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Our cellar: 2016 goes out with a bang

We raid our cellar to toast auld lang syne.
Beer Our Cellar
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Samuel Adams Merry Maker 2013
Spiced Stout
Three years have morphed gingerbread flavors into spiced banana-bread richness; mouthfeel remains full, creamy and vibrant.

Forgotten Boardwalk Mashkeh the Magnificent 2015
Barrel-aged Belgian Golden Strong Ale
Intensified honey tones give this apple brandy barrel-aged ale brewed with potatoes (think latkes with applesauce) lovely depth.

Fremont Abominable 2014
Barrel-Aged Strong Ale
A couple of Christmases in the cellar have summoned rich notes of melting chocolate and Luxardo cherry-topped cheesecake with graham cracker crust.

Dubuisson Scaldis Noël 2008
Belgian Dark Strong Ale
Pleasant warmth persists after eight years, drying out Cointreau-like citrus, brioche and ginger-anise spice.

Lost Abbey Gift of the Magi 2008
Spiced Bière de Garde
The once-golden beer may have lost its luster, but its warm star anise and tree barklike spicing is even brighter.

Deschutes Jubel 2010
American Strong Ale
A strong ale’s deep malts have darkened into burnt toast edges, cloaking beautiful dark cherry and bread pudding.

Anchor Christmas Ale 2013
Winter Warmer
Three years is the sweet spot; perfectly dry and spiced, it’s like biting into a gingersnap cookie sprinkled with pine needles.

One Comment

  • Skip DuVall says:
    December 29, 2016 at 7:30 pm

    Hey, I thought that I loved beer from my cellar but reading these reviews makes me feel like a complete rookie. Luxardo cherry-topped cheesecake with graham cracker crust??? I’d love to hear a description of a really great cheesecake. Cheers!

    Reply

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Not just for salsa verde anymore, tomatillos lend a subtle herbaceous flavor and mild, fruity tartness to accent the lactic twang an @odellbrewing's Green Coyote Berliner weisse. Let the beer warm up to really bring out the tomatillo, then pair with tortilla chips, obviously.
With infusions of pasilla, guajillo and morita peppers, orange zest, vanilla beans, cinnamon and cacao nibs, @middlebrowbeer's Milk-Eyed Mender is already plenty for the palate to handle. But soon the brewery will also release a version aged two years in @kovaldistillery oat whiskey barrels that tucks the pepper and spices under flavors of fruit leather, *actual* leather, chicory and toasted coconut. Hold onto your butts.
Sushi fans, we have some bad news: Almost all of the so-called “wasabi” you’ve ever eaten is most likely just mustard or horseradish with green food coloring. Want to know what the real stuff tastes like? Grab a can of @sweetwaterbrew and @telluridebrewing’s Dank Tank collab, Torikumi; the ale’s brewed with wasabi and subtly weaves its herbal, grassy spiciness among flavors of overripe orange and Wonderbread crust.
Combine corn, lime and chili peppers and you can make one of two things: elote, the classic Mexican street food, or Copacetic, the collaboration between @middlebrowbeer and @manbque that first emerged in 2014 and just made its triumphant return in cans. We prefer the latter for its notes of agave nectar, fuji apple and creamed corn with just a hint of smoky grilled serrano, but we’re obviously a little biased.
The other national parks felt left out when @rogueales honored Crater Lake on cans of Pendleton Pale Ale, last year's collab with @pendletonwm. So for this year's release, the brewery added Mount Rainier, Yosemite and the Grand Canyon to the lineup. Which park would you pick?
If there's a better light lager for river floats than @burialbeer's Innertube, we haven't found it yet. Flaked corn infuses the beer with a familiar adjunct flavor while German Saphir hops lend kisses of tangerine and raspberry, and the 3.5% ABV means you could drink some all day. Swap it out for your standard macro sixer and get to floatin'.
Add this word to your delicious beverages vocabulary: melomel. It's mead made with fruit, and the six here--infused with cherries, apricots, mangos and more--are just a small sample of the rainbow of flavors out there. Want to know more? Check out the link in our profile.
We have to admit, this is the first time a brewery has shipped us beer inside an old military rations box. But it was an appropriate choice: @warhorsebrewing's BARIS (it stands for Big Ass Russian Imperial Stout) is as filling as bourbon-aged stouts get. Aged in barrels for a year and released for the brewery's first anniversary, the beer slathers chocolate and caramel sauce atop raisin bread, then chases it all with a shot of earthy espresso. At 14% ABV, alcohol burn should hit you like a claymore, but both the whiskey flavor and its boozy heat are surprisingly mild.

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