think it's really balanced, easy drinking. Yeah, it's a pretty easy drinking beer for this style and it's at 8 percent. So it's a little powerful, but it does not drink like that. It goes down easy. It's very easy to drink. It doesn't seem very filling. I feel like sometimes with some Christmas beers, they get to be incredibly sweet. They get excited about cinnamon and nutmeg and go nuts, and this is quite bitter on the end, which is nice. The body is remarkably light for things, very easy drinking. You're right, it's not particularly sweet, but it has nice malt notes. I think this is a, I mean, it almost reminds me of a real British winter warmer with the addition of some spices. I mean, the ABV is right about right, the body feels right, malt character feels similar. Yep. It's almost like that's exactly what they were doing. It's a good beer. And again, if you like their pumpkin ale, I think you're going to find some familiar flavors here. Six pack, $11.99. Good deal. Yeah, good price. Great deal for a big 8% beer with some nice complexity. Our next beer is going to be, or next two beers, I would say, are very kindred spirit here, like we're going to be dealing with, in the next case, the exact same ABV, somewhat similar approach even, but also a little bit different. So this is Southern Tier 2X Miss. Southern Tier, kind of famous for really big beers. These are the Pumpking Warlock Brewery. Before that, though, they were known for a string of kind of Imperial beers that they'd call 2X. So they had a 2X IPA and 2X Milk Stouts. This is, again, always gravitating towards very esoteric and bizarre things. This is inspired by, if we have any people that celebrate Swedish holiday traditions, it's inspired by the drink Glog, which is also popular in other Scandinavian countries like Denmark, Norway, Finland, and Estonia. That is very mulled wine-ish. Yeah. Similar to your German Glühwein. But it is spiced, so kind of the nod to that is it's spiced with fig paste, orange peels, ginger root, cardamom, cinnamon, and clove. Wow. It smells really good. So if you've ever made mulled wine, I was kind of doing some research on what the typical ingredients are in mulling spices. They can vary. Sort of the most popular is cinnamon, clove, allspice, and nutmeg, and then some additions that you sometimes see are things like cardamom, star anise, peppercorns. So this is right there with all that. They opted for, sometimes you'll see mace in place of nutmeg. Of course, they're very related. Mace is the outer lattice on the nutmeg. Speaking of aliens, have you ever seen a nutmeg with the mace still on it? Yeah. It looks very much like an alien egg or something. Yeah, it does. They're pretty interesting. What pops for me here is the addition of the ginger. Yeah. Very much so, and cardamom. Yeah. The more I try cardamom in things, I think I really like cardamom. Cardamom, yeah, cardamom is wonderful. I mean, if you eat Indian cuisine, lots of cardamom there, but the Swedish or Norwegian baking traditions are all about cardamom. They love cardamom in their sweet pastries and stuff. So this fits perfectly. Well, what you should definitely be on the lookout for that would be a perfect pairing with this is stollen. So Chris was talking about Scandinavian Swedish pastries. Stollen you see around this time of year. It's a bread, sometimes it's braided and looks pretty cool, but it has candy fruit in it and it definitely has cardamom in the dough. Very delicious. Yeah, this is the time of year for enriched breads. Most European countries have traditions of very rich breads with eggs and butter and things like that. Your fruitcakes. Yes. Panettone in the Italian tradition, stollen in the Germanic or Scandinavian traditions. Yeah. Got a lot of Googling to do there. Google it up. We always learn something on this podcast. This one is 8% alcohol, 40 IBU. So I think they have some nice balance with the hops there. And it is in a six pack for $1,199. Again, you got some serious bang for your buck on this one. Why is everybody being so reasonable this year? I know. I think maybe some of these just haven't caught up with the times. Both of these breweries, to their credit, they've offered some pretty good value. All right. Up next, we have something that is Belgian-inspired, but again, the spicing treatment and everything is very akin to the previous two. So this is Victory's Merry Monkey. Merry Monkey. This is a riff on their wildly popular Golden Monkey, which is inspired by the classic Belgian style triple category. This one is made with cranberry, orange peel, cinnamon, and nutmeg. I will point out that the Merry Monkey on the label is very Grinch-like. He is quite Grinch-like. Yeah, green in color, but I actually get a 1920s bartender vibe. Right? He needs one of those little bands on his arm. Of course, what are the bands for? For looking cool. Is that it? No, nothing? Holding your bar tools. That's what I kind of thought. Yeah, but. In a really douchey way. This screams dapper. He's got a little bow tie. Yeah. The dapper Grinch. He looks like the guy Cartoon Network. We should draw like a little pencil-thin mustache on him. That would be perfect, actually. All right, so this clock's in at a whopping 10% ABV, 35 IBUs, Pilsner and Roasted Malted Barley, hopped with Cascade and Tet. It's kind of interesting. So you've got a Belgian style beer made with Belgian yeast, using even some roasted barley, I think just to get a tinge of color. So instead of Golden Monkey would usually be Go Figure Gold. This is more like an Amber Hue. For me, the cranberry and orange peel, it's just such a classic combo and it makes me think of Thanksgiving. It's a really interesting beer. When you said that about the Pencil and Mustache, I suddenly had this vision of the Grinch Monkey John Waters version. It would be great. The cinnamon definitely pops in this too. Grinch Flamingos. It's making me want some cinnamon rolls. This one also is 10 percent, you said, right? Yeah. So this comes in a six pack as well for that Monster ABV, you're paying a little more, $13.99, still very reasonable, and we have it on sale right now for $10.99. You know what the through line for most of these beers is? The hidden alcohol and the incredible drinkability of all of them. The body here for 10 percent alcohol beer is medium. I mean, it's remarkably easy. Yeah, you get in big trouble this beer. Yeah. So, if the holidays are a little stressful, this might be a- Coming up next, we're going to completely change gears now. So that concludes the first portion of our take. That's the old man bear portion. The non-stats. The non-dark bears. Old man, you say? All right, so we're changing gears. Everything we've had thus far has been pretty malt focused, although some of those had some good amount of IBU, but this is the kind of standout for the people that, like this is the Christmas spirit for Greg, for people that are like, I don't want all this spiced gloopy, he'd get all riled up. I just want something that's clean and has some cotton. This is Sierra Nevada Celebration Ale, brewed every year in a celebration of not just the holidays, but of the hop harvest. So this is very much a great way to understand about the importance of hops, and it's a poignant reminder of that they are an agricultural product that has true terroir and it changes, and perhaps most importantly, if you really want to geek out, it matters when you harvest hops. So every time that they do a hop harvest, it's like all hands on deck and they're frantically trying to get the hops harvested before they can spoil and be unusable in a matter of days. So much of this is done just purely by olfactory, and when it comes to a brewery, if they want to go the extra mile, they can actually visit the farms, visit the hop brokers, and do hop rubs and actually pick their allotment of these hops. So this is something that Sierra Nevada does every year for this. It's something like an 800-mile road trip for them to drive to the hop fields up in Washington and Oregon and hand-select Cascade, Centennial, and Chinook. Did you say specifically these are fresh hops? This is where it gets very confusing. And Lexi is going to be like, the deep end of your nerdery. Typically, a fresh hop beer is like wet hopping. So you pick the hops like the collab we did recently. You don't dry them because when you kill them hops, you arguably lose a little bit of the oils and whatnot. But it's completely necessary because unless you brew a beer within like 72 hours of the hop being picked, the hops would get moldy and deteriorate too quickly. Sierra Nevada makes a unique distinction that many people don't. A lot of breweries will just call, they'll use fresh and wet interchangeably. They do not. So they make wet hop beers, which are with those undried, freshly picked hops. They call this a fresh hop IPA. And what they mean by that is that they hand select the hops. They do get kilned. They get dried into, they're left in whole cone hops as opposed to being pelletized. The Sierra Nevada and Victory at one point were like two of the only breweries that still used whole cone hops. They're adamant on that they believe in that. It's an old brewing tradition. It's way more expensive because it's less efficient and they're like little sponges that soak up beer. So there's loss, but they remain totally committed to using whole cone hops. So they press these into these giant 200 pound bales and ship them to the brewery. Once hops are dried, you can keep them in cold storage for a long period of time. Arguably, some breweries are using pellets that are one, two years old. The approach to this is all of these hops are going to get used and brewed with within like three weeks. Yeah. So even though they were dried and put in bales, they're used right away and they're this year's harvest. And you know, you can keep those pelletized hops vacuum sealed for a long time, but hops do deteriorate. They are susceptible to oxygen and all kinds of things, which is why you can find beers that are brewed with aged hops like in the Lambique tradition, where you're not looking for that bitter flavor. Right. Yep. I think this is a beautiful beer. It's gorgeously balanced. The nose is just pretty as heck. I love the hop character in the nose. Great. The nose is definitely delightful. I think that the actual beer is not something for me, but I can taste it and see exactly why people do like it. For sure. Yeah. I mean, you got to like some bitterness in your beer for sure. Not too better though. No. 65 IBUs, definitely a departure from what we had been drinking previously. Compared to those beers, it's like bone dry. This is a classic example of the first old school American bread hops, these things that we call sea hops. The two most common descriptors you get are citrus, or more specifically, like grapefruit and then pine. So Chinook, very famously piney spruce, which I think you get a Christmas vibe with that, and then Cascade and Centennial, very citrusy, grapefruit, orange. To me, this is like marmalade. Yeah. Bittersweet orange. Exactly. It's that Seville orange rind. You totally nailed it. I think it's delicious. There's enough malt here to balance that more aggressive hopping. It's fantastic. It's a classic available in 12-packs even. You can take a 12-pack home for 1999 or 6-packs for 1199. Might we point out that this is a West Coast IPA in the old regime? Yes. So, terms get thrown around in beer. It can be extremely confusing for a consumer these days. You know, you say you like IPA or you're looking for an IPA. Even West Coast now, there's people making things that they're calling West Coast. That are like brewed with lager yeast and golden color. So, it can be a bit of a head scratcher. Like that doesn't seem like a West Coast IPA, but everything keeps evolving. But this was first released in 1981 and stayed true to that original style ever since. Very cool beer. I was going to say your definition of West Coast IPA depends on how long your memory is. Yeah. If you're new to beer, like it would be nothing like this. It would be a very lean, almost no malt character and newer hop varieties. This has got malt backbone, old school hops. I'm sure this is true for you, Roger. Well, maybe not as long, but I've been drinking this beer every year, probably since the late 80s. Yeah. I kind of came into this beer later because I was such a curmudgeonly old soul that I liked all the Belgian and more malt-centric stuff. But I definitely grew to like this. A family friend was, their family was all about this beer, and I kind of grew to like it because of their love for it. So it's cool. And it's nice to see a beer that's still around, that this will be, like I said, this has been brewed since 1981. So over 40 years. This is the first year, unfortunately, with no Anchor Christmas Ale, which was the first American Christmas beer and kind of what started that tradition for a lot of people. So kudos to Sierra Nevada for keeping it alive. Hopefully the good people at Chobani will bring Anchor back and we'll be drinking Anchor Christmas Ale next year. But we'll be drinking a lemon yogurt flavored anchor. TBD on that. Kurt would love that. All right, it is stout season. Like I said, Black Friday is always kind of the official kickoff with all the barrel-age beers coming out, but stouts are great in the wintertime. They're, I feel like, just something a lot of people gravitate to. This is what they're calling an Imperial Blonde Stout. Kind of an interesting riff. You know, that's what good American craft breweries do. They kind of push the envelope and challenge what people think, piss off old school beer people and go, this is not a stout. Blonde or white stouts are kind of a rarity, but pretty interesting as well. And they're definitely capitalizing off of the fact that a lot, they usually have oats in them, which some stouts do for that creaminess. And then some stouts are made with milk sugar. So your milk stouts. So a lot of times they'll incorporate that as well. Anyway, this is Omegang, Everything Naughty. You know, I was listening to this pitch and it was all falling on deaf ears until you said Omegang. No, I'm fine. So the big question is going to be this white chocolate component. Oh, I'm out again. I'm so excited about this. The noses. You're wondering if the white chocolate is going to show up or if it's going to work. I could smell it as soon as you cracked it open. Yeah, I can. As a despiser of white chocolate. Really? Yeah, it's terrible. It's pointless. What I'm joking about is if you read the fine print on some of your beer cans or bottles, this would be almost impossible to brew with actual white chocolate. Fat is not the friend of beer. Right. So this has got natural flavors. Okay. But that can sometimes be good. There's definitely some white chocolate flavors in here, but not in a cloying bad way. It says the white chocolate hater. Yeah. I don't hate it. The best thing about white chocolate is the actual cocoa butter. Otherwise, it has nothing to do with chocolate, and that apparently has been eliminated. Well, I would guess that a lot of white chocolates have vanilla in them. Yeah. That's what I get from this. I mean, it has a nice vanilla. Then also, if I had to guess, maybe they're zhuzhing it up with a little bit of hazelnut-y flavor. This reminds me of walking down the coffee aisle at the grocery store. Yeah. You get that vague vanilla nut nose and smell. Maybe I've never had real good white chocolate. Maybe I've just had crap. Actually, I have some Swiss white chocolate at my house. I'll bring it in this week. Roger probably has a zhagnut laying around somewhere. Zhagnut. What the heck is a zhagnut? Zero bars. I'm a big fan of the zero bar. No, white chocolate, the other kinds of chocolate, it's hugely important where you get it from. Sure. Yeah. The cheap chips that you see, I think they're very artificial, but I'm not bonkers about white chocolate, but there's in the right uses. Sure. Macadamia nut pairing is classic. That is true. That is a good one. I do like a macadamia nut cookie with white chocolate chips in it. Yeah. This beer reminds me of a mix between Dragon's Milk White, if you remember that, or if you tried that, and the coffee beer out of Michigan, we were just talking about it. Fondress Breakfast Stout? No. Oh, odd side. Yeah. Yeah. Bean Flicker. Bean Flicker. It's a little bit reminiscent of that with more flavor. No, I definitely, I totally agree. Yeah. There's the blonde coffee ale element to this. Yeah. But this also worth mentioning. This is nine and a half, and it does not seem like that. I'm really down with your coffee. I'll comment, Roger, because there is a prominent nuttiness to the nose here. I don't know where that's coming from, but. Natural flavoring. Natural flavorings. All right. So, Omegang is famous. They're out of New York. They're famous for Belgian style beers, but they've been doing riffs and kind of crazy, more unconventional stuff like this. Our next beer is from another East Coast brewery that made a name for themselves, brewing classic Belgian styles, but is now experimenting with things other than that. This is Allagash from Maine with Love, which is normally a brewery only series of beers. I saw the way that these beers are packaged with these actual photos for the beer labels. They really caught my eye. The ideas that they let their brewers take chances and do experimentals for this lineup, to which I said, how come we don't get any of this? This sounds like the good stuff. Can you get us one of these? So, Allagash made good on it. Roger is out there advocating for you, Binny's Beer customer. We finally got one of these. This is the 38th beer in this series, and it is a bourbon barrel aged rye porter. So, not something you would see every day. It is 9% alcohol. It has a pretty awesome, a lot of different things go into the malt bill. We'll get to that in a second. Then it is aged in a mixture of Jim Beam and Buffalo Trace bourbon barrels. What would Ian Fleming say? Instead of from Russia with love, it's from Maine with love. I mean, isn't that- You have a license to spill, which I just did. All right. So, the malt bill here is two row. I thought you were starting an Irish song right there. Two row, row, row, row. Rye malt, rolled oats, rice holes, Simpson's brown malt, chocolate malt, Black Prince malt, and special bee malt. Simpson's, Jim. Simpson's a famous English malt purveyor. I think a very well- definitely like how a home brewer spare no expense. I want a little bit of this, little bit of that. Lots of different things going on in the malt bill here. It smells really good. It's like so vanilla-y. I don't know if that's from a barrel or- Yep. Big barrel character. I think that the Jim Beam barrels have like a nice vanilla character to them. Yeah. Just like pillowy soft. I was just going to say. I just swallowed my first sip and yeah, pillows. Agreed. Those are pillows? Nine percent off. I don't think that the artwork matches what I thought it was going to taste like. Really? Yeah. I think it's like fall. It's quintessential Maine. Yeah. It just feels like you're sitting on a lake and an Adirondack chair. But if I see that, I don't know. I didn't look at what this was and I saw it in the beer buzz, just the art and I was like, oh, it's some ale of some sort. I think it was. Pleasantly surprised. Maybe. I think the way that it works, like you think a thumbnail and maybe like a big stout isn't the first thing you think of. But for us, at least here in Chicago, that is like people always think of late November as somehow like winter. It's not even winter yet. Well, not to mention them down Easter's. Yeah. You might not think of a big stout when you look at that, and the label says it's a big stout, but as Chris said, it's very soft and pillowy. It doesn't drink like a big stout. Yeah. Well, it is a porter too, which is nice to, again, I think this is a very well-thought out beer. It wanted to be different, and it, instead of going the stout route, went more of a porter route, and it doesn't have as much roast. It's more caramel-centric, which I think does make it more of a maybe traditional fall. What you would think of is like that deep malt complexity that makes us think of things like Oktoberfest beer. And I do think there is wood character here, lactones in particular. But this is not, in my opinion, doesn't come off to me as very whisky-centric or over-wrought in that way. Everything is like very integrated. It's really soft. It's really easy to drink. Again, I don't know if it's me today, but the body doesn't seem too heavy for the alcohol or the style. I've just picked exceptional offerings. No, I totally agree. And I think people will... The vanilla thing was a great call out. And I think it's super cool that that's just from without adding vanilla. Yeah. And it's there. I mean, you can definitely taste it. All right, cool. Delightful. That is delightful. I'm going to say that is delightful. It's a good one to drink on a cold day. Great beer. Available at Binny's near you. Very limited drop on this. Again, it was a brewery only release. There still should be a few four-packs hiding. Snap them up before they're gone. Truly just like a one-off moment in time here. Four packs of 16-ounce cans, $23.99. I'm probably going to sit out in a chair in the cold with mittens on and drink this. If you see Roger at the stores on the holidays, thank him for bringing this one in. Yeah, absolutely. Thanks, Roger. For holding our feet to the fire over at Allagash. Chicago, appreciate Roger Adamson. I'm not even kidding here. He is your advocate. He is your beer advocate. Forget about that website. Yes, he really is. And your beer avocado also. Yes, he's the alligator pair of beer. Thanks, guys. Yeah, I do. I really, again, with some of these beers, it's sad to see him go and I really want to be able to bring back some of this stuff. So I'm always on the lookout for something new or an old favorite. Holy cow. Little nervous. You guys just made me nervous. I mean, this is a brewery I love, and their Christmas beer, their other Christmas beer is beloved. Famous. So what the heck's going on here, Roger? Flavor blasted. This is the first time I've tried this. Oh my god. In fairness, I know. The nose is insane. It smells like chocolate milk, like Nestle Quick chocolate milk. Yeah, it tastes like that too. You guys are going to hate me. Not just chocolate milk, it smells like you open that can. I don't know if they, I haven't had Nestle Quick in a million years. The silver thing? Yeah. Well, you pop the little. Oh no. No, I think it's more of a. Yeah, you don't pop it. They used to have this little thing that you put your little spoon in and pop it open. Yeah. And it smells exactly like quick powder. Exactly. Before you make milk. I love it. To me, one of my favorite pastimes is getting a little pick six or a pick four or whatever and just picking the randomest ones I can think of and then sitting with a couple of friends and trying them all and this is something that I'd be so excited about. It's dessert. It's perfect after dinner fest activity. It's bringing back memories of my soda jerk days over at the Overwise Dairy. It reminds me of making a malted milk. Yeah. But what is the cookie it's supposed to be emulating? Well, that's what I'm wondering. So what would you guess? Like some kind of milk chocolate. Like it's definitely chocolatey. It tastes like a fudge stripe. Yeah, fudge stripe. I could see that. I personally detect just like an undercurrent of mint. Weird. I could see that. Yeah. I mean, ever since you all said, you know, quick or Swiss Miss, like it's that powdered milk. Ovaltine. Basco. Be sure to drink your Ovaltine. A crummy commercial. This is supposed to be peanut butter blossoms. What? Get out of here. Is that peanut butter at all? Blossom? I don't know what that is. Is that a Girl Scout cookie? What is a peanut butter blossom? I think it's the things where you take the Hershey's Kiss. Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah. I love those. I get it. Yeah. So they went probably a little too heavy on the chocolate and less on the peanut butter. I mean, the peanut butter can be really rough in a beer sometimes. I understand why they'd want to maybe go a little subtle on it, but I feel like there's nothing there. If you actually go back to it after hearing that, I think it's a little easier to get up to. Yeah, there's definitely peanut butter. I can smell some peanut butter. Yeah. But that chocolate is just. Well, again, you're dealing with, to their credit, they're very transparent about this. It's just flavoring. It's peanut butter flavoring, chocolate flavoring. I mean, it totally brings back memories of that. It's not cloying, yet again, another drinkable beer. This is not a beer that it's going to be tough to, unless you don't like chocolate, it's not a beer that's going to be hard to drink. But all the cookies on the label are like sugar cookies. Yeah. I wonder if that's just their, because you said that this is something they do every year. It's a rotating. Yeah. That's just their brand is. The label is their branding, which was especially bizarre last year because it was that obscure Stroopwafel or something, and then they have these sugar cookies with sprinkles on them. I'm like. Yeah. Peanut butter blossom cookies are excellent. They should have done that same style of artwork, but with the peanut butter blossom. Yeah. That would have. I've eaten those cookies a million times. I've never made them, but how come I didn't know they were called a peanut butter blossom? I didn't know that either. Ridiculous right now. Do you all remember the Easter candy? Reese's has the peanut butter on lockdown, but there's that company Palmer that makes a lot of the bunnies and stuff. Sure. Their version of a bunny with their peanut butter in the inside, that's exactly what this tastes like to me. Nice. So like off-brand Reese's. Yes, exactly. Very much off-brand. I mean, the more that I smell it, the more peanut butter is coming out. Yeah, definitely. You get that in the back of your palate. Let it swallow it, try it, and then it lingers there for a minute. All right. I found the obscure, goofy European cookie we're trying to think of before. What was this last year? Speculoos. Oh, Speculoos. I'm pretty sure that's come up before on the show. All right. So that Great Lakes Cookie Exchange is available at a Binny's Near You, six packs are $11.99, or Chris mentioned their beloved Christmas Ale. You can get a mixed 12 pack that is half Cookie Exchange, half Christmas Ale. It's a good deal. It saves you a little money on the bet too. Well, something for everyone in that one. Hey-o! Hey-o! Nitro! Yes! Finally! Nitro! People might need a rinse on before this, but you could use some beer, or if you have water, I don't know. That last one was powerful. This smells incredible. All right, our final beer here. Lexi, you suggested this one. I'm very glad you did, because I didn't even taste it yet, but I smelled it, and it smells incredible. It's supposed to be inspired by peppermint bark, and that's exactly what it smells like. Yeah. Peppermint bark is like chocolate and peppermint, right? Yeah. Okay. It smells like Girl Scout. Often white chocolate. Often white chocolate. Yeah. Jim, I don't know. This smells to me like Girl Scout thin mints. Exactly like thin mints. You put a tray of melted chocolate, and then you smash candy canes, and then put that on there, and then let it dry and get hard. So this is, again, another one where it's like you need to survive the holidays. So this is 9.5. Man. It does not taste like it at all. Once again. It does not taste like it. A lot of dangerous bears in this episode. Yeah. This is another one where they're really restrained on sweetness. You know, you look at something that says candy cane, you think it's going to be sweet. They're restrained on everything in this. There's like, I mean, the nose is very, very strong, but the flavor is, I was expecting a lot more. It's subtle. Yeah. It's surprisingly subtle. It's a pretty interesting malt bill. Two row C40, C120, Munich rolled oats, flake barley and chocolate. So I mean, that was pretty well put together. I mean, this is from the stout people. I mean, left-hand stouts. They know nitro and this is nitro. And this is a milk stout. It's like an imperial milk stout. So if you are lactose intolerant, this does have lactose sugar in it. But again, I think a lot of people sometimes incorrectly assume that lactose is employed just for sweetness, even more so it's for mouth, for body. For sure. Because as you said, this isn't particularly, it's not overly sweet at all. But it's also not overly candy caned. It's not overly pepperminted either. No. Because I've had pepper, I mean, you've had peppermint beers and beer with peppermint or mint, and it's just way too much. Everything is very much in check. The lactose comes across, you can taste the lactose, it tastes milky or creamy. Yeah. But yeah, it's not that sweet. This reminds me of those grasshopper cookies. Yeah, I mean, those are basically thin mints. Yeah, the year-round thin mint options. I like that it says on the side, good to go from the can like a pro in the glass. Yeah. Nice. That is the way. I think that's what all of their nitro beers say. That's cute. Worth mentioning that, so left hand, the nitro technology to have a little widget in the can was proprietary for decades. It was like Guinness had it on lockdown and then breweries if they wanted to use it, I think they had to license it. But it definitely wasn't something that the craft industry ever did. Left hand to their credit researched it for a decade before they actually brought it to market. They don't have a widget. It is. It's fixed widget. They do have a widget. Yeah. There's a widget on the bottom of this. It's just not free floating. It's fastened to the bottom. For those of you who aren't familiar, they put liquid nitrogen into a little plastic canister in the bottom of the can. That's why if you see the volume in this, you're like, why is this a really weird volume? It's because that widget takes up space. It's a 16-ounce can, but you get 13.6 ounces, I think. That's because of that volume that just takes up. But once you crack the can, the pressure changes, that bursts open and it releases the liquid nitrogen, which then nitrogenates the beer. So you get this pillowy soft, the beautiful cascade of tiny bubbles. Totally different experience. Which, you know, they say like a pro in a glass. I mean, poor in a glass. Yes, poor in a glass. Straight down the middle. Unless you're west sailing. And even then, put it in maybe a plastic cup. All right. So that's our lineup. This was a look at some old favorites, but also some new options, some stuff that we haven't seen in years. So many good winter and holiday options out there. So we hope that you enjoyed this episode of Barrel to Bottle. If you did, please leave us a review on Apple. It's just on iTunes, right? Apple Podcast. Apple Podcast. Or Spotify. Do they have reviews? I think so. All right, Spotify. Whatever. Wherever you hear it, they let you write a review, do it. More importantly, spread the good word about our podcast with your friends and family, people that you know enjoy podcasts when you're out with sailing this year. Spread the word, Barrel to Bottle. Longhand informative. Until next release, I am Roger. I'm Jim. I'm Chris. And I'm Lexi. Keep pacing. Ho, ho, ho, ho, ho, ho, ho, ho, ho. That checks out. That's what I was expecting.