More Holiday Beers

One thing some of us love about this time of year would be Holiday beers. While we don't REALLY need an excuse for the release of more interesting beer, we are thankful that our brewing friends were thoughtful enough to create many delights in many varieties: some hoppy, some spicy, some malty.... hmmm, maybe if I was Santa I would be inspired with those reindeer names!

Now is the time to get the growlers filled or the 6-pack bought for the Holidays~

INDIANA HOLIDAY brews:
It seems Flat12 might get the award for the MOST Holiday beers with their 12 beers of Christmas. They finish this week (released today, Dec. 22) with a delightful.... and DO NOT judge from the sound of this because I was very pleasantly surprised... Barrel Jack Bourbon Barrel Aged Pumpkin (yes, pumpkin) beer. I have had dozens of bourbon barrel aged beers and I've had many pumpkin beers but I was not sure of the combination. Holy Holidays, BeerMan, this is a combination of the spice of a pumpkin pie, the vanilla notes of a bourbon, and a nice little kick as if I just finished a good Holiday meal and grabbed a small snifter of bourbon.

In addition, Flat12 gives us Grampa's Bourbon Barrel Glazed Ham Porter. Interesting spice and little twang in a deep dark beer. Almost a Belgian Strong Ale!

Yet another, a Fruitcake IPA. Oh, yeah. Citrus and spice from hops, sweet backdrop of malt and fruitcake. All this makes us look forward to teh Winter Cycle big IPA coming up.

SunKing delights with 3 Holiday offerings currently on tap -- the newest this week being the Malus Pi apple and cinnamon ale. We expected this to be sour since it has crab apples but this is a slightly sweet apple pie of a beer! A wheat beer with extra spice from the Belgian yeast. Malus is Greek for apple.

SunKing had a beer last year whose name irked another out-of-state brewer so this year the amber colored 70 IBU Winter beer is called.... Sink the Clipper
a big 8% ESB based wonder.

The third Holiday style beer at SunKing is the CowBell Milk sugar infused Porter with a solid body, sweetness of a porter, and a hint of Lactose. And if you did not yet get the SunKing 'takes me back to Elvis days' Vienna Lager called Million Dollar Brewski just get over to the Ratskeller for that one.

RAM still has their great Dunkel Weizen called S'No Angel and if you love deep dark slightly sweeter with hint of roast beer this one is delicious.

Rock Bottom gives us the Old Curmudgeon Winter Wheat spiced beer (hint of clove) with lots of citrus hop notes.

Triton still has the wonderful GingerBread Brown, nice ginger flavor in a solid brown and they just introduced the MuleTide, raspberry stout aged in a bourbon barrel. The bourbon notes are on the nose and in the background making this a nice fruity Holiday Beer

Broad Ripple Brew Pub offers Wee Alec a Wee Heavy malty beer with lots of dark fruit

Brugge likely does not think of this as a Holiday beer, but give me a dark beer this time of year and I try to make it fit. The Cerne Pivo is listed as a dark Czech leger. It does have the IBU bitterness but is also large, complex and tasty at 5%

Upland provides their Winter Warmer barley wine and this year I get a raspberry overtone in a deep dark beer that has both British and American malt and Hallertauer hops giving it a fruitiness in a big beer.

New Albanian has the 2011 Naughty Claus with cinnamon, nutmeg, ginger root, with multiple malts, honey and Belgian yeast for a very, very spicy Holiday beer. If you like spice like I do, get your hands on this.

Three Floyds offers the Christmas Porter with hops, Alpha Klaus English chocolate malt, Mexican sugar, and American hops. If you prefer a hoppy holiday this could be the one.

Lenne's, Bloomington is scheduled to tap a bourbon barrel surprise today for the lunch crowd.


WOW... so many Hoosier Holiday Beers!!

Our neighbors to the North bottle up Bell's Christmas Ale as nice malty beer with no added spice but their is a 'spice' from hops. Made with Michigan barley as well as both Michigan and Pacific Northwest hops this one gives us a Scottish Ale at nearly 6% that stands apart from some traditional fare

OTHER Holiday Beers!

Alley Bar, Bloomington continues to tap small (1/6 barrel) kegs on Friday at 4:00 with this week's offering Boulevard Brewings Nutcracker! We plan to get some!

Thirsty Dog in Akron has their annual 12 dogs of Christmas with traditional spices and at 8% with some hop notes

We can't go without at least mentioning Clipper City Winter Storm which caused a local storm. This one (on tap at Yogi's, Bloomington) is a very dark "ESB" that is complex in sweetness and spice

Widmer's Brrrr was on tap last week (and may still be) at Alley Bar, Bloomington. This deserves a mention because of the solid citrus hop character.




So many, So good... Grab your growler or get a six pack..... snug up and sip!