Day 360, Dec 26 / Boatswain H.L.V. Ale

Day 360 / December 26, 2011

Boatswain H.L.V. Ale

Rhinelander Brewing Co. / Monroe, WI

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VG

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We’re in the home stretch!

Holy crap, I’m almost done!  Counting today, just six more days to go.  Thank God (and Tim Tebow) that I didn’t get sick or otherwise indisposed this year, and had to miss a day of beer.  I’m disappointed in myself that I didn’t live up to the second half of this blog… but in case you hadn’t noticed, check the title of the blog.  I changed it about 40 days ago and nobody noticed!

I want to thank my friends and readers that have supported this indulgence and occasionally donated beers to the cause.  Most of them were good to great.  Cass Beer from Korea… not so much.

For the final days, I will sample a few beers that I received as Christmas gifts, and then there’s a couple surprises and/or special beers to wrap it up.

My friends Jim and Chris brought me a beer on Christmas Eve Eve that I’d never seen before.  The Boatswain H.L.V. (Heavy Lift Vesel) Ale is made by the Rhinelander Brewing Company of Monroe, Wisconsin and appears to be only sold at Trader Joe’s stores.  Rhinelander is a recently resurrected brand, currently contract brewed by Minhas Craft Brewery (the former Joseph Huber Brewery) in Monroe, WI.

The Boatswain series (I'll give a free beer to the first person with the proper phonetic pronunciation of Boatswain) are specialty beers made in small batches.  The H.L.V. Ale is a dark brown ale, brewed with sweet, roasted malts.  It definitely benefits from a warm-up outside the fridge for 15-20 minutes – the flavors come through and the alcohol bite dies down.  Certainly a good sipping beer!