Comments on: The SPIRIT of the Season

By: Scott-TBC

Scott-TBC — Thu, 03 Dec 2009 03:45:12 +0000

Nice Jim. I thought the Mad Elf was a good Christmas beer too. Looking back, I think I was drinking it while reviewing it which explains why my review was so stupid.
http://thebrewclub.com/2008/12/26/christmas-beer-review-troegs-mad-elf-ale/

People are saying its a lot more expensive this year for some reason. Perhaps its gotten more popular?

By: Scott-TBC

Scott-TBC — Thu, 03 Dec 2009 03:39:46 +0000

Yep. I do my best to finish everything I open and give it as fair a shake as I can. I’ve only poured maybe 2 beers since I started this – (came close with a few others) but I had no problem finishing the Celebration Ale.

By: Don

Don — Wed, 02 Dec 2009 20:36:33 +0000

Maybe between all of us we can get a pretty good cross section of the market of seasonal brews.

By: Don

Don — Wed, 02 Dec 2009 20:35:49 +0000

I think the collaborations are a lot like sabbaticals for Master Brewers, so perhaps they learned from each other as my understanding is that Dogfish Head is increasing their annual capacity by 50,000 barrels. I hope the Life and Limb is a case where the whole is greater than the sum of its parts. We’ll see.

By: Don

Don — Wed, 02 Dec 2009 20:31:52 +0000

Santa may have put a little something in the box with the Life and Limb. Perhaps you could find something you like in there too.

By: nostawetan

nostawetan — Wed, 02 Dec 2009 17:26:18 +0000

By the way, I think we are going to do Delirium Noel for “Sip with us Saturday”, so I’ll be drinking an X-mas brew before long.

By: Michael Reinhardt

Michael Reinhardt — Wed, 02 Dec 2009 17:16:24 +0000

Don,

I’ll confirm what you’ve said. A lot of breweries, once they get bigger, dumb their product down. I think it did use to have more zest than now. Oddly enough, they’ve just done a collaboration with Dogfish Head. Maybe that will re-awaken their passions.

By: Jim

Jim — Wed, 02 Dec 2009 16:27:50 +0000

I”ve been a busy boy and picked up this, some Troegs Mad Elf, Anchor Steam’s holiday offering and a four pack of Ayinger Celebrator, which I associate with Christmas, probably because of the little ornamental doodads hung around each bottle.

I’ve only had the Mad Elf so far, and I think it has this Christmas thing nailed. It’s brewed with cherries and honey which give it a sweet, malty taste and it has an ABV of 11.6%, which chases away the cold (or the demons of loneliness, depending on your situation this holiday). I’ll be reviewing it later, but I’m happy that at least one of these seasonals tastes like Christmas, at least to me.

By: Don

Don — Wed, 02 Dec 2009 13:52:47 +0000

I was talking to my beer guy at the Co Op yesterday and he said that the Celebration Ale was just a winter IPA with a red color for the holiday. Knowing your love of IPAs I kind of called you out in the last line of the post. So my question to you is, when you drank it last year were you able to finish it?

By: Don

Don — Wed, 02 Dec 2009 13:49:43 +0000

That is true Jeff, if you go to their web site they basically have their beers segmented three ways, year round production, seasonal, and special run. This was in the seasonal, so they may want to bring those people into the fold that wait for this every year, thus it is a little more main stream. Just a guess, but it could be plausible.

By: Don

Don — Wed, 02 Dec 2009 13:46:47 +0000

Mike I thought this was a quality beer, a very good beer, would pair well with holiday food, etc, but I didn’t see it as a stand alone beer that I would just want to drink because it was available. Great with a meal though, and lacks anything “holiday” in the flavor, unless you give hops to people as gifts!

By: Scott-TBC

Scott-TBC — Wed, 02 Dec 2009 05:43:20 +0000

Don, I actually went back and reviewed my post from last year and I ended up giving it a very respectable 3.5/5 because it just came off like a quality beer – but yeah, big hops there. I remember being able to smell the beer from across the room! I won’t get it again but I wouldn’t hesitate to recommend it to others who dig the style. (No idea what is Christmassy about it though)

Here’s my take if you’re interested.
http://thebrewclub.com/2008/12/07/beer-review-sierra-nevada-celebration-ale-2008/

By: Jeff Schwartz

Jeff Schwartz — Wed, 02 Dec 2009 00:56:28 +0000

Maybe they feel that since they do have some really nice offering for the more serious beer drinker – they went a bit more mass market with the Celebration Ale…its probably a huge money maker for them…

By: Mike Sturdivant

Mike Sturdivant — Tue, 01 Dec 2009 23:23:00 +0000

I LOVED Sierra Nevada Celebration 2007 & 2008. The 2009 version is good, but not as “holiday” tasting as the past two years. SN had a busy year with Kellerweis, Torpedo and Life & Limb. Maybe they got stretched out a little too much… I will still drink plenty of it!

The Harvest Wet Hop Ale is excellent. I think it’s better than the Estate Ale.

By: Don

Don — Tue, 01 Dec 2009 21:34:03 +0000

It was good beer. I’m not arguing that point, just not “special” as I would define something that really knocked my socks off.