Deschutes Super Jubel Imperial Winter Warmer

Super Jubel is based on Deschutes' seasonal Jubelale, a winter warmer, reviewed here: https://ill-gottenbooty.blogspot.com/2013/11/deschutes-jubelale-winter-ale.html
The Winter Warmer style is pretty nonspecific, in general it's any kind of ale, often a brown or red ale brewed with "winter" spices such as nutmeg and cinnamon. "Imperial", which derived from the Imperial Russian Stout style https://ill-gottenbooty.blogspot.com/2017/09/beer-styles-barleywines-and-imperials.html has come to mean either extra high hop content, (IBUs) or extra high alcohol content (ABV). 

Super Jubel comes across to me like a barleywine. It pours a dark brown with ruby highlights and a thin tan head. The ABV clocks in as 10.4% and imparts a boozy quality similar to red wine. There's a crazy amount of complexity, with favors falling all over themselves for dominance. Raisin and gingerbread lead the pack; oak and raspberry follow closely behind; there's also some orange peel and maraschino cherry, with figs and dates bringing up the rear along with cinnamon, nutmeg and allspice. 

 

Empyrean Match+Maker Chocolate Salted Caramel Stout

Ill-Gotten Booty has some opinions about adding flavorings to beers: sometimes it works, sometimes it doesn't, and sometimes it's just cleverness just for the sake of cleverness. Fruit flavors go well with sours, spices go well with winter ales, bourbon barrel aging adds to the quadruppel experience. And things like coffee, caramel and chocolate add to stouts and porters. 

The base beer of Match+Maker is a stout. Empyrean has always done good stout & porters, their year 'round oatmeal stout and vanilla porter are some of my favorite locals. Like most stouts, the hop bitterness is low, 16 IBUs, with a healthy 6% ABV. Not quite sessionable, but you can have more than one! Added to the brew are Guatemalan cacao nibs, with cacao, sea salt and caramel added to the finished beer. This l'il beauty would go well with brownies or vanilla bean ice cream, or even cheesecake.  8.5 on the IGB flavored stout scale. 
 

Zipline Berried Gold Lager Brewed With Currants

Many years ago Sam Adams produced a cranberry lambic, https://ill-gottenbooty.blogspot.com/2009/11/beer-review-sam-adams-cranberry-lambic.html which introduced me to lambics, https://ill-gottenbooty.blogspot.com/2011/11/below-is-last-years-review-of-lindemans.html but was also one of the few cranberry ales that I have been able to source for Thanksgiving. https://ill-gottenbooty.blogspot.com/2009/11/beer-review-sam-adams-longshot.html , https://ill-gottenbooty.blogspot.com/2014/09/leinenkugels-cranberry-ginger-shandy.html . Later I discovered Lindeman's lambics - they had a cassis, i.e. black currant lambic, that was my go-to drink at Thanksgiving, but this year I couldn't even find that. I have a raspberry lambic for later, but for now, I'm enjoying a lager, brewed with currants. 

Zipline is one of those local breweries that rarely steps wrong. Their lager is everything you could want in a lager. It's crisp, clear, but without a lot of extraneous flavor profiles like you'd get in an ale. With a good lager, you get the taste of BEER. The currant flavoring adds a lot. Lagers, being in some ways the blank canvas in which brewmasters can draw, are uniquely suited to accept fruit flavorings. And the currant is almost perfect as a Thanksgiving addition to a holiday beer. 

 

The Abyss 2019 Reserve Imperial Stout from Deschutes Brewery

I never tire of saying it and I hope you never tire of hearing it - but I love barrel-aged ales and I love stouts. The Abyss 2019 Reserve is an Imperial stout, aged in bourbon barrels. This beauty pours like tar, black and thick, although not much of a head. The 11.7% ABV gives it a nice boozy heat. The Deschutes website uses the word "quaff" in connection with this ale, which I believe means drinking, but with a lot more spilling. I would not recommend spilling any of this valuable diamond-in-the-bottle. You're going to detect plenty of competing flavors, licorice and molasses the most forward, but with fig, date and raisin in the mix. Look hard enough and you'll uncover coffee & chocolate, cherry & maple, and of course some bourbon shyly hiding behind the rest of the gang. I just ate a brownie minutes before pouring this, it would have made a great pairing with this lovely imperial stout. 
 

Empyrean Ales Winter Wisdom Hazelnut Brown Ale

Empyrean Ales was the pioneer craft brewer in Nebraska and I owe much to my craft beer education to Jim and Rich and my many first Mondays at the monthly Lazlo's Beer Tour. Sadly I have been neglecting Empyrean lately - there are just so many craft and micro breweries out there, including a growing number in Nebraska that it's difficult to keep up. 

One of the trends in craft brewing over the last few years has been a race to see who can come up with the craziest, most unusual beers. Not just unusual styles, but unusual flavorings. I'm not against added flavorings to traditional styles, or even new hybrid styles, but sometimes we forget that underneath it all it beer, and the platform that all the extras are built upon must be solid. 

Winter Wisdom is a winter seasonal. There winter seasonal has been called "Winter Tilt", then got a cease and desist order from the makers of a drink called "Tilt" and changed it to "Winter Axis". This is not the same as those previous winter warmers, although in that winter tradition. It's a brown ale. Brown ales are the workhorses of the ale world. They're not fancy, and they don't put on airs. Heavier than a pale ale or an amber, lighter than a porter, they are solid and don't need much embellishment. There's some hazelnut flavoring added, but it's subtle, not overwhelming. Hints of caramel and teeny, tiny shades of brown sugar and dark fruit, but so underwhelming that you might miss it. Looking for a no-nonsense beer that nonetheless is a champ, get yourself a few of these. 
 

Lagunitas 'Woodshop Series' Sonomica

Sonomica from Lagunitas Brewery, is a sour farmhouse ale, aged in Sonoma Red Wine barrels. I thought I was done with the sours, but this guy is aged in red wine barrels! I had to try it! A farmhouse ale, also called a saison, is very similar to Belgian ales. They were traditionally brewed in the cooler months and consumed in the summer. Lagunitas is normally known for its super-hoppy brews, but this one is an exception. The wine flavor is very evident, and the sourness is moderate. There are predominant notes of green apple, pear, peach, white grape and strawberry. Initially I thought it was an off choice as a holiday beer, but after half a bottle, I'd serve this at any holiday gathering. 
 

Ommegang Bourbon Barrel Adoration

Ommegang Brewery is one of those breweries where you just can't go wrong. They do a lot of quads and stouts and love to age their ales in bourbon barrels! Bourbon Barrel Adoration is obviously aged in bourbon barrels (according to the label) but it tastes to me more like aged in wine barrels. There's a hefty 11% ABV, which imputes some nice alcohol heat. The label calls it a "noël" ale, and can't find any information as to what that is, but I would assume that it refers to the spices that one normally finds in Winter warmers, and there are spices: coriander, nutmeg, cardamom, and a tiny bit o' cloves. There's also a vanilla sheen over dark fruit - black cherries, figs, raisins, and plums topped off with brown sugar and molasses. Quite a complex glass of holiday goodness. 

 

Kentucky Bourbon Barrel Peppermint Porter

Halloween is over, as far as I'm concerned it's Christmas Season, Yule and Midwinter is on it's way, as much as I like cooking for Thanksgiving! 

I'm a big fan of winter warmers, those brown ales chock full of spices, but I don't believe that I've ever had a beer brewed with peppermint! Kentucky Bourbon barrel Peppermint Porter is about what you'd expect from the label: it tastes like chocolate and peppermint. 

The base ale is a typical porter, deep, dark brown with ruby highlights and a healthy tan head. It's got a moderate creamy consistency and would make a fine porter even without the added flavorings. The chocolate and peppermint are evident, but not cloying or overpowering. What I'm not detecting is any hint of oak or bourbon, but if they didn't advertise it on the label I'd have never known. I'd recommend it for a beer lover's holiday party. 

 

New Belgium Oakspire Old Fashioned Bourbon Barrel Ale

The Winter holiday beers are here! New Belgium has been producing the Oakspire special edition holiday ales for the last three years, with a slightly different take each year. This year it's a bourbon barrel aged ale inspired by the Old Fashioned. It's an ale aged in oak bourbon barrels infused with cherry and orange and a touch of bitters. 

(I have to admit that, aside from my love of bourbon oak barrel aged ales, the name "Oakspire" sounded similar enough to my adopted "pagan/craft" name of Oakspear to get my attention)

Oakspire pours a coppery hue without not much of a head. There's a subdued whiskey taste,  surprisingly mild alcohol heat from the 9% ABV, with vanilla & oak, mixed with the cherry and orange. A tiny taste of anise and nutmeg. A very smooth ale. Could be a new holiday favorite!