Day 356, Dec 22 / Santa’s Swallie

Day 356 / December 22, 2011

Santa’s Swallie

The Inveralmond Brewery / Perth, Scotland

A

NG

P

G

VG

O

Merry Fuggles to You!

Another Christmas beer from the UK, this one from Scotland.  And this one is a Scottish Ale, style.  Surprising, huh?

A cloudy, amber ale, brewed with Fuggles hops with quite a bit of spiciness and sweetness, and a low alcohol content for a Christmas seasonal.

I drank this while I was making a batch of mincemeat tarts.  Weigh in, readers - do you like mincemeat?  Have you had mincemeat?

And “swallie” means “swallow” in Scottish dialect.

Day 351, Dec 17 / Pickled Santa

Day 351 / December 17, 2011

Pickled Santa

Ridgeway Brewing, South Stoke, England

A

NG

P

G

VG

O

Too much going on for me….

With this beer, that is.  This is an overly sweet English Ale, with a bunch of spice.  I didn’t much care for it, but it was my sixth and last beer of the night.  I did have a good Bell’s Brown Ale at a new restaurant in Arlington, VA called William Jefferey’s Tavern.

I’ll let brewmaster Peter Scholey tell you about Pickled Santa:

"Pickled Santa is a copper coloured ale. The base beer is simple but very traditionally English, being brewed with 100% Maris Otter variety malted barley and 100% whole Golding hops. A hint of the unusual side of Pickled Santa lies in the name because it is brewed with a selection of whole spices.

Note ....the flavour comes from fresh WHOLE SPICES. Not flavour extracts, not essential oils, and not ready ground supermarket blends. Whole spices weighed and blended, bagged up, then carefully but repeatedly run over with a two ton fork lift truck driven just for good measure by 260 pound Brian to crush them ready for addition to the brew.

The result is intriguing. It's beer but somehow slightly different. Pickled Santa is fuller, softer and rounder than you would expect a 6% ale to be. That's not altogether surprising because in Victorian England before the days of analytical chemistry we unscrupulous brewers used to regularly add Coriander to beer for it's power to make the beer seem stronger and "bigger" than it would otherwise be. But you don't really taste or smell the Coriander.

You do smell lovely hints of fresh creamy Nutmeg, (that's whole spices for you), and peppery pungent Allspice but they are not dominant because we think that at the end of the day Pickled Santa should still taste mostly of beer...and it does."

Day 342, Dec 8 / Molson Canadian

Day 342 / December 8, 2011

Molson Canadian

MolsonCoors / Toronto, ON Canada

A

NG

P

G

VG

O

A Canadian Beer at an Irish/Australian Bar!

Because I already had everything else they had on tap.  Not on the same night.

Day 341, Dec 7 / Tiger Lager

Day 341 / December 7, 2011

Tiger Lager

Asia Pacific Breweries Ltd. / 11 Asian Counties

A

NG

P

G

VG

O

Speed Blogging!

Yes, I know, I’m behind!  Lots of other stuff going on, but I’m still keeping up with this quest!  Do you think I’m gonna blow it now?

So right now, I’m gonna speed blog the beers of the last few days.  Not a whole lot of comments, just a pictrure and a rating.  Try to keep up!

Day 338, Dec 4 / Newcastle Winter IPA

Day 338 / December 4, 2011

Newcastle Winter IPA

Caledonian Brewing Co. Ltd.  /  Edinburgh, UK

A

NG

P

G

VG

O

Finally!  A halfway decent beer!

After a couple Genesee’s and a Michelob Ultra, I was looking forward to a better beer. I’d say one of my own choosing, but all of these beers have been on my own choosing – no one’s forcing me, right?

I picked up the Newcastle Winter IPA a couple weeks ago at Wegman’s.  Newcastle’s been going crazy with the seasonal this year, with their Summer Ale, Werewolf and now a Winter IPA.

I gotta say, it doesn’t really taste much like an IPA.  It doesn’t have the hoppiness of an IPA, and it’s clearer than most IPA’s.  It actually tastes like a mellow English IPA, with actually an oaky hint of bourbon barrell.  Not bad, but don’t go expecting a traditional IPA taste.