I'm up to 27 Christmas beers reviewed total now, are there more I'm still missing?! Let me know- and the best way to reach me is in my Discord server, which you can access at the $5 level on my Patreon bit.ly/H2DPatreon See you in there! Don't forget to check out Curiada - bit.ly/notbeerbutjustasgood - for spirits you might not be able to find in your local liquor store. Check out the How to Drink Collection for bottles you see on the show. Curiada: bit.ly/notbeerbutjustasgood Moonwalking with Einstein: amzn.to/3taBp3i Twitch: bit.ly/2VsOi3d H2D2: bit.ly/YTH2D2 twitter: bit.ly/H2DTwit instagram: bit.ly/H2dIG Blog: bit.ly/H2DBlog Patreon: bit.ly/H2DPatreon Gear: amzn.to/2LeQCbW I Drank Every Christmas Beer: ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-fP6shfbTGIA.htmlsi=jQqVfBbwow00gur3 Egg Nog Review and Taste Test: ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-KyG93WoVZFY.htmlsi=rjk6k-7kevZLIj6u Christmas Cocktails from Hell: ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-Rpp1KTmZyoI.htmlsi=mxZVT0kTbOeA8Yow
You are missing one of the Belgian Big 3 Christmas Beers: Chouffe N'ice. St Bernardus, Delerium and Chouffe ... one more to add a little more Merry to your Christmas.
I feel obliged to mention that Abita, being a Louisiana beer, is for Christmas down here on the Gulf Coast -- relatively warm and damp. The brighter, tarter, more bitter beers tend to drink better on a December evening where it's 70 degrees and 93% humidity, as it is today. It doesn't do what a Christmas beer does up north, and that's likely by design. Regionalism in brewing is interesting and says a lot about where beers and ciders come from, and how that plays out with national distribution changes the beer's context.
Natty Daddy's are among the cheapest gas station beers, but OMG, let them get up to room temp and if you like those banana flavors they will blow your mind.
Sam Smith's is an odd one over here in the UK. Their beers are typically only ever found in their own Sam Smith's pubs, of which there aren't that many around, but once you're in a Sam Smith's pub, everything available is Smith's branded, including for example, the sodas/mixers. I didn't even know they existed until stumbling across one of their establishments in a London backstreet in my twenties, then learned they're from Tadcaster, a town famous for two bigger breweries that produce much more well known brands. So yeah, then discovering that every American I've met since then grew up knowing the brand is a little surprising.
@@howtodrink The "weird" aspect of the guy who owns it is that he forbids people using phones (to speak on) in the pubs, and will legit throw people out for swearing out loud. Eccentric fellow. No music either. Cheapest beer you'll find in central London however.
Barleywines are incredible, english-style tend to be more approachable fresh/young, the american style really wants to be aged. They are so much of absolutely everything and nothing at all like any other type of beer out there, definitely a "must try" at some point imo and one of my all-time favorites.
2 comments: One, Sweet Baby Jesus is delightful and I think in certain liquor stores I'm able to find it year round. Second, if you do another one of these, please do one of Old Fezziwig or the Oaked Vanilla Porter from Sam Adams. I mourn the loss of their Chocolate Bock, though.
Can confirm, Old Fezziwig is tasty. And available in 6 packs this year. (Apparently this is the first year it's available by itself and not just in variety packs.)
When it comes to developing tasting as a skill, the biggest thing is realizing that tasting is simply just recalling things you've had in the past. And the best way to get better at it is to look to try things new to you... the bottom line being, the more things you've tasted, the bigger your tasting 'lexicon' becomes
I loved the talk about using music to pick apart flavor. As someone who has always been musically oriented, this was a perfect description of how I use the tools I have to learn new things.
Fun thing about Christmas beer in Denmark, we have almost a "holiday" around it. The biggest brand of beer in Denmark, Tuborg, releases their Christmas beer on a specific day every year since the 80's. We call it "J-day" and refers to it as the day "the snow falls". Everyone goes out on bars or meet up with friends to get a Tuborg Christmas beer, making it one of the biggest "go out and drink" days of the year. It is really just a marketing stunt by Tuborg, but at this point is has become something akin to New Year's Eve where people use it as a good excuse to meet up and drink.
that bit on listening to music is so interesting because, as a musician (who also loves tasting things; tea in my case) that's how I've always tried to relate the process to people, "it's like focusing on different instruments in a song, and the different tastes are like different pitches and timbres of instruments and whatnot", but I never made the connection of actually training taste sensitivity (in the way of being able to peel apart tasting notes) by active listening (the term for that sort of focused, specific listening). I'm gonna have to try that out with intention now!
You know it’s going to be good when Greg is lit at the beginning of the episode. Visions of sugarplums were dancing in his head by the end. I can’t wait for part three!
If you can get your hands on it, try Odell Brewing Isolation Ale. It's not Christmas themed per say, but it is their seasonal winter ale. It always warms me up during the holidays.
I wanted to bring up the same suggestion i made last time. Next year you should do either a pumpkin beer round up/review or do the same for oktoberfest beers.
Oh, so you mean the artificial banana that is supposed to be like the cultivar that mostly died off from disease that was the actual popular type of banana flavor with the modern banana being a disease resistant fruit. If you look at American recipes using bananas from before the 1960s, they're using a banana called the Gros Michel and the recipe can't taste like intended with the banana you find in the store unless they carry Bluefield.
Mad Elf is my favorite holiday beer. I lived near Tröegs for several years, and I visited the brewery often. Some of my favorite beers, and they had fantastic food as well.
St. Bernardus is a great company. The founder basically learned techniques and recipes from the Trappist monks, and then started his own brewery to fill what used to be a very underserved market. Most Trappist monasteries would only sell enough ale to stay afloat, and the rest was for themselves. These guys continue selling and make profit. Their 12 is PHENOMENAL.
If it's available in your area, one of my favorites is Revolution Brewing's Fistmas. When I go visiting in the Chicago area I make it an annual quest to find someplace that has it on tap. Cans are good too, but nothing seems to beat draft!
The banana notes are a common feature of wheat beer and are big in Belgian beers. They are often carried with a clove flavour so turn up in Christmas beers too. I’ve forgotten the name but the German state-owned brewery does a great wheat beer with a warm banana undertone
Regardless of the outcome of this - Thank You! Thank You for being the first American YT content creator I've seen pronounce "Yorkshire" without butchering the "Shire" part
Fun fact! The runts/candy banana flavor is actually what bananas used to taste like. The gros michel was *the* banana until the 50s, when disease basically wiped it out (since banana trees are all clones of each other they’re supper susceptible to parasites and fungus). The banana now is the Cavendish, which has far less of the flavor compounds, which is why candy and fruit are so wildly different.
I want to try some Gros Michels sometime, but I've only seen onw place selling them, and I'm not paying $100 to get fruit shipped to me, especially when I know there is a 0% chance I will eat it all before it rots.
In Austria Christmas Beers are actually a rarity. Despite being a Nation with many Breweries. You have some breweries that do some more Seasonal stuff with Golser and their Kästensud (a more Chestnut-like tasting beer) and Stiegl and their Winter Variations. For us in Winter it is more the season of Glühwein (Variants of Hot Spiced Wines) and Punch. It is interesting to see Christmas Beers.
Great episode, and it makes me happy to know Greg reads these comments. So Greg, if you are reading this, I'd sure love to see an episode on the FUNKIEST rums. Just super funky town stuff like Savanna HERR, Rum Fire, or Dr Bird stuff!
I wanna try that Noel so bad. I'm with you, Belgian ale is fantastic. I'll always remember the first time the bartender I used to back served me a Chimay at the end of a long night years ago 🤤 Loved them ever since.
You know what people like at Christmas? Cider. Not mulled and spiked apple juice, but cider brewed like beer. Dry, bubbly, even with hops. Now it has become a microbrewery thing. Taste test. Best one I ever had was in 700 year old pub in England.
The thing with a Grand Cru tasting like cherry is that there is no cherry in it at all. It's the fermentation with brett and the choice of malts. A good Grand Cru is a fantastically complex sour ale that ages like a fine wine.
@@aenamabag As far as I'm aware there is no such hard requirement for what makes a Grand Cru beer. While Grand Crus may not typically include cherries, even wikipedia includes the mention of Landemans producing a kriek Grand Cru.
Here’s the thing about hops: there’s two ways to use hops and most beers seem to focus on one. You can add hops early / mid-way through the cooking process and boil off all of the volatile oil, leaving the resin, bittering oils; or you can add the hops at the end and extract bright, floral aromas and flavors. Most hop-forward beers seem to lean heavily on the former. I prefer beers that are more like the latter. But I find I really like the beers that put the grains forward.
Just when I though Greg couldn’t get more likeable he reveals he is not hopps kinda guy. My man!! And the moment that Delirium Noel showed up on screen I knew he was in for a treat!
I read an article awhile back about educating your palate. It said you can do it with anything, because it's about just learning to pay attention to your tastebuds. It suggested apples, tho. You can do this in groups, too. Buy several apples of different breeds. Blindly taste each one and write down your thoughts about what it tastes like. If you're in a group, compare notes, reveal which apple it was, and then retaste and see how your perception of it changed.
St. Arnold's out of Houston, TX! You had shiner cheer in the first round, but I haven't seen the St. Arnold's offering. A much more solid beer IMO. Also, side note since you've done a little mixing: St. Arnolds has a taproom at the brewery, and for a long time visitors were asking them mix the Christmas Ale with their year round IPA, Elissa. It got so popular that the brewery actually bottled and sold it for a few years along with their standard Christmas Ale. It was called Sailing Santa (Elissa is named after a ship) and it was really good.
You need to up your beer glass game Greg! Insanely the glass makes a difference. You need to do an episode where you try the same beers out of standard pints and out of the recomended glassware. Especially an IPA glass thoses things threw me for a loop.
3floyds always uses mostly citra hops in their beers, citra hops have a very strong citrus flavor, which is more refreshing instead of being just dry and bitter. Easily one of my favorite breweries.
4:30 Unibroue's La Fin du Monde! Their Blanche de Chambly is my personal favourite of all beers (Though Cheval Blanche is great too!) Great to see a beverage I recognize on here every once and a while as a Canadian viewer.
Seeing how much you enjoyed Long Trail I’d love to see you try an episode of all Vermont Craft Beers as they have some EXCELLENT breweries all over the state: examples include Long Trail, Alchemist, and my personal favorite Fiddlehead
A bar I knew would add a shot of espresso to a beer of your choice, and Sweet Baby Jesus was the easiest combo ever :D (I also believe it's a year-round beer.)
With the Sweet Baby Jesus, I wonder if you would taste the peanut butter more as it warmed up a bit? I've had a few like that where the peanuts don't show up until the chill leaves the glass. Or maybe it's just too light on the PB and it's overwhelmed by the chocolate, who knows.
The Mad Elf is evil. It is such a winter brew, sipping by a crackling fire as the snow is coming down. Next thing you know, you are getting wasted fast.
3 Floyd’s is in steel mill country in Northern Indiana. I’ve only been there once and the brewery pretty much exclusively play metal loud af and all the tvs were playing campy b movies. Fun experience
Wow that advice on tasting notes is cool! I happen to pick out instruments in songs already and I figured my taste was developing mostly from watching you 😂
The music analogy of following one instrument for developing tasting notes of alcohol is awesome. Now that I know this, I can see how Greg describes the tasting notes of his drinks.
Any Chocolate porter or stout (must be heavy on the chocolate) and a belgian style Cherry Kriek tastes exactly like black forest cake. One of my favourite beer combos. Up in the great white north I use Phillips longboat chocolate porter and Lindemans Cherry Kriek. 2 parts porter to 1 part kriek. I bet if you mixed the Troggs grand cru, and the Baby Jesus you'd get close. Is mixing beer with beer a cocktail? Not a bad episode idea actually.
Greg, thanks for comparing Mad Elf with Mad Elf Grand Cru. I've been drinking Mad Elf for years and love it. I decided to try the Grand Cru last year and HATED it. I glad it wasn't just me.
Southern Tier 2xmas & Mad Elf are my yearly favorites, but im sitting here enjoying my Sam Adams Old Fezziwig which finally came out in 6packs in my area this year....
Boozy raisiny Belgium ales are the best in winter. Delirium, stBarny and mad elf are my go too. If you like sours prairie makes a cranberry ginger sour called seasick crocodile that’s like cranberry ginger ale 🤤 total wine prob carries it.
If you want some foreign christmas beers next holiday season - let me know! I'm from Sweden and we have a pretty good domestic market + a bunch of belgian and czech beers available.
"You can trick your brain into doing things by making your brain do a different thing." - that's as good a definition of designing and playing games as I've ever heard.
Troggs does a lead up call Naked Elf. It is the belgium triple base to the Mad Elf (so not really a Christmas beer). Phenomenal beer, good luck finding it outside of Hershey PA area.
Went grocery shopping today and swung by the beer aisle real quick, was super excited to find some St. Bernardus Christmas Ale and immediately picked up two bottles. Very much looking forward to trying those.
Here in BC Canada (if they still make it) we have Granville Island Winter Ale - not hoppy, dark ale with strong vanilla notes. Very easy to drink too much. There was also "the Herminator" - a chocolate/coffee dark ale that is really easy to get drunk on.
RIP Anchor Christmas Ale. Would have loved to see that in the lineup as the official marker of the holiday season, and what I would bet hits the Xmas mark for Greg right on the money.
I agree with you on the founders, tried it and it was too much. But based on your other reviews I think you should try their fall ale “The Headless Gourdsman.” Much better and felt more winters to me anyways. Cheers
When I watched the first video, you were describing what you like in a Christmas Beer and I was thinking "That sounds exactly like Delirium Noel" I am not surprised you liked it.
If your beer friends are telling you every beer is bottled conditioned to the same carbonation level, you need new beer friends. You can just say you prefer it that way.
Even though I am assuming you'll hate it, since it's an IPA, the continued of omission of Sierra Nevada's Celebration IPA is an affront to craft beer history and my sensibilities as a Northern Californian Craft Beer Lover. I'm also being extremely dramatic, but I do think you ought to make sure to include it if you do a part 3. It's kind of shocking that your liquor store doesn't have it. Though I say that as I'm struggling to find a six pack instead of a 12 pack right now and I live like an hour from the Chico brewery.
10 месяцев назад
Once again, the person responsible for losing the tasting points is on point. I laughed out loud several times.
