Welcome to our 12 Nights of Cocktail Advent Calendar for 2024! We hope you enjoy the ingredients along with some tasty cocktails this holiday season. Click on the links below each day as you reveal a new ingredient to reveal information on the products, recipe ideas and more!
Cocktail Advent
Day 1
La Trappe (ATP), La Trappe Tripel - Netherlands
STYLE:
The Belgian Tripel is one of a handful of protected terms in the world of brewing - it legally can only be called a Tripel (with no qualifiers) if it comes from a Trappist Brewery. The actual history of the name is apocryphal, with many believing it stems from the marks made on each barrel of beer depending on the strength from X to XXX. Other contend it's from Original Gravity - the measure of the forecast strength from 3%, 6%, and the tripel averaging 9%. Contrary to popular notion, not all Trappist breweries are located in Belgium, however Belgium does contain the highest concentration. As the style of beer has changed, the codified version that now everyone brews to is the Westmalle Tripel - golden, hoppy, and warming with alcohol intensity. Hops must be a presence, otherwise it's little more than a glorified ale, with the traditional European hops leaning towards more floral and herbaceous expressions than our more American counterparts. Enjoy Tripels best with rich cheeses, crackers, charcuterie, and deserts. This cheesemonger especially loves them with Brie de Meaux!
THE BREWERY:
La Trappe, best known for being the namesake for the Trappist order (and therefore the Trappist Beer styles), was a monastery founded as early as 1140 BCE in what we now know of as the Netherlands on a church built for remembrance of the Count of Perche's wife's death in a shipwreck in the area. At that time not many monks lived in the area so they imported monks from modern-day France to come populate the Abbey and consecrate the ground. Until the 17th Century, it was inhabited and claimed as a part of the Holy See rather than any monastic tradition. With the promotion of Abbot de Ranoe to governance, he quickly set about reinstating monastic traditions until the French Revolution quashed those plans, sending the monks into 24 years of exile where they wandered the European Continent, hoping to reclaim their home. With the end of the Revolution, the rebuilding of The Second Church of La Trappe commenced in 1815 with the monks reclaiming their church, castle, and former lifestyle. The brewery was established in 1884 as a way of both being internally supportive to the needs of the monks as well as externally supportive through charity work and tithes to the Church. Their brewing was so successful they were able to fundraise to build a new Abbey by 1894, creating the tight connection between monks and beer that we know of today. Skipping forward a few years, eventually the Fathers of La Trappe saw such great success they partnered for a little while with Stella Artois, however the partnership ended in 1979 with the renewal of traditional Trappist brewing. From there the monks cut all ties with their commercial distributors and returned to market with three products - a Dubbel, a Tripel, and a Blonde under the branding name of La Trappe. Since then, they have had great success with brewing while staying consistent with their vows - to brew for charity and causes, rather than for profit.
THE BEER:
La Trappe Tripel is a classic emulation of the style - golden and rich with surprising drinkability regardless of the ABV running 8%. Look for amazing expressions of grapefruit peel and banana in the nose, a hallmark of Belgian yeast common to the style. On the tongue the carbonation is lively and buoyant, keeping the medium-to-heavy body from becoming too overwhelming. On the palate it gives abundant spice notes with moderate but present bitterness. If you can, pour her into a Belgian tulip glass (bonus marks if La Trappe branded) with plenty of head to enjoy a more traditional service. Proost op onze lever!
Day 2
Hitachino Nest, Yuzu Lager - Japan
STYLE:
Lagers, who doesn't love them? The ultimate crushable crispy guy on the market and one of the harder styles to get right, in this Cicerone's opinion. As for each brewery who makes them, they're all working off of the original pale lagered beer - the Pilsner! It's funny to have a style so defined by what it isn't, especially when that style is the other front runner for most drinkable beer. So the Pilsner came about due to summer restrictions on brewing placed by both the Czech and Bavarian royals due to the risk of lighting fires big enough to boil the beer and dry summer weather leading to out of control wildfires. So many beers would sit and languish through the summer months in cellars and it was only a stroke of luck that the Czech got to the pale malt first. Resistance was strong amongst the Bavarian people with the use of these new technologies like a different method of drying malt, but what happened couldn't be undid. Riding the wave, the first "true" lager produced was the Vienna Lager, a maltier and more toasty style spurred on by the discovery of indirect heat for drying malt. Now that you could make malt in any lightness, the Germans hopped (hah) quickly onto it and made the Helles Lager - the codified style that we know of as a lager today! More definable by what it is not, the lager is a great basis for people wanting to get into beer or folks who just want to crush a few before going out!
THE BREWERY:
Established in 1823, Kiuchi Brewery was originally a producer of Shochu and Sake and never touched the barley needed to make beer. In 1998 the Japanese government changed rules on microbrewing and the ownership at the time took great interest in combining traditional European brewing techniques with ancient methods of Shochu aging and sake production. As barley is not commonly grown through Japan, true beers are subjective to the highest "sin" tax due to the expense of bringing in barley and the relative subsidies of rice-produced beer, wine, and spirits. Hitachino works around this system with a combination of rice adjunct to bring down the amount of malt used in some of their beers, leading to a lighter flavour on the style and leaning away from the bready or malty tastes malt-focused beers tend to have.
THE BEER:
Lagers and Yuzu - two of my favourite things - into one beer! Pinch me, I must be dreaming. Combining a lighter malt bill more typical of Japanese beer and both peel and juice of the Yuzu is a match in heaven! On the nose it's citrussy, bursting with yuzu rind and oils. On the palate the rice used for part of the malt brings lightness and along with a medium carbonation rate, it maintains a pleasant zestiness and refreshing finish without too many complexities. Sure, we could be studying some really intense beers, but how about we just enjoy this with some yakisoba or sushi and enjoy the simpler things in life?! Kanpai!
Day 3
Traquair House, Jacobite Ale - Scotland
STYLE:
Och aye, the Wee Heavy! Also known as the Scotch Ale, the Wee is one of few misunderstood beers of the world. Overshadowed by it's Southern Cousin the British Brown, and completely sidelined by the popularity of its Irish cousin Guinness, it gets little love these days! Take your thin nitro elsewhere, and your flat British cask ales should be put out back in comparison with the likes of her. Rich and creamy, Scotch Ales stun with some more present malty sweetness and caramel notes. Look for it to pour with a thin tan head with some delicious dried fruit notes on the nose like plums and dried cherry. Unlike her siblings, the alcohol presence should be noticeable but not unpleasant, closer to a warm hug on a winter evening than anything that will punch you in the throat. Wee Heavies personally are the beer I go to for an apres ski, a warm up, or just something to sip on with hearty pub fare that can hold up to some alcohol like stuffed yorkies, grilled cheeses sandos, or wings with a bourbon bbq sauce.
THE BREWERY:
Traquair House has an amazing history of being the single oldest residential home in Scotland, dating back to 1107 and has been continuously resided in and owned by the Stuarts since 1491. Originally created as an old hunting lodge, the region it was in became a hotbed of fighting between the Brits and the Scots, with Traquair House itself holding key strategic position which ensured the defeat of the invaders in battle. Having been a visitation spot for Mary, Queen of Scots, she conferred upon the House many of her belongings which remain there to this day and was the face of the brewery, with the house going so far as to install a 200 gallon copper tun under the chapel in a brewhouse for the house. For ages the women of the house were the ladies of the breweries, making ales and cleaning as was their expected role for the time they lived in until homebrewing fell out of fashion. Peter Maxwell Stuart, the 20th Laird of Traquair brought brewing back in 1965 when he rediscovered mash tuns and brewing equipment from the 1800s in one of the over 50 rooms of the house. Many of the beers to this day are still fermented and aged in oak barrels and foudre aging up to 200 years old! How's that for tasting history?
THE BEER:
The Jacobite is truly unique from other Wee Heavies due to one outlier of an ingredient - coriander! More traditionally known for its use in Gose or Witbier, the generous use of toasted coriander seeds in the Jacobite really brings another dimension to it. Don't let the rich body and almost oily palate fool you though, the Jacobite packs a serious punch at 8% ABV. My recommendations? Drink this under the blankets tonight and enjoy it wholly as a beer that feels so unique despite having such a long history of production. Who knows, maybe it would be a good idea to learn about the Jacobite Revolution too? Slainte mhath!
Day 4
Urquell, Pilsner Urquell - Czech Republic
STYLE:
Oh goodness, the revolutionary herself in all of her original glory! Pilsners were created by super cool and hot guy Josef Groll after he was tired of all the spoiled beer happening around him. Turns out that, just like wine, when you leave beer around it will go bad and, just like some wines, people will still try to pass it off as "totally safe to drink and tasty duuuuuude". As it is with industry trends, many folks decided that buying the "cheaper" import beers was a smarter choice than trusting certain producers who had a reputation of trying to unload cask upon cask of older and spoiled ales. A band of burghers (the brewers) got together and hired Josef to imitate the lower and cooler fermenting history of Bavarian beers - especially with the beers that were so popular to drink through the summer that had been fermenting in cold cellars. Combining the cool fermenting style as well as the new British technology of indirect toasting of the malt, he was able to synthesize a beer that combined the best of what we now know as the pilsner: the soft water of Pilsen, the pioneering of Saaz as a single hop with its floral aroma and bitterness, the lightest ever malt up to that point, and the long fermenting Lager yeasts, he quickly made for great success! One interesting fact is about decoction - the process of heating only a portion of the beer mash and then tempering it into the whole batch multiple times - as it came from local brewers avoiding taxes. See, taxes were paid on the size of the vessel you were boiling your beer in, so a smaller vessel would mean less taxes right? Combine that with the ingenuity of also taking less wood to heat, those brewers were practically saving money hand over fist! Nowadays since our scientific understanding of the process of malting has increased so much, decoction is no longer needed, however it is respected as a historical precedent to the Pilsner.
THE BREWERY:
Having stalled on writing this section three times now, I'm finding myself at a bit of a loss. How do you describe a style definer who still uses almost the same technology as when this beer was created? It's heritage, absolutely, but more than that it's a testament to the pervasiveness of people just wanting something crispy and delicious to quaff after a long day. The original building now called Urquell was originally created in 1842 with the title of Měšťanský pivovar, or Burgher's Brewery before Josef was hired on to accidentally change the world. At the time it was state of the art, and to this day show off a revolutionary point of brewing and commercialization of what originally was a home chore. The building as we know it was renamed in 1898 when Pilsner Urquell (the German name might I add) was trademarked to the business. Not much in that building has changed since, with tons of tours happening all the time to show off their pride in the building where a beer revolution began! One of the cool facts about Urquell is that, while owned by a multinational company now, all Urquell in the world is brewed in Plzen as is wont for the naming of the style. If you ever have questions, go chat with the guys at Establishment who just recently spent a month in Europe doing their Lukker certifications and learning about traditional service styles as well as touring many breweries.
THE BEER:
What do you think? As the style definer, Urquell has a lot of notes that were either changed or slightly improved upon going forward. However, those perceived faults are what makes this beer such a classic. Pouring a beautiful golden with a generous head, it's best enjoyed in a tall footed Pilsner glass to preserve the head. On the nose there's a unique note - buttered popcorn anyone? That's a chemical called Diacetyl, which in most beers is considered a fault at the levels that Urquell contains, however with respect to the historical side it's allowed! Buttery, rich, but with an unmistakable florality to the nose, it follows through beautifully on the palate with lightly prickly carbonation. Depending on your palate sensitivity and mouth chemistry, that diacetyl might be a little overwhelming, it certainly is for some tasters including Chris, your intrepid beer dork writing these info blurbs. The balance and interplay of the Saaz floral hops and cracker-like malt is what saves it for sure though! If you're looking to indulge, we recommend Urquell with Gnudi with a herbed butter sauce and toasted nuts to really play to all the strengths of the pilsner. Na zdravi!
Day 5
Adnams Southwold, Southwold Bitter - England
STYLE:
A question for you before we start: what's the difference between an English Bitter and an English Pale Ale? It's a trick question to everyone but the traditional English Publican because they're almost entirely the same thing with one technicality - a Bitter is served from a cask or a tap and a Pale Ale is served from the bottle or can. They can be exactly the same beer - it just has to do with the service style. That all has to do with the counterpoint of the Bitter - the English Mild. Since milder and sweet(er) beers existed for long before the use of hops, the Bitter had to find a way to be differentiated while also keeping it in the family of the English Pale Ales. Now, the Bitter came around around the same time as the most famous member of the English Beer Family - the IPA. Before the huge surge in the popularity of bitterness in beers, the specific water from Burton-On-Trent was so high in gypsum (calcium sulfate) that it had an atypical reaction to the newest fad of brewing - hops! Turns out that tons of the bitterness from hops can be impacted by water high with gypsum, leading to them tasting more bitter and refreshing, rather than muting or hiding the bitterness like softer water will do. With that discovery, it made sense that the most famous country for bitter beers in the old world became England and everyone made apocryphal stories for the whole history of IPAs and where they got their name and history from hey?
THE BREWERY:
The Adnams Brothers, George and Ernest, had bought a brewery in 1872 and their focus was on the classic styles of the day - some bottled beers but mostly Cask Ale and Real Ales (a whole side tangent I can go on for hours). Now, in that specific area of Southwold brewing was a huge part of the economy with evidence of brewing going as far back as 1396. With Cask Ales, the focus was entirely on local distribution as both the style of beer and the method of serving was unfriendly to longer travel than the township proper. Incorporating in 1890, the brothers brought on the business expertise of Pierse Loftus with which they continued to produce both the best beers and have a strong focus on growth and community investment with the founding of the Adnams Charity. Until 2006 Adnams was best known for delivering cask ales by horse and dray, cleverly sticking to their historic roots of local distribution and focus on quality cask ales over the trends of the bygone years. Nowadays they've been cleverly reinvesting in their locality - always focused on classic ales while their brewing improvements serve to create more product with the ability to ship internationally while maintaining an independent taste of England. Currently they're one of the most energy efficient breweries in the world, with their production facility having the largest living roof in Britain which helps offset energy on heating and cooling, providing water drain off, and carbon capture. Neat!
THE BEER:
As all things goes, the Southwold is an outstanding style with it's representation of Southwold Jack on the can, the representative of the Adnams brothers worked into a knight who appears on all their tap clips. Pouring amber with a thin head, it maintains a lower level of carbonation than what our palates are familiar with. On the nose you're greeted with herbaceous hops due to hopping the beer twice - once late in the boil to provide more of those woody herbaceousness bitter notes, and one after the boil to capture the delicate notes that excess heat would destroy. The impact is that the nose is fresh and pleasant, with the palate first being caramel malt and richness, leading into a lasting bitter finish. The body is light and can be seen as a tad thin to our modern sensibilities, however I find with some rich fried food it works perfectly with the bitterness cutting the oil. Think fish & chips or chicken burgers and fries with this beer and we're off to the races! Cheers!
Day 6
Camba Bavaria, Camba Chiemsee Wit - Germany (Bavaria)
STYLE:
The Belgian Wit - a personal favourite of mine both to drink and to study. Often defined in comparison of the German Hefeweizen (believe me, they test you on it in the Cicerone Program), our main difference is that while the wit and weizen both are light coloured and wheat malt focused, the yeasts are different! In a Hefe there's a specific Weizen yeast that produces banana and clove esters, whereas the Belgian yeasts for the Wit are more leaning towards white peppercorn and bubblegum. The other main changer is that Witbier should have a couple inclusions - namely orange peel and coriander for flavouring! With a crispy finish, Wits are the primo year-round drinker in my humble position as they have enough body to refresh while maintaining a crisp palate for the summer patio season and so many spice variations for the winter season. As a local stunner to Calgary, I highly recommend the Two Pillars Wit and stopping into their taproom for a classic and gorgeous emulation of the style that just won them the Gold Medal for Belgian beer at the Canadian Brew Awards!
THE BREWERY:
While Bavarian beer has long been seen as a mainstay of all shelves, it's easy to get bogged down into the huge names like Ayinger, Erdinger, or Weihenstephaner. While these institutions of beer are as important to the history, Germany is also facing a bit of a craft beer revolution that we have been seeing at home here in Canada too. Today we feature Camba, a purely independently owned and operated craft brewery founded in 2008 and originally made as a showroom of sorts for their engineering company focused on new technology for the modern brewer. Their love of beer continued to grow when these test batches and designs started to infatuate the founding team to hire on their first full time brewer to work on representing traditional styles as well as a few more modern takes. Their love of beer is even hidden in the name; the camba was the room in monasteries where all the brewing and baking took place. As their fame grew, they began taking on more intense projects like making international beers like the American Pale Ale or British Brown ales as well as starting a barrel aging project that makes some truly unique and hard to get gems. They've just recently expanded to the Canadian market, and we at Vine Arts are super excited to see what exciting new projects we get from the team in Seeon.
THE BEER:
Honestly? I don't know if there is much I can say about this beer other than WOW is it delicious! Since the brewery is so focused on up and coming technology, it's really refreshing to see a newer brewery focus on a style that is so traditional. On the nose expect juicy oranges, crisp coriander, and a hazy wheaty hug. In the glass please pour her with lots of foam so that you can really enjoy the aromas while you drink since foam is flavour! On the palate the prickly and refreshing carbonation keeps it from being too overwhelming with the amount of wheat malt and the juicy qualities really shine. Best enjoyed with all the bar snacks - Hawkins Cheezies, pretzels and mustard, dill pickle almonds (lookin at you Mum and Dad)... you name it and she pairs with it! Prost!
Day 7
Fierce Brewing, Very Big Moose - Scotland
STYLE:
"Russian Imperial Stout?!", I hear you cry, "Oh Vine Arts, why oh why doesn't it say SCOTTISH Imperial Stout?!?!". Well my dear friend, the style has been well travelled. It originates from the idea of the Stout Porter - a higher alcohol version of the daily drinker we know of as the English Porter. As technology changed, the ability to increase alcohol percentage came along with it to the point the most intense stouts were referred to as "fit for the Russians to drink", hence the term Russian Imperial Stout. Another complexity often added to these intensely dark and boozy beers is barrel aging - oftentimes in bourbon barrels to play along with the black malts and add in some caramel and sweeter notes.
THE BREWERY:
Fierce was founded on only a few principles: Make kickass beer, make it taste the best possible, and make it vegan! It's not the most common knowledge, but some fining agents in beer come from animal origins - things like isinglass are originally fishy swim bladders but serve a second life to clear up any remaining haze in beer when you're looking for a crystal clear pint. Another animal is the use of lactose, a non-fermentable sugar that adds sweetness and creamy tastes to things like Sweet Stouts or Milkshake IPAs (RIP to the lactose-intolerant like me). As such, they founded their mission on hazier styles, helping to popularize the return of NEIPAs, hazy IPAs, and the more intense hoppy scene of the early 2010s. From there they've only grown, becoming voted Scottish Brewery of the Year in 2021 and striving to always do better, do more, and taste as much of the beer world as possible.
THE BEER:
Fierce's 2025 Very Big Moose is really well named - it's a hell of a heavy hitter. With intense black malt, alcohol, and bourbon barrel aging, she's tamed by a judicious amount of vanilla and cacao nibs to make this inky black milkshake of a beer (but hold the milk, she has no lactose!). One of the best finds, we at Vine Arts were lucky enough to get all ten cases imported into the province and we figured it would be an excellent celebration on the countdown to the big day to share such a unique and intense beer with you on this, the seventh night of the calendar. I would pair this with chocolate chip cookies, flourless brownies, or pop a lil ice cream to make a seriously enjoyable boozy float! Only piece of advice I'll give directly - it's best to share tonight since we're in the alcohol percentage that the AGLC made us legally label it as a spirit. Drink carefully my friends!
Day 8
Brasserie de Silly, Silly Saison - Belgium
STYLE:
Oh the Saison, sweet misunderstood Saison! Originally a farmers beer, the style has become popularly referred to as "the funky one" or "yeah that one that I didn't really like" any time I try to put it into a tasting flight haha. Since it came around as a farming beer, it was created with a very light to light alcohol percentage (2.5-4.5%) as it was more refreshing and safer to drink in the fields than water was. Our unique asset to the saison is a combination of Belgian yeast strains as well as specific yeasts with phenolic expression. Phenols are a part of brewing that release spicy, peppery, hay-like, or even barnyard-y flavours into beer, most of which are generally undesired in beers. For every undesirable, there is one place that they're expected, if not needed of the style to define it and that style is the Saison! With every batch from every farm coming out so different, it's both super easy and yet complicated to find a saison for everyone due to the style being more of an umbrella for many experiments than something as codified as a Tripel or Witbier. With that nuance comes so many unique experiences - does the brewer use strains from the Brettanomyces family or more conventional Saccharomyces family? Are we tasting age in the bottle or is it a single fermentation? Fruit or other adjunct? Every choice made in brewing makes for much larger payoffs in the outcome which is why it's such a contentious yet beloved category of beer.
THE BREWERY:
Brasserie de Silly (yep, it's pronounced the way you think it is) was founded on a farm in Silly, Belgium in 1850. The origins of Silly were humble with most of the town being farmers focusing on barley and grains for sustenance. The founder, Marcelin, originally brewed the predecessor of the SIlly Saison for his seasonal farm workers, with it being a treat to the teams working the fields as well as great practice for his son, the first owner of Silly as we know it today. By 1900 Marcelin's grandson was winning medals at beer exhibitions, with the most notable being a silver medal at the World Paris Exhibition. As the First World War struck, their lands became prime real estate with British scholars fighting against the Germanic forces. As the Second World War raged on, they left farming behind to focus on the production of quality beer, they tried many options of beer styles, including importing pilsners before creating their own. One of their most unique offerings - a Scotch ale - came from these struggles in the world wars with one of their brewmasters taking instruction from a Scottish soldier nee brewer in the town who was homesick for a taste of the British Isles. Coming to the modern day, Brasserie de Silly has been consistently family owned with it passed now through six generations, each guiding the last with knowledge, business acumen, and a forward thinking mindset.
THE BEER:
With such a varied style as the Saison, Brasserie Silly takes both an interesting and unique process. They mix both fresh and six month barrel aged saisons together to harness the power of the Lambic - the freshness and flavour of a young beer tamed with the barrel and complexity of an older barrel. Think of it like champagne - the blend is what makes it so delicious and gives it the complexity deserving of such a delightful beer. Coming in with a tame 5%, the finesse of the malt and production is evident! On the nose the Silly Saison gives toasted hay, bready malt, and peppercorn while the body provides some subtle fruit character as well as toasty richness. Blending Kent and Hallertau hops brings a peaceful combination of floral, herbaceous, and woody hop character that really fill out the body. If you can, serve her with a tall head in a Belgian tulip glass to preserve the traditional service since, as we all know, foam is flavour! Sante!
Day 9
Van Steenberg, Gulden Draak Smoked - Belgium/Germany
STYLE:
Have you ever heard of a Rauchbier before? Maybe a Lichtenhainer? These two styles are some of the oldest styles with their defining trait - being smoky - was borne out of necessity rather than innovation. Before we had such luxuries like electrical heat or even the discovery of induction, all malts were dried over fires, leading to different outcomes based on the wood used. Peat smoke was common in the old Scottish and English beers, where in Germany they had an excess of beechwood, which imparted quite an intense flavour into the malt. As it shakes out, beechwood can leave an almost meaty or bacon-like note to the beer which quickly fell out of fashion as soon as indirect heat was discovered as a more efficient and less flavouring method to dry and toast malt. This led to Rauchbier almost entirely left as a heritage brew, more focused towards people like us who want to try a little bit of everything!
THE BREWERY:
Van Steenberge has been brewing with family tradition since 1784. As one of the older breweries on our list, their accomplishments are no less numerous than any brewery pushing 245 years old! Their focus is on "live" beers - beer that is secondarily fermented in bottle to produce a champagne-like carbonation and finish. As with the champenois method, they traditionally use wine yeast to finish their beer rather than dosing with more beer yeast, producing a much more fruity palate and nose as well as finer carbonation. Taking the focus on traditional beers with an unconventional finish, they also pair their state-of-the-art brewery with ancient recipes respecting the past, present, and future of beer.
THE BEER:
The Gulden Draak was named for a statuette that had been travelling as a part of Scandinavian Viking ships - a large golden dragon. As it travelled on, eventually the Draak took up its final resting place on the top of the belfry in Ghent. As for the beer, the base Gulden Draak has been brewed since 1986, with many options having come down the pipeline from the base Blond all the way to their newest release to make it to Canada - the Smoked! Pouring a rich chocolate, it gently attacks the palate with a restrained smokiness to compliment the sweet malt and warming alcohol presence. On the nose and palate look for deep fruit like stewed plums or raisins, a caramel sweetness on the front palate, and a rich smoky embrace on the finish. Makes me think of having a coffee and frying bacon around a campfire in the early mornings of summer! Proost!
Day 10
Alhambra, Reserva 1925 - Spain
STYLE:
AHA! A return to the Pilsner! With such a classic style, I was remiss to only include one such option. Having gone over the Czech classic before, let's take another look at the "modernizing" affect other countries have had upon the *ahem* Czech International Pale Lager (henceforth called a Pils for ease of writing) and how they change the outcomes. Now, being close to Germany, the Pils didn't have much to change to fit in - simply find some new hops and whango-bango you have a whole new beer in the German Pils! The Italians wanted to do one better - rather than changing the hops all the time (since Italy isn't known for its hop production....) they just decided to dry hop the beer by adding the hops after the boiling process to extract much less bitterness and more aromas and flavours. Now the Spaniards? Well, they preferred to keep more towards the precedent set by the Czech - classic Saaz hops but a MUCH more roasted and malty profile. Where the Pilsner can be crackery to light bready, think of this Spanish Cousin as richer and more rye-bready and toasty. How do you find it impacts the overall flavour and bitterness? Which do you like better? As the Shakespearean quote goes, "a pilsner by any other name would taste just as sweet" right?
THE BREWERY:
Alhambra itself is a brewery dating back to a city founding its own brewery in 1925. The Spanish city of Granada was looking to invest in local culture and consumption and put the upfront capital into the brewery as well as some investment from Joseph Gurney, formerly of La Moravia. With their slow growth attributed to the Spanish War going on, the brewery soldiered through and made hay when the sun shone on Granada towards the end of the 40s, with the incorporation with another common Spanish brewery, Damm, in 1954. This wasn't meant to last, as Alhambra in the following years made and broke alliances with numerous other distribution channels including most famously facing a lawsuit from Heineken in 2001 over an alleged beer patent to which they countersued for industrial espionage. It was a whole big mess, leading to less popularity across the pond here due to lacking large representation that most European beers need to make the hop (haha a good one!). Currently their focus is the unique offering of the Reserva 1925 for their 100th anniversary of founding and brewing, as well as celebrating their history, legacy, and tenacity in the beer world where brands can come and go in years, much less decades.
THE BEER:
Scientifically the Reserva is unique. With the help of a Dr Thompson to study the Maillard reaction and better formulate a precise blend of malt to lean into a more amber profile, a slightly higher alcohol presence, yet keep the refreshing style of the Czech original. On the pour she is frothy and light amber with a beautiful fetching glow as well as a generous head. Owing to a higher than normal carbonation volume, the hops are buoyant and playful on the palate, exuding flowers, stems, and delicate green herbs typical of Saaz hops. The malt follows up as a smooth toasted profile, keeping the beer fresh and delightful through each sip. While pilsners would pair best with richer food since the bitter and lightness can help cut fats and heavier flavours, I would want to pair her with ceviche or shrimp, maybe a spicy delightful paella or a rich jambalaya. Salud!
Day 11
Duvel Moortgat, Cherry Chouffe - Belgium
THE STYLE:
To talk about fruit beers - we need to go back to the time of ancient fermentation. We all know that wine is made from grapes, cider is made from apples, and beer is made from grain right? When grain was an imperfect fermenter (or "poorly-modified" as we call it) not all of the sugars were able to convert properly into alcohol so many ancient beers would also include fruit as either a fermentation aid or a specialty flavouring option! Cue back to the old Belgian styles of the Lambic or Flanders Red - single fermented beers that were aged in barrels to allow microorganisms to get to them and sour the beer which meant it was much MUCH longer lasting than fresh beers where sourness was unpleasant and a sign of faulty beer. Our usual best friends in those styles were the complex sugars included from cherries - specifically the sour Morello cherries popular in Belgium which played so well with the lactobacillus and pediococcus microbacteria to add fruitiness, flavour, and sweetness. The other best friend were raspberries which were codified into the Framboise beers we can still find today. For cherry beers they were sorted into two camps: Conventionally brewed and Wild Brewed and two methods of addition: whole fruit or juice. Each have their own pros and cons pending what you're looking for - fermenting the whole cherries or juice into the beer before brewing vs adding it after shape the palate and sweetness as well as the complexity. As our understanding of microbiology improved, the cleanliness of breweries started to trend to much more modern times and everything was able to be sterilized and isolated to scientifically pursue the most consistent beer possible, leaving some of these wilder ferments to much more niche breweries. Nowadays there is a great revival of mixed fermentation, barrel aging, and wild yeast use that brings back many of these ancient methods including the Crown Jewel of the Lambic, Gueuze, and Kriek: Cantillon. PS: If you've read this far and kept up with the ridiculously in-depth writing I've made, us at Vine Arts always welcome a little Christmas gift in the form of Cantillon Kriek!
THE BREWERY:
Belgium - land of the ancient breweries, long history of religious beer, and the place where it's hard to make it onto a scene that started hundreds of years before these two brewers were even born. Pierre Gobron and Chris Bauweraerts, brothers-in-law, and absolute beer dorks came together in a garage one day and figured "huh, shouldn't be too hard to start a brewery right?" which then led to four years of trying to get their homebrewing off the ground and eventually make up the recipes that would go on to be classics of La Chouffe. As of 1992, the men found that they finally needed to expand, almost doubling their output of beer from 3200hL to 5000hL a year! Despite the growth in production, they still only managed to make beer in either 750mL bottles or 20L pony kegs since the 330mL bottles were still too small to make financial sense. Fast forward to 2006 and La Chouffe joined into the Duvel Moortgat family, grouping together with like minded Belgian brewers to help with distribution, representation, and growth - finally unlocking making the best lil 330mL traditional Belgian bottles that we know of in service to these days. The two have always had a sweet spot for the trickster gnome or imp, leading to the name of Chouffe as a playful reminder of their younger more impetuous days, the ridiculous lengths they went to to make good beer, and the little gnomes on the label being an international reminder of home. Fun fact - each of the gnomes have a name, a history, and a story of how their beer came to be. If you ever find yourself with an afternoon to laze about, I highly recommend checking the Chouffe website and reading all the little stories of each beer as well as reading some of the documents from the founding of the brewery. It's super cool!
THE BEER:
When I think of Cherry Beers, I tend to lean towards the bright red, juicy, fruity styles of a post-mash addition of juice however the Cherry Chouffe bucks that convention. They use a basis closer to the Oud Bruin with a much deeper complex malt and barrel aspect to the base beer before cherry additions. As for cherries, there's a split use between whole cherries and juice and utilizing different breeds to blend together into a most cohesive product while highlighting the pros of each - subtle almond flavour and spice from cherry pits and the fresher slightly sweeter side from the juice. The Cherry Chouffe was created for Micheline, one of the supporters of the brewery from inception, and the gnome on the label is named in her honour. On the pour she is deep garnet, with a highly perfumed nose of cherry candy, stewed strawberry, and warming spice. Her head sits thick and cotton candy pink, adding a beautiful contrast to her thick mouthfeel and rich cherry coating. Overall I think of her as a little sweet treat like the baking tray waiting for Christmas eve, chocolates after dinner, or Irish Creme in your coffee in the mornings. Pairs amazingly with rich cheeses to balance the sweetness, something spicy perhaps like samosas and chutney, or if you want to go big go for Duck rillettes and oysters. Cheers m'dears, we're almost done!
Day 12
Ayinger Celebrator, Ayinger Brauerei - Germany (Bavaria)
STYLE:
Commonly known as "liquid bread" the Doppelbock comes from a very interesting religious background and has an odd relationship with goats. Originating as the style called a Beck in the Hanseatic region of Germany when it moved down to the Bavarian region dialects became confused. According to the locals, asking for "ein Beck" in Bavarian was often misheard for ordering "ein Bock" (a goat) due to the thicker accent of the Bavarians. The name stuck, and as the style continued to become popular the goat imagery became a huge part of the labelling and jokes made of the beer style. The first Doppelbock was entirely of Bavarian invention though, coming from the Paulaner friars of the Order of St Francis of Paula. Brewed darker and heavier, it became known as "liquid bread" to the friars who would fast through religious observances because as we all know, Jesus didn't say anything about not drinking beer. As it was paired with religious experiences, the first commercial example was called "Salvator" and that trademarked name to this day stays with Paulaner. Most other beers seeing the effectiveness went with many other -Ator names to denote both the history and as a reference to the original use of the beer. Most Doppelbock also shout out to their religious background by releasing around the Christian high holidays - namely Christmas and Easter. Hence, a perfect beer to end off our Advent and celebrate the holidays by doing what monks did best - drink good beer, spent time with our close ones, and celebrate staying the heck inside and staying the heck warm.
THE BREWERY:
The history of Ayinger and the history of the hotel Platzl are probably some of the most intertwined and codependent histories in the beer world and through the successes of both, Ayinger has had the support to continue to grow and hone their trade to being a world class brewery. Their original brewery was created in tandem with the hotel as an in-house provider of beer which made it both economical and intuitive for both marketing and supplying each other with people and funds to market with. As it goes, business was good until it wasn't with World War 1, the Great Depression, and then World War 2 followed quickly after. The family running Ayinger and the Platzl managed to barely scrape through, often having to last minute adapt to the constantly changing times in Munich. As of the creation and subsequent popularity of bottled beer, their business took off with finally being able to supply outside of their small circle of hotels and beer halls with both the 750mL and 330mL format being their focus internationally. Their ideology in brewing works to the advantages of what Munich used to be - a homeland for Germanic beer surrounded by acres and acres of barley growing farmland as well as having easy access to local hops through nearby growers. To this day they still focus on using 100% German ingredients to produce the best quality beer to each historic precedent without cutting corners or any substitutions.
THE BEER:
I saw no more fit than to end this calendar with the reason for the season - one of the most perennial Christmas beers I know that doesn't go out of its way to be over the top, flavoured in any way, or kitschy. Simply to me Doppelbocks are one of the best holiday beers I know of because they're meant to be enjoyed with this weather, with little to do afterwards, and with a group of people. To the eye it's almost black with a rich brown head with good staying power. The first taste is celebratory with coffee, toasted bread crust, and just a teeny hint of sweetness on the finish. As it sits on your palate, the lack of sweetness present is unusual for the style, however exemplary in our own opinions. Best enjoyed with your family around the tree or table and tourtiere or whatever else you like to eat on the 24th. If you're drinking this before the 24th I won't tell anyone, just enjoy it as you please. Thank you so much for taking this trip through weird and interesting beers of the world with me for the past twelve nights, it's been our pleasure to be guides and stewards of the unknown, the untasted, and the truly weird from the annals of beer history. One last time, cheers dears and please enjoy the holidays. Be safe, be kind, and here's to drinking more amazing beer in the new year!
