Comments on: The Final Day of HAF

By: Dr Wort

Dr Wort — Tue, 08 Dec 2009 17:59:51 +0000

No one says quality Holiday ales have to be local…. and It’s a good thing because they’re all not! ;-} The Doc routinely receives Holiday beers from friends outside of the NW and buys Holiday beers from all over the world.

While Rogue’s SAnta Reserve seems to make many people list of great Holiday Beers, I really have no clue why? It’s just a simple strong ale, overhopped as the norm up here. HOTD Doggie Claws is often overlooked as a great Holiday beer, while most of the others are “meh.” Ebenezer, you say? It’s a shadow of it’s past not of it’s potential! It’s potential has come and gone! Those Texas boys have sunk their teeth into Bridgeport’s beers and the quality has been dwindling ever since. Of course, you can play the Widhook game! Lets’ just keep the beer community guessing…. Randomly keep making a bunch of similar beers, but just keep repackaging and changing the name. Kind of the “3 Card monty” of beer advertising. It was a “W” now it’s a BRRR, keep your eyes on the cards. A winner every time! Step right up and play the Three Beer Monty…. ;-}

Here’s a list of Holiday beers that have been winners in the Docs book:

Odell Isolation Ale (Arizona)
Smuttynose Winter Ale (New Hampshire)
Anchor Our Special Ale (California)
Avery Brewing Old Jubilation Ale – Colorado
Berghoff-Hazelnut Winter – Wisconsin
Boulevard Nutcracker Ale – Missouri
Breckenridge Christmas Ale – Colorado
Bristol Brewing Winter Warlock Oatmeal Stout – Colorado
Capital Winter Skol – Wisconsin
Flying Fish Grand Cru Winter Reserve – New Jersey
Goose Island Christmas Ale – Chicago
Great Divide Hibernation Ale – Colorado
Great Lakes Christmas Ale – Ohio
Hales Ales Wee Heavy Winter Ale – Washington
Harpoon Winter Warmer – Massachusetts
He’Brew Jewbelation – California
Lost Coast Winterbrau Holiday Ale – California
McMenamins Sleepy Hollow Nut Brown
Maritime Pacific Jolly Roger Winter Ale – Washington
Pelican Pub & Brewing Stormwatcher’s Winterfest – Oregon
Shipyard-Winter Ale – Maine
Sierra Nevada Celebration – California
Silver City Winterbock – Washington
Sprecher Winter Brew – Wisconsin
Woodstock Ichabod Crane Holiday Beer – New York

Imports
Aas Jubel – Norway
Blaugies -La Moneuse Special Winter – Belgium
Camerons Christmas Ale – England
Orkney Brewery Clootie Dumpling – UK
Corsendonk Christmas Ale – Belgium
Delerium Noel – Belgium
De Dolle Winter Nacht – Belgium
De Ranke Pere Noel – Belgium
Fantome de Noel – Belgium
Fuller’s Old Winter Ale – England
Fuller’s Vintage Ale – England
Gale’s Christmas Ale – England
Gouden Carolus Christmas – Belgium
Harvey’s Christmas Ale – England
La Choulette Noël – France
Mahr’s Christmas Bock – Germany
Petrus Winter Beer – Belgium
St. Peter’s Winter – England
Samichlaus – Austria
Samuel Smith’s Winter Welcome – England
Scaldis Noel – Belgium
St. Feullien Christmas Beer – Belgium
St, bernardus Christmas ale – Belgium
Wintertraum – Germany
Young’s Winter Warmer – England
Baladin Noel (Italy)
Samichlaus (Austria)

I’m sure there are more I have forgotten……

Felinfoel Brewery – Wales! Their Winter Fest used to be an amazingly dense Old Ale.

By: Jared

Jared — Tue, 08 Dec 2009 07:29:42 +0000

Who says they gotta be local?? The succesful beers here this year have been ’09 Goose Island Christmas Ale, ’08 Goose Island Burbon County (local shop still has plenty of bottles), ’09 Anchor Christmas Ale, ’09 Anderson Valley Winter Solstice, and ’09 Ebenezer. I know Ebenezer is a shadow of it’s potential. It tastes a bit watered down. But it wasn’t the worst holiday ale I’ve had this year. We only purchased one sixer so the repeat value couldn’t have been too high. So that’s only one Portland brew in the mix. Granted we’ve been drinking some heavier non winter seasonals as well. Interestingly I’ve taken to cracking some ’08 barlywines long before I wanted too to keep me warm. Sadly I’m down to only a few more that I’d be willing to sacrifice and my homebrew herbal sour is down to 2 bottles. May need to stock some Adam to have something to drink here soon

By: Dr Wort

Dr Wort — Tue, 08 Dec 2009 00:27:17 +0000

Don’t worry, I’m pretty sure the Doc won’t be doing to many more DW Blog reviews. Considering the HAF had become the only Local Beer fest that the Doc was interested in covering. There’s really not much interest in maintaining a blog. The interest just isn’t there, nor is the quality.

I have a 4 year old bottle of Belgian Dandelion ale in my cellar…. want to come by and try it?

I may send ya some exclusive reviews that you can post.

Local Holiday beers…. the Doc’s either completely bored with the local Holiday beers or those beers have lessened in quality. Snow Cap’s quality has become a gloppy mess of sweet wortiness and muddy flavors for many years. Ebenezer is now following in it’s tracks. Jubel… meh!

Want to try a superb Holiday Ale??? I just had a wonderfully balanced and extremely well executed St Bernardus Christmas ale on tap at Henry’s tavern in downtown Portland. Best Holiday ale I’ve had so far this year. I’ll send ya a review. Also, had a wonderful Ommergang Grand Cru at Green Dragon post HAF.

By: Jared

Jared — Mon, 07 Dec 2009 19:49:50 +0000

@ kandn

I was nice to my dad this year and just let him enjoy the fest without asking him to critique. Surprisingly he had similar reactions to alot of the beers we shared. Granted he didn’t go through and describe them, instead he just screwed up his face and went ” That wasn’t very good.” I went over his notes and he rated beers on a 1 to 3 star system. Funny enough very few beers made the cut for him as well. Even if he isn’t trying to develope his palate he still has enough of one to realize alot of the beers were jokes.

@ Doc

I gotta admit I was a little dissapointed when you came out of retirement I was really hoping for a guest post so I could post our reviews side by side. I wanted to try that Dandilion Ale, but haven’t been able to get ahold of it. I guess I just got lucky on La Foile. The Fall Wild one was pouring too, and while I liked it I didnt taste enough to review it. I’ve been bringing holiday beers for the parents to try this year, and we’ve had better luck with that then we did at the fest. Sad when a fest with unique pourings can’t beat what’s available at Roth’s, Fred Myers, and the local bottle shop.

By: Dr Wort

Dr Wort — Mon, 07 Dec 2009 18:43:37 +0000

Pretty ho hum, eh? ;-}

Proof you can get pretty buzzed drinking a lot of half ass beer…. :-O The natives don’t seem to notice the difference! They just gladly suck down the Pinesol, off balanced, over hopped, under malted, bland, green, poorly described, not even close to being within a named style, murky and muddy Holiday Beers! They Whoop and swagger, fill dem mugs to the top! Ha, yes, it’s a drunk fest for the moral mediocracy. ;-}

I’ve been reading the other bloggers reviews, did I go to the wrong festival? Is there some quality version of these beers I’m missing?

La Foile! Oh, I would have enjoyed that! New Belgium was doing a rotation of different Lips of Faith. It would have been better to just have one selection! When I was there they had a Dandalion Ale. YUKO! You can’t beat La Folie, it’s a wonderful beer. Pairing La Folie with Sang Noir would have been quite fun. It would be like matching up Beauty and the Beast! Backyard Science experiment will polished quality.

Pinesol! All the way! I was like WOW, this is really obnoxiously North West to the point that it could be the butt of every joke.

I’m with you…. I don’t see a point of coming out of retirement for THIS!

By: kandn

kandn — Mon, 07 Dec 2009 14:46:41 +0000

I’m glad you mentioned the people who appeared to be at the fest just to get drunk. Isn’t that what bars are for? We noticed several people doing the same thing at Oregon Garden’s beer fest.
Your dad is lucky. I think it would be a great experience to go beer tasting with someone who could point details out and educate my palate.

By: jbx

jbx — Mon, 07 Dec 2009 14:10:10 +0000

Interesting in total.

Nice wrap from ‘Forth the 10th ticket’ to completion.

Positive, memorable, man-to-man, adult-to-adult, shared, common, experiences with father, son, or brother are hard to beat / are to be relished. Strengthen the bond / lodge a memory.