Contee: 3.5 – Along with Schwazbier if we asked brewers to make more of a certain style – it would be Kolsch. We say this to frame the context of this being a poor outing as a great tragedy for us. There is an orange citrus flavor here that overrides so much of the beer you can barely even tell the style, just orange + ale is all you get.
Price Average: $13 for 4-pack
Website: https://www.definitivebrewing.com/
Photo Booth: 5.5 – Grapefruit certainly is the main component here, it pervades the entire beer turning it almost into something more juice than beer. It’s not particularly tart either so that juicy aspect really is why you get this, even if it isn’t a fantastic beer.
Price Average: $3
Website: https://www.artifactbeer.com/
We promised that we’d have something even better than the fantastic Generous Gin, and we do. It’s a strange one, which we guess is the niche high-quality gin is fine falling into. It is, however, a wonderful gin that is unlikely to be akin to something you’ve had before in your G&T.
The Mad Elf: 5.5 – Has a bit of an ESB style beer to it, but it’s overall a very unique Christmas style ale – leaning heavily on the cinnamon and clove and other spices. The bit of cherry to this is what makes it a little more than just a pure xmas spice beer – though it still suffers from the fate of really only wanting like 1 of these a season.
Price Average: $18 for 6-pack
Website: https://troegs.com/
Earlier in the year we had tried the other side of this coin in the Song of Ice whiskey, and it was (thanks to a rusty nail) well received, and we wanted to make sure to grab a bottle of this to tell people what to buy before this is likely gone. However not everyone can win the game of thrones, and this is by far the weaker of the two.
Straight To The Noggin: 5.0 – Make no mistake, you know why you bought this beer – or why you would. It’s because the idea of an eggnog beer is quirky enough to try – regardless of what we’ll say. What we say is that it very much feels like a combo of nutmeg, eggnog, and a white ale. What we’ll also say is that while that combo is true – it just feels wrong. Not in the ‘oh chocolate is so bad for I’ll have another piece though’ more in the ‘your brewers were so busy thinking if they could, they didn’t stop to think if they should’ kinda way.
Price Average: $9 for 4-pack
Website: https://shipyard.com/
As we head into Week 2 of Gincember? (working title) we have some confusion – so to simplify this. New Amsterdam has decided to label both of their gins under the moniker ‘Stratusphere’ with a version that is called ‘The Original’ and this ‘London Dry Gin’. A London Dry typically involves a slightly different process, and a higher proof. There is something slightly odd afoot though because at first blush this seems more like the old version (with a bit of kick)
DDH Light Speed: 6.0 – That bit of citrus really helps a lot here because this is one hoppy bastard. It thankfully leaves with an aftertaste of said orange citrus in your nostrils, but ther overall bitterness from the double dry hopping is a step too far from it being great.
Price Average: $14 for 4-pack cans
Website: https://www.tgbrews.com/
