Looking back over the number of posts I made over 2007, I thought it would be fun to write a Brew Site "Best Of" list based on my writings. It's that time of year, right? So without further ado, here's The Brew Site Best of 2007: all based on my personal opinions of beers I drank and breweries I visited (etc. etc.) for this past year. (All my categories are arbitrary, loosely based on the topics I wrote about.)

Best Barrel-Aged Beer: The Angel's Share, Lost Abbey (review)

Best Stout: Dragonstooth Stout, Elysian Brewing (review)

Best PR Package: Pumpkin beers: All the various pumpkin beers I received on request from a number of breweries, for my Pumpkin Beer Week.

Runners up:

• Lost Abbey beers (link): One big box. 'Nuff said.
• Flying Dog's packages: I'm on their list for new and limited releases, and keep getting samples. Right on.

Best Name: The Hairy Eyeball Ale, Lagunitas Brewing (review)

Best Brewery Visit: Stone Brewing (review)

Runners up:

• Laurelwood Public House and Brewery (review)
• Pizza Port (review)

Hoppiest: Turmoil Black IPA, Barley Brown's Brewpub (review)

Runners up:

• Woody Organic IPA, Roots Organic Brewing (review)
• Devotion, Lost Abbey (review)

Best Fresh Hop: Sodbuster Pale Ale, Deschutes Brewery (link)

Note: Tough call—all of the fresh hop beers I tried I liked, but this one from the Deschutes pub (on tap only) was ultimately my favorite.

Best Pumpkin: (tie) O'Fallon Pumpkin Ale, O'Fallon Brewery (review), and Lakefront Pumpkin Lager, Lakefront Brewery (review)

Best Session Post: #7 Brew Zoo—dedicated to Michael Jackson, the Beer Hunter, and one that I had fun writing.

Best Beers Not Already Mentioned: (No particular order)

• Tannen Bomb, Golden Valley Brewing (review)
• Obsidian Stout, Deschutes Brewing (review)
• Indian Brown Ale, Dogfish Head (review)
• Young's Special London Ale, Young's (review)
• Stone Old Guardian, Stone Brewing (review)
• Jenlain Ambrée, Jenlain (review)
• Alaskan Smoked Porter 2005, Alaskan Brewing (review)
• Liberty Ale, Anchor Brewing (review)
• Old Nick, Young's (review)
• Avant Garde, Lost Abbey (review)
• Cuvee de Tomme, Lost Abbey (review)
• Aecht Schlenkerla Rauchbier Marzen (review)
• Widmer Okto, Widmer (review)
• Wild Dog Gonzo Imperial Porter, Flying Dog (review)
• Wild Dog Barrel-Aged Horn Dog (review)
• Baltika Porter (review)

Best Beer: What, you think I'd actually call this? No, unfortunately I can't. There were several outstanding ones that are vying for that spot and I'd have to drink them again in a sudden death tasting...

Bison Brewing's Gingerbread Ale is one of those I've seen and been intrigued by, but had never picked up until recently. It sounds good but you never know for sure until you crack open a bottle.

Brewed with ginger, nutmeg, and cinnamon, Bison calls it a "holiday porter" though the review sites flag it as a spiced ale... I'm willing to compromise and call it a "Spiced Porter." It's 6.8% alcohol, not too high but not light either... comfortable.

Appearance: Viscousy-looking pour, color is molasses brown with ruby red tinges.

Smell: Gingerbread for sure; molasses, dark coffee, some sort of dark fruit jelly or preserves, raw dough, sweet and a bit syrupy, some ginger spicing. It really does smell like fresh gingerbread.

Taste: Astringency from the roasted grains; some caramelized sugars, a toffee-ish presence, a touch of molasses, some rummy-cake notes. A dry porter that's a tad on the light side, with some almost peppery-spice notes.

Mouthfeel: Dry, smooth with a nice presence on the tongue but a thin (watery) streak running through it, rendering it just shy of medium-bodied.

Overall: A decent porter with an amazing nose; possibly one of the best-smelling holiday beers I've encountered.

On BeerAdvocate, it scores a letter grade of B-. On RateBeer, it scores 3.29 out of 5 and is in their 68th percentile.

This was one of the beers I received recently from Flying Dog—it's their Horn Dog Barley Wine, only kicked up a notch. Here's the brief from the spec sheet included in the package:

This is a completely experimental beer. We took our Horn Dog Barley Wine and aged it in used Stranahan's Colorado Whiskey barrels for 13 months to give us a Barley Wine with a very distinctive flavor. Being that it was an experiment, we brewed a very limited amount (725 12oz bottles to be exact) and they can only be purchased at the brewery.

I'm pretty lucky to have received one of these, considering! The Horn Dog is a 10.5% barleywine that sounds pretty good on its own; this barrel-aged version is "only" 10% alcohol and I was definitely looking forward to it.

Appearance: No carbonation; pours a murky, oily cola brown. Very flat, unfiltered appearance.

Smell: Alcohol, wood, a medicinal smell, sweet yet astringent oily herbals of some sort. "Wormwood" keeps going through my mind. Dark, burnt molasses sweetness. Rubber? Like hot rubber...

Taste: Wow. There's bitter, oaky must right up front, a blooming alcohol heat that spreads to the back of the throat. Like a whiskey, or a blended Scotch. After the first few sips, the malt sweetness complements the woody liquor notes. Smoky, there's tobacco leaf there... oiled leather, dark maple, a bit of the mustiness reminiscent of old corn...

Mouthfeel: Thick and viscousy, a bit oily, lots of heat from alcohol brings whiskey to mind. Smooths out as you sip.

Overall: An amazingly complex beer that I enjoyed very much. Definitely worth picking up if there are any bottles left at the brewery—get several, and lay them down in your cellar to age.

On BeerAdvocate, there are only 3 reviews but they give it a letter grade of B+. On RateBeer, it scores 3.73 out of 5 and is in their 92nd percentile.

Yes, this is the second time I've reviewed this beer (first review); since Dogfish was (awesome) kind enough to send me a bottle of this in response to my inquiries into pumpkin beers (for my Pumpkin Beer Week)—since they were out of Punkin Ale—the least I could do was write up another review.

Plus, it's interesting to compare notes on the same beer at different times.

Recap: 90 Minute IPA is an "extreme beer": an Imperial IPA at 9% alcohol that is hopped continuously during it's 90-minute boil. That is, hops are added continuously at short intervals for 90 minutes... which leads to an enormous hop bill with a complex interplay of flavors.

Appearance: Beautiful clear honey-orange color with fluffy, solid tan-white head.

Smell: Sweet and hoppy—woody, floral hops, earthy. Sweetness is syrupy sweet, very pleasant toasted biscuit. Reminds me of a barleywine.

Taste: Concentrated hop syrup is the impression—sweet and thick in malts and sugars and infused with smooth, floral and twiggy hops. A bit spicy there, like a Noble hop. Hops are strong, but so smooth and blended you don't notice. And it's very sweet, very pleasant—you don't notice the 9% alcohol strength at all.

Mouthfeel: Pleasantly full-bodied yet very, very smooth and a bit warming. Like a syrup.

Overall: I used "pleasant" three times. It's an impressive beer.

On BeerAdvocate, it earns a letter grade of A- (excellent). On RateBeer, it scores 4.06/5, and is in their 99th percentile.

Now that Christmas is over and the Advent Calendar feature is done for another year, I can catch a breath and catch up on my "regular" blogging! I have some 13 reviews to write up—with more coming as I have a bunch of new beers to drink and review—particularly some of the samples that have been sent from breweries (Flying Dog and Southampton both sent me beers).

For my birthday I got a Beer of the Month club subscription (three months' worth), so I'll have lots of new beers to be writing about the next few months.

And other things; the Taste Your Beer kit I blogged about earlier came, and I've been behind in reviewing that as well.

Not to mention the Session is coming up next Friday; it's being hosted by brewvana and the theme is Doppelbocks. I have the bottle (magnum!) of Collaborator Doppelbock from Flying Dog's Open Source Beer Project, so I may very well write about that, along with a divergence into open source and free culture and who knows what else. Or maybe not, we'll see.

Lots of stuff coming, on into the new year!

Flying Dog looks to be going with a couple of Belgian styles for their next couple of outings. (Okay, the Bière de Garde is more of a French style, but still.) Should be interesting to watch the progress as they shift all their brewing to Maryland.

A new seasonal and 4th new Canis Major style to hit shelves in 2008

Flying Dog Brewery has new show-stopping styles and packages for 2008. The brewery continues its tradition of offering award-winning beers in 2008 with the release of a Biere de Garde as their new spring seasonal and a Tripel as the fourth member of its Canis Major Series of high gravity beers.

“Garde Dog” Biere de Garde is unfiltered with a hazy, deep golden to light copper appearance. Brewed with domestically grown French Hops and German Pilsner Malts, it gives craft beer drinkers a very enjoyable, light-bodied, subtlety sweet beer with toasty malt undertones. Garde Dog is the perfect compliment to lighter fare such as seafood, salads, cheese and Middle Eastern and Indian foods.

“Cerberus” Tripel is a bottle-conditioned strong Belgian Ale with slightly hazy appearance and mousse-like head. Brewing with Golding and Saaz hops and Pilsner and Aromatic malts yields a medium body and champagne-like carbonation. Cerberus pairs perfectly with turkey and other poultry, creamy cheeses, fruit pastries, desserts and crème brulee.

Flying Dog will also be launching two new and unique packages to their Canis Major Series in 2008. The first is a Mixed four-pack featuring one 12oz. bottle of each Canis Major style. The second is a Mixed eight-pack of 7oz. bottles, which will include two offerings of each Canis Major style. The Canis Major Series includes Gonzo Imperial Porter, Horn Dog Barley Wine, Double Dog Double Pale Ale and the new Cerberus Tripel.

Today's the final day of the Advent Calendar, and you know I couldn't let another year go by without picking Anchor Christmas Ale! This annual favorite (technically called "Our Special Ale")—perhaps one of the most anticipated and favorite American Christmas seasonal out there—is different from year to year; Anchor changes the recipe (which is secret) and the tree on the label.

First brewed in 1975, this year's vintage is their 33rd release. Jay Brooks heralded this year's release (and the beer overall) wonderfully for this month's Session; go read that and then go out and pick up a six-pack of the beer for Christmas Eve.

BeerAdvocate score: B+ (letter grade). RateBeer score: 3.58/5, 89th percentile.

Today is my birthday, so like I did last year, I'm selecting a beer that isn't (ordinarily) a Christmas/winter-themed seasonal, but is more of a "birthday choice": Deschutes Brewery's The Abyss. Released as part of Deschutes' Reserve Series, this phenomenal Imperial Stout is 11% alcohol by volume and aged in barrels, and is an extremely limited release—the release party for this year's batch is January 15th, and I guarantee it will go fast.

The Abyss has been winning awards all over the place—including the gold at this year's GABF—and comes in a wax-dipped bottle. And just to make you all jealous (it is my birthday, after all!), let me just say that yes, I've drank this beer and yes, I have three bottles of last year's vintage in my pantry.

(I plan on stocking up even more with this year's vintage.)

BeerAdvocate score (whoa... they've apparently completely changed their scoring system around...): "A" (letter grade) "outstanding". RateBeer score: 4.16/5, 100% percentile.

To commemorate the winter solstice today, I selected Pisgah Brewing's Pisgah Solstice. Even though they brew this beer year round, it certainly sounds like a seasonal:

Pisgah's year round Belgian. A Tripel ale, this beer contains moderately fruity esters with an alcoholic complexity supported by a soft malt character. This beer is pale gold in color and 9.5% ABV.

Scoot yourself down to Black Mountain, North Carolina for a glass or two of this beer (or a growler); they don't bottle, but it'll be worth it.

BeerAdvocate score: 7 reviews, 3.87/5, 100% approval. RateBeer score: 3.54/5, 84th percentile.

Last year around this time I picked Young's Christmas Pudding Ale, and I wanted to pick something from them again—and fortunately, that's not the only Christmas beer they offer. So today I'm picking their Christmas Ale—the catch is (like some of the others I've picked) it's available on draught only. (At least, according to their site right now—BeerAdvocate shows a picture of it in the bottle).

This beer breaks the mold for a seasonal a bit in that it's an English Bitter style at only 4.3% alcohol—but really, after so many spiced, strong, darker seasonal beers, who wouldn't want to take it easy and toss back a few session bitters?

BeerAdvocate score: 4 reviews, 4.06/5, 100% approval. RateBeer score: 2.98/5, 41st percentile.

When I hear "Gift of the Magi," I think of the O. Henry story rather than the Three Kings that inspired this Lost Abbey beer. However, this beer sounds awesome (in true Lost Abbey fashion):

It seems that everyone knows the story of the Three Kings. Sent to follow the star in the sky each brought a gift for the baby they sought. One King brought Gold, the other Frankincense and the other Myrrh. Many breweries produce a Christmas Seasonal beer and this is our beer to celebrate the holiday season. Gold in color and bittered with the bark of Frankincense, we have even used the smallest amount of Myrrh which is an herb that has roots in ancient winemaking as well. A massive Golden Ale fit for a king (or Queen) we offer the Gift of the Magi each holiday season.

This year's version is a hearty 9% Bière de Garde conditioned with Brettanomyces yeast. Also like many Lost Abbey beers, this one is among the rare; only 170 cases were brewed. Get it while you can.

BeerAdvocate score: 8 reviews, 3.98/5, 100% approval. RateBeer score: 3.7/5, 91st percentile.

Image credit: ganked from BeerAdvocate.

In honor of the snow that's (lightly) falling here in Central Oregon today, I've picked Pyramid Snow Cap for today's beer. This is a Northwest classic, first brewed in 1986, a Winter Warmer in the English tradition.

Expect a spicy, hoppy, fruity-ish 7% alcohol warming brew. And I can't think of a better endorsement for Snow Cap than what Jay at Hedonist Beer Jive writes here:

Nowadays no one seems to give PYRAMID any respect whatsoever, which seems kinda wrong to me, especially after reacquainting myself with SNOW CAP recently. Damn, this could end up being in 2007’s top five winter ales for sure – sure, it’s got a fairly thin body and a very mild head o’ foam, but with its light spicing and hearty blend of malts, this is Christmas done right.

BeerAdvocate score: 82/100, 90% approval. RateBeer score: 3.39/5, 77th percentile.

Each year on the Advent Calendar so far I've selected Samichlaus, and this year's selection has a bit of a twist: Samichlaus Helles ("Samichlaus Light") from Schloss Eggenberg. I was clued in to this from this post on Joe Sixpack's blog, wherein he writes:

...this “lighter” version of the classic Santa Claus beer was made especially for the American market. “I don’t want to cannibalize Samichlaus in other countries,” Stohr writes. “America is the best market for Samichlaus.”

I’ve read elsewhere that this is he first time this version has been made in 20 years - I honestly don’t remember that one. The Helles pours much paler than the original Samichlaus. And by original, I mean the 10-year-old bottle from Hürlimann (its original Swiss brewer) that I compared it with over the weekend. It’s still quite strong at 14 percent alcohol, but the body is just a bit lighter; it’s a sipper but dangerously drinkable.

Take note, the "light" part of the name isn't equivalent to the American Macro notion of "lite"—it's every bit the super-strength Samichlaus we all know and love, just paler (brighter) than the original.

BeerAdvocate score: 7 reviews, 4.13/5, 100% approval. RateBeer score: 3.34/5, 71st percentile.

I wanted to include at least one German beer on the list this year, so today I'm going with the elusive Weihnacts Engel, from Crailsheimer Engel-Bräu. I say "elusive" because although this appears to be their flagship beer, it's not listed on BeerAdvocate and RateBeer only has 19 reviews online.

"Weihnachts Engel" loosely translated means "Christmas Angel" in English. This beer is an Oktoberfest style of lager, at 5.5% alcohol—not a heavyweight but a nice session beer to enjoy for the holidays.

BeerAdvocate score: none. RateBeer score: 2.49/5, 18th percentile (only 19 reviews).

Today's pick is Bocq Christmas, from Belgium's Brasserie du Bocq. It's a strong, spicy Belgian Dubbel (or Strong Ale, depending on which review site specs you follow) at 8.1% alcohol. Details from their site are a little skimpy, but here's what they say:

Appearance : dark colour, clear, fine and generous white head.
Flair : rich with a scent of coriander and liquorice.
Taste : full mouthed, heady, pleasant aroma of the typical special malts.
Remark : tasting between 8° and 12°C. Typical beer for the end of the year. High range beer to taste together with family or friends.

A great beer to accompany that Christmas meal—say, with roast beef and sharp cheddar, or ham with raisin sauce.

BeerAdvocate score: (older version) 85/100, 100% approval. RateBeer score: 3.53/5, 86th percentile.

Today's pick is St. Nikolaus Bock, from Pennsylvania Brewing in Philadelphia. Penn Brewing specializes in German style beers, and their Christmas brew is a rich 6% alcohol Bock:

A very rich, dark bock beer. Dark ruby in color with subtle tones of chocolate and burnt malt. It will warm you on a cold winter night and brighten your days. The perfect holiday gift for the beer drinker.

The brewery is also producing a special Brewer's Reserve batch of St. Nikolaus, bottled in 25 ounce bottles and presented in a velvet bag. Now that is something I'd like to find under the tree come Christmas morning!

BeerAdvocate score: 88/100, 98% approval. RateBeer score: 3.36/5, 74th percentile.

At some point I wanted to pick an Australian beer for the Advent Calendar, as I hadn't yet featured one this year or the previous two. So today's pick comes from the Redoak Boutique Beer Cafe, located in Sydney: Redoak Christmas Cheer. Redoak has an impressive repertoire of over 40 beers, and of their Christmas Cheer they write:

This beer is a rich full bodied dark ale with all the delicious ingredients of our grandmothers pudding, the alcohol content will please and the aroma and flavour will certainly surprise you. It brings back the fond memories of a festive season on these cold winter nights. This beer has to be tasted to be truly believed - it is sure to surprise you.

It's 6.2% alcohol, and I have to say, the "grandmother's (Christmas) pudding" character sounds intriguing. Pudding in the English sense of course... more of a bread or cake-like pudding. Yum.

BeerAdvocate score: 7 reviews, 3.79/5, 100% approval. RateBeer score: 3.55/5, 82nd percentile.

Southampton Ales & Lagers of the Southampton Publick House (40 Bowden Sq., Southampton, NY [631] 283-2800) releases their new 2007 vintage of the Imperial Porter as part of the line of XXII Reserves seasonal brews. The Porter is distributed throughout New York, Pennsylvania, Connecticut, New Jersey, Rhode Island, Massachusetts, Northern Virginia and Washington DC and is available in gourmet markets and beverage distributors.

The Southampton Imperial Porter, "one of the 25 best American specialty beers" according to Men's Journal and the 2003 Real Ale Festival Gold Medal Winner, is a strong version of English Porter, which was called "Imperial" because this type of strong Porter was exported to the Imperial Courts of the Baltic countries (Latvia, Lithuania and Estonia) by the British in the 1700's. Imperial Porter is rich and strong with an alcohol content of 7.2% by volume. There are flavor notes of chocolate, toffee and caramel as well as the warming effect of the higher alcohol content. Imperial Porter is brewed with 7 different malts to give it a great complexity of flavor. It's chocolate and toffee flavors, and its alcohol strength make it ideal after-dinner beer.

For reservations or further information please call The Southampton Publick House at (631) 283-2800.

Today we head down to New Orleans to Abita Brewing Company for their seasonal offering, Abita Christmas Ale. Appropriately for a Christmas beer, each year is a bit different:

As befits any Christmas present, each years offering is a unique product crafted with special care. Generally, this beer is a dark ale, however, the recipe changes each year.

Not sure what the alcohol content on this is exactly, though an educated guess would be around 6%. Since it's a different recipe each year, this would be a fun beer to cellar and do vertical tastings with in later years, not unlike Sierra Nevada Celebration or Anchor's Christmas Ale.

BeerAdvocate score: 82/100, 82% approval. RateBeer score: 2.79/5, 29th percentile.

After the brief flurry of blogging I did last month on Anheuser-Busch's Winter's Bourbon Cask Ale, I found it here locally and picked up a sixpack to review. To recap, this seasonal from A-B is aged on bourbon oak barrel staves with vanilla bean for several weeks.

It's substantial at 6% alcohol, and I'm not totally sure how to classify it... BeerAdvocate judges it a Winter Warmer, RateBeer considers it a generic Spiced Ale. I'll go with Winter Warmer—more apt for the style they were trying for, I think—but I'm ambivalent.

Appearance: Very clear, blood-orange in color. (I'm thinking more the fruit rather than the bodily fluid.) Fizzy head rose and fell very quickly.

Smell: Pretty low/mild aroma profile... there's a hint of vanilla extract, a tad medicinal, and a bourbony character below that.

Taste: Pleasantly sweet, soft malt presence that's a little bit syrupy and very mellow. Not really getting any "oaked bourbon" character, but there is a bit of sweet vanilla cookie dough.

Mouthfeel: Light, fairly smooth—not much carbonation. Soft water characteristics.

Overall: Sweet, drinkable... another good "gateway" beer for people trying to transition away from the American macros, there's nothing intimidating here.

On BeerAdvocate, it gets an unsurprising score of 75 out of 100, with 48% approval. On RateBeer, it scores 2.48 out of 5 and is in their 16th percentile.

I decided to go with an old classic for today's beer pick: Jenlain Bière de Noël, from Brasserie Duyck in Northern France. This 6.8% alcohol Bière de Garde is brewed stronger than their "house" beer, in true yule tradition:

The tradition of Christmas beers is particular to northern Europe. In the years following the Second World War, the breweries used to sell an original, richer and stronger beer at the same price as year-round beers: this was their gift to their customers. The Duycks have perpetuated this custom by creating a special beer sold at the usual price.

It's available both in the 750ml champagne bottles and "standard" bottles (25cl, which is about 8 or 9 ounces) in sixpacks. This is another beer that I think would cellar well, so grab up a few bottles to store for Christmases to come.

BeerAdvocate score: 83/100, 89% approval. RateBeer score: 3.21/5, 62nd percentile.

Now this is a surprising press release all around... I didn't know that 70% of Flying Dog's beers were already made in Maryland, for starters. This announcement seems to me to be a Big Deal.

Colorado Craft Beer Company Enjoys Record Setting Year;
Will Focus Brewery Operations In Maryland to Improve Production Efficiency

Eric Warner, president and CEO of Denver-based Flying Dog Brewery, announced today that the company is concentrating its brewing operations at a state-of-the-art facility in Maryland where Flying Dog has had its beers brewed since 2006. Warner also announced that the company recently raised $3 million in capital to fund continued development of its brands.

Flying Dog Brewery, which has been in operation since 2000, will produce its last beer in January 2008. The company will maintain its corporate headquarters at 2401 Blake St. in Lower Downtown Denver, and Flying Dog’s 13 craft beers will continue to be distributed throughout Colorado.

Click through to read full press release

Despite driving rain, gusting wind, and a UO/OSU Civil War game, the Holiday Ale Festival witnessed record-setting attendance at the 12th annual event. The Northwest's most prestigious winter beer festival brought in more than 17,000 beer lovers, an increase of 10% over 2006. The festival took place Nov. 29 through Dec. 2 at Pioneer Courthouse Square in downtown Portland.

Click to read full press release

Today's pick is St. Bernardus Christmas Ale, which is available for the first time this year. (It's new enough that they don't yet have it on their own website!)

It's a Belgian Strong Ale with a whopping 10% alcohol by volume. The reviews are positive and sound to me like there's a lot of sweetness and fruitiness in this beer, paired with "typical" Belgian spiciness—not unlike a good fruitcake, I'm thinking. Sounds like a perfect dessert beer.

And this might seem like a strange criteria for a beer, but I think it's the most festive bottle of this year's selection so far... it reminds me of a tree ornament. Very nice!

BeerAdvocate score: 87/100, 100% approval. RateBeer score: 3.73/5, 94th percentile.

I think this is the first year I've picked a Texas beer: Saint Arnold Christmas Ale. I don't normally associate "Texas" with "beer" (other than Shiner and—originally—Celis), but there's been something of a craft brewing renaissance happening in Texas, I understand, so I thought it was high time.

Saint Arnold Brewing is billed as "Texas' oldest craft brewery" and their Christmas Ale was their first seasonal, first brewed in November 1995. At 7% alcohol, it's brewed in the tradition of an Old Ale. I enjoy the description and history Saint Arnold provides:

This was the first seasonal we made. There has long been a tradition amongst brewers for making a special beer for the holidays. We decided on an old ale. The definition of this style has changed over the years. When we use the term, we use the old definition which describes big, malty, rich beers as they brewed in the olden days (as in a couple of hundred years ago—those olden days). Thus the name. (Today this name often implies a big beer that has been aged.)

We named it Christmas Ale because, well, that's the holiday most of us celebrate. Also, we didn't see anything particularly exclusive about calling it this. And we thought naming it this would set us apart from all the namby-pamby marketing wusses that tell people not to use "Christmas". We're yet to see anybody not drink this beer because of its name. So there, wussies.

And, for a little more on the beer itself, check out the Session blog entry from Akelas Biggins. Enjoy!

BeerAdvocate score: 84/100, 96% approval. RateBeer score: 3.41/5, 78th percentile.

I admit I picked today's beer based on the name alone: Ho! Ho! Christmas Ale from Diamond Knot Brewery in Mukilteo, Washington.

Diamond Knot is a waterfront brewpub overlooking Puget Sound, north of Seattle. You won't their beer bottled—particularly not the seasonals—so you'll have to visit the brewery itself (or the surrounding area, where you may find it on tap elsewhere) to enjoy a pint of this.

I love the name, and the beer sounds like no slouch either: 7.5% alcohol, they describe it as a "robust ‘winter warmer’ ale, ruby brown in color with a sweet, fruity nose. Very hoppy, yet balanced with a residual sweetness."

BeerAdvocate score: 2 reviews, 3.9/5, both thumbs-up. RateBeer score: 3.52/5, 83rd percentile.

Michael Jackson's first category of Winter Warmers from the excellent Ultimate Beer is that of Bocks, so fittingly I chose the Bock Beer from Austria's Augustiner Bräu brewery. This is brewed for Christmas—it could rightly be called Christmas Bock Bier (which is how BeerAdvocate lists it)—and it's a bit elusive, judging by the scarcity of reviews online.

It's a warming 6.5% alcohol, and of it the brewery says:

Christmas time is also a special time for beer drinkers – particularly so in Salzburg. This is demonstrated year after year, for great festivities need to be washed down with something "strong".
Available from the middle of November to the end of December, our festive Bock Beer is made using Stadlau Pilsen and Kara-Extra-Hell malts, as well as Hallertau-Spalt-Select and Saaz hops by Barth & Sohn, Nuremberg.

As scarce as it seems to be, this could stand to be the ultimate Christmas present!

BeerAdvocate score: 1 review, 4.05/5. RateBeer score: 2 reviews, 3.25/5.

First Friday of the month, that means it's time for The Session again! The Session is where bloggers far and wide all write on a particular topic or theme, related to beer of course.

This month's theme for The Session is brought to us from Barley Vine:

The theme for this month is Winter Seasonal Beers. This can be any style you want as long as it’s a Winter Seasonal. Don’t limit yourself to just the big heavy beers as so many breweries put out so many different styles there something for everyone.

This month's topic goes hand-in-hand with my Advent Beer Calendar feature I'm running up until Christmas, so I decided to combine the two topics (so to speak) and review the same beer for The Session that I selected for today's Advent Calendar beer: Wild Goose Brewery's Snow Goose Winter Ale.

The other reason I selected this beer was that Wild Goose very graciously sent me a six-pack of Snow Goose last month, when I had contacted them about their Pumpkin Patch Ale in regards to my Pumpkin Beer Week feature that ran in November (they were out of Pumpkin Patch and sent the Snow Goose in its stead). Since I couldn't fit Snow Goose in with the pumpkin beers I was writing about, I decided it would be a perfect fit for today's Session (and Advent Calendar). So, that was a disclaimer in a roundabout way.

Snow Goose is a classic Winter Warmer, an English-style ale brewed strong and malty for the holidays (and colder winter months). At 6.2% alcohol by volume, it doesn't have the strength of, say, a barleywine, or some of the stronger holiday brews many American brewers have been putting out in recent years—but you won't even notice. In fact, you might think the alcohol content is even higher; as I wrote on today's Advent Calendar entry:

Snow Goose is malty, hoppy, sweet and spicy that all blends together into a brandy-like character, something that's difficult to achieve without higher alcohol levels. It's a bold beer, very well suited to the cold winter months.

(I added the emphasis here.)

This is a distinctive, delicious Winter Warmer to savor for the holidays. Here are my tasting notes:

Appearance: Nice mahogany brown laced with orange, and a light tan head piled up on top.

Smell: Warm and toasty Crystal malts along with brandied sugars. Alcohol, caramel, dark fruitcake.

Taste: Nicely malty and hoppy both; maltiness is rich with a sweet though not cloying background, hops are dry and spicy and herbally bitter. Alcohol heat, with oaky notes... thinking brandy again. Earthy, a little steely, rock candy, burnt sugars, dark maple (?), charcoal, tannins...

Mouthfeel: Medium-bodied, dry and warming. Aftereffects are not unlike a cognac.

On BeerAdvocate, it scores 84 out of 100, with 98% of reviewers giving their approval. On RateBeer, it scores 3.48 out of 5, and is in their 83rd percentile.

Today's pick is Wild Goose Brewery's Snow Goose Winter Ale. This beer hails from Frederick, Maryland, and is classified by the brewery as a "strong English Ale" at 6.2% alcohol.

Wild Goose prides itself on brewing English style ales and mentions that they brew with Ringwood ale yeast, a distinctive yeast strain indigenous to England that imparts unique characters to the beers it ferments. A good article from the Real Beer archives on Ringwood can be found here. (I always find it interesting when a brewery name checks its yeast.)

Snow Goose is malty, hoppy, sweet and spicy that all blends together into a brandy-like character, something that's difficult to achieve without higher alcohol levels. It's a bold beer, very well suited to the cold winter months. And I bet it would pair well with that traditional Christmas goose...

BeerAdvocate score: 84/100, 98% approval. RateBeer score: 3.48/5, 83rd percentile.

An American classic, Sierra Nevada Celebration Ale is today's pick. This intensely-hopped IPA sits at 6.8% alcohol and is widely regarded as one of the best American seasonal beers out there, as well as one of the oldest—it was first brewed in 1981!

Like a lot of these seasonals, this is a vintaged beer that can be cellared, as well. A great post on The Champagne of Blogs last month illustrates this: a vertical tasting of Celebration in Portland.

...an opportunity to do a true vertical tasting of six years of Sierra Nevada’s always amazing Celebration Ale. Woodstock Wine and Deli was offering 2002-2007 vintages on tap, in 6 oz. tasters, for the low-low price of $16. Celebration is probably my second-favorite holiday brew (no. 1 being Full Sail’s excellent “Wreck the Halls”), so I jumped at the chance.

Enjoy  a bottle of Celebration this Christmas, and put some more away for future holidays.

BeerAdvocate score: 90/100, 99% approval. RateBeer score: 3.8/5, 96th percentile.

That's right, today is Repeal Day—the day the 21st Amendment to the U.S. Constitution was ratified, ending Prohibition.

Enjoy a drink today to celebrate. I know I will.

Happy Repeal Day!

I've been noticing—and been intrigued by—beers from Norway more and more lately, so I decided to pick a Norwegian beer for Day 5: Nøgne Ø God Jul. This is brewed in the style of a strong (8.5% alcohol) English Porter (according to BeerAdvocate; I might call this a Baltic or perhaps even an Imperial Porter):

A dark ale brewed specially for the Christmas season, with a rich, complex taste of caramel. This is a strong, dark and rather sweet Christmas Beer – just the way we think a Christmas beer should be.

Open up a bottle this holiday season and enjoy a "Good Yule" indeed. For some reason this seems like the perfect beer to follow up an evening of caroling.

BeerAdvocate score: 86/100, 100% approval. RateBeer score: 3.77/5, 95th percentile.

Sounds interesting—I'm always interested in French beers (of which my knowledge has its gaps)—and it's the first I've heard of Strisslespalt hops.

Southampton Ales & Lagers of the Southampton Publick House is bringing back their Biere de Garde, a French-style "Country Ale," as part of the line of 750ml Series. The cork-finished, champagne style bottles of this series show the elegance afforded to these special brews. The series features uncommon brew styles that are "age-worthy," that is, they may be cellared for up to 5-10 years and over time the flavor will continue to evolve. The reason is because of the higher alcohol content as well as the fact that they are re-fermented in the bottle and therefore contain live yeast, which helps preserve the brew for a longer period of time. The 750ml Series is a small batch production, which assures the utmost care and attention at all points during the process.

The Biere de Garde is distributed throughout New York, Pennsylvania, Connecticut, New Jersey, Rhode Island, Massachusetts, Northern Virginia, Maine, North Carolina, Maryland, Ohio, Washington DC and is available in gourmet markets and beverage distributors. It retails for $14 a bottle depending on the outlet.

Southampton Biere de Garde has a complex spicy malt flavor accented by a mild herbal character of imported French "Strisslespalt" hops. The alcohol content of 7.2% is perceptible in the flavor and as a "warming" effect in the finish.

For further information please call The Southampton Publick House at (631) 283-2800.

Nothing says Winter Warmer like an English ale, so I decided for Day 4 to go with a classic: Fuller's Old Winter Ale, a 5.3% alcohol seasonal available December through January.

This is a full, malty beer with nutty overtones and dark chocolate character well-balanced with classic English hops. Perfect for settling down next to the fire on a cold, snowy day, perhaps with a slice of Christmas fruitcake.

As Michael Jackson wrote:

It has a dark orange colour and Fuller's typical interplay of appetising flavours: in this case, fruity yeastiness; earthy, herbal hoppiness; and a big, firm, nutty, sweetness that suggests crystal malt. Slips down with perilous ease. My choice to welcome this new year, at my local pub.

BeerAdvocate score: 85/100, 100% approval. RateBeer score: 3.34/5, 73rd percentile.

This is the first year I've highlighted McMenamins' seasonal offering, Kris Kringle, and even though you can find it all over the Pacific Northwest—if you're near a McMenamins, that is—you can only find it here. This is a brewpub-only beer.

Each year's version of this is a bit different—I don't know if they tweak the recipe, or if it just varies naturally based on variables and locations—but this year's offering is really good, I think the best version I've had yet. The description they provide:

This "winter warmer" highlights the rich, toasty, aromatic and roast malt flavors and is subtly spiced with cinnamon, ginger, and allspice. It is a medium-bodied, well-balanced ale with a garnet amber color.

The spices are blended really well without being overwhelming. The beer is 5.81% alcohol by volume, and it's available on tap at all McMenamins establishments throughout December.

BeerAdvocate score: only 1 review; 3.6/5. RateBeer score: 3.25/5, 60th percentile.

From Kiuchi Brewery in Japan comes my pick for Day 2: Hitachino Nest Celebration Ale. I picked it in part because a Japanese holiday ale intrigues me, and in part because there's some interesting details about this beer to dig up.

You'll notice from the brewery's website and the picture of the beer here (if you squint) that it's a 2005 beer—which seems to indicate that it's no longer available, but not so. BeerAdvocate displays an updated photo (no "2005") and the reviews are current. The US distributor's page on the beer is also up-to-date, so rest assured, this is still there for the taking.

Also interesting, the distributor (B. United International) lists this beer as an Eisbock—at 9% alcohol I'd believe that—while BeerAdvocate lists Winter Warmer. My guess? It's a bit of both—a Winter Warmer then given the Eisbock treatment to pump it up to a staggering 9% alcohol.

And that's not even the best of it: this beer is brewed with 5 different malts, 4 different hops, and a bounty of spices—orange peel, coriander, nutmeg, cinnamon, and vanilla beans. A true holiday treat!

BeerAdvocate score: 88/100, 98% approval. RateBeer score: 3.66/5, 92nd percentile.

Sweet! It's spreading—the Bottles of Barley blog today posted the first of a daily "25 Beers of Christmas" series.

For the Christmas season, I've decided to do a review of 25 different beers, one each day in December, just like a beery advent calendar. I will be focusing on Christmas and winter seasonals but there may be other special treats I pull out of my cellar.

That is awesome. I can't wait to see what beers are coming up—it'll be interesting to see if there's any crossover with my list.

(And no, I can't take any credit for inspiring this.)

December and the holiday season are upon us again! This is my favorite time of year, especially here on the Brew Site: I have far too much fun picking beers for my daily Advent Beer Calendar and blogging about them. This is the third year now I've been running this feature and hopefully it's as much fun for everybody else as it is for me.

This year's first beer for the Calendar comes from Boston, Massachusetts, and one of America's older craft breweries: Harpoon Brewery's Winter Warmer. Available from November to January, it's a moderately dark, spiced ale that is 5.5% alcohol by volume. Brewed since 1988, the spices used are cinnamon and nutmeg and pack that holiday kick.

I selected Harpoon for the 1st also because today is their 4th Annual Harpoon Helps Spread Holiday Cheer event:

On Saturday, December 1st, 2007, we will be sending Harpoon Helpers to various locations throughout Boston (shelters, soup kitchens, play spaces, etc.) and this year, we will also be helping spread holiday cheer in cities all over New England, including Portland, ME, Worcester, MA, Providence, RI, Hartford, CT, Manchester, NH, and Windsor, VT/Lebanon, NH.

The "Harpoon Helpers" go out and decorate those various locations for the holidays; in addition, they hold a gift drive for the people at the shelters they're decorating. If that's not a great way to kick off this holiday season, I don't know what is.

BeerAdvocate score: 78/100, 69% approval. RateBeer score: 3.23/5, 64th percentile.

As I mentioned in my wrap up for Pumpkin Beer Week, I might yet receive more pumpkin beers to review. Well, indeed I did: the fine folks at New Hampshire's Smuttynose Brewing Company sent me three bottles of their Pumpkin Ale (at my request for samples). Tonight I opened up a bottle and here I am continuing Pumpkin Beer Week.

Smuttynose has done something cool on their website: they have a page of Brewer's Comments where they get the brewers to describe the beers and thoughts in developing them. The entry for their Pumpkin Ale is from September 2003, and in part reads:

The one characteristic I wanted clearly defined was that underneath the pumpkin and spice flavors was truly an interesting beer in its own right. I've had too many spiced and fruit beers that are overdone and enter the realm of soda pop, causing you to have one but not another, let alone several. And let's face it, I gotta sell beer here. So we started with a base beer that is orange in color and fairly hoppy. We knew the spices would need some sweetness for balance so we used a mixture of crystal and carastan malts. To this we added pumpkin pie spices at the end of the boil. We actually found that adding pumpkin into the fermentor at the end of primary gave us the most interesting pumpkin flavor, and so that's when we add the puree.

Several things stand out to me here. First, the beer is hoppy (which I recorded in my notes, as you'll see)—not something you usually find in a pumpkin ale. Second, they don't mash with pumpkin, as almost everyone else does—they add pureed pumpkin to the secondary fermentation stage (which is a common practice when brewing with fruit).

I wouldn't have thought of adding pumpkin after the fact—any contribution to fermentables that the pumpkin contains at this stage is minimal. Indeed, the whole point of mashing the pumpkin with the grain is to convert the starch to sugars and extract as much fermentable material as possible (thereby brewing this style very much in the tradition of the colonial American brewers). Very interesting—this makes this beer more of a hoppy pale ale infused with pumpkin rather than fermented with it.

In fact, at 6% alcohol and its spicing, if this beer were a little darker—throw a little chocolate malt in there, perhaps—it would be an excellent Winter Warmer.

Appearance: Nice shiny copper in color with a haze (not sure if it's a chill haze or a yeast haze... there seemed to be a bit of sediment on the bottle of the bottle, so it might be yeast). Off-white head that fell slowly.

Smell: Spices and toasted malt. Nutmeg, allspice. A bit sweet smelling—honey malt and syrupy and maybe a hint of Belgian candy sugar.

Taste: At first blush—spicy, and bitter from hops—a dry pitchy/resiny bitter that's not piney (like you'd expect a pitchy hop to be). Nice undercurrent of pumpkin character that reminds me of my own homebrewed version (or it is the spices that trigger this?). Earthy—pumpkin and hops combine to convey this.

Mouthfeel: Dry, the bitterness sticks with you. A bit of body here, not quite medium-bodied, firm but not chewy.

Overall: Much hoppier than I expected for the style. I'm trying to decide if the hops overpowered the pumpkin, or balanced with it, but this is definitely a beer worth trying.

On BeerAdvocate, it scores 85 out of 100, with 97% approval. On RateBeer, it scores 3.3 out of 5, and is in their 70th percentile.

I have more details from Anheuser-Busch to follow-up my post yesterday about their Winter's Bourbon Cask Ale and the Bare Knuckle Stout Mix-It-Up program.

First, on the subject of the Winter's Bourbon, I had sent in several questions (via email) as a sort of mini-interview. Here it is (forwarded to/from their brewmaster):

Florian Kuplent, Brewmaster, Anheuser-Busch, Inc.

For how long is the Cask Ale aged in the bourbon barrels?

Winter’s Bourbon Cask Ale is matured on bourbon casks for several weeks. [Emphasis theirs]

Is the ale yeast used of a particular style, or a proprietary strain?

We don't comment on the strain of yeast that is used - it is a strain from our vast collection of yeasts that we selected to create the flavors that we were looking for in this beer.

Has A-B been seeing success in the marketplace with this beer? (Difficult to gauge success against the A-B mainstream beers, I know)

The sales of Winter’s Bourbon, and the entire line of seasonals, have exceeded our expectations. Each offering in the seasonal program, ever since Jack's Pumpkin Spice Ale debuted three years ago, has outsold the prior offering, as well as its own prior year sales. Craft beer drinkers have let us know that they enjoy the variety this program offers and that they look forward to the return of these brands each season.

Yes, I tend to have a slant towards the brewing process when I have questions. But there's clarification on the aging: it is on cask staves, and not in barrels, which is what I'd assumed. Makes sense in terms of volume—barrel-aging is intrinsically a smaller-volume process and the kinds of numbers A-B is producing preclude that here.

As for the "primary source" I was wondering about for more information on the Mix-It-Up program, here's the direct quote:

This an on-premise program for our Bare Knuckle Stout brand and we feature a different Anheuser-Busch beer each month for bar tenders to layer with Bare Knuckle. The drinks are themed such as the “Snow Drift” and the “Black Pumpkin” you mentioned. That’s really all there is to it which is why there’s nothing about it on the A-B Web site. We didn’t issue a press release on it.

This is sufficiently interesting to me that I sent in a few more clarifying questions about the Mix-It-Up program. I'll post the answers to those when I get them.

It's that time of year when the Winter Warmers and holiday ales are coming into season (despite many being release as early as October), so reviewing the free bottle of K-9 Cruiser Winter Ale from Flying Dog fits in perfectly with that seasonal mindset.

K-9 is a warming, malty, spicy ale that sits at 6.4% alcohol. According to the specs, it's brewed with 50/60 Crystal, chocolate malt, oats, and Munich malt, and hopped with Millennium and Saaz hops. The oats are a bit of an eyebrow-raiser, not something I would ordinarily associate with this style.

Appearance: Roasted brown in color, fairly clear. Deep red at the edges. Head is light tan, dissipated quickly.

Smell: Sweet, lots of spicy phenols, alcohol—kind of a whiskey/brandy character. Molasses, burnt sugars. A hint of some dark fruits... plums? Black cherry?

Taste: Reminds me of a strong Old Ale. Dark sugar flavors, dark and roasted malts, blackstrap, bitter alcohol notes. It really "pops" on the tongue. A bit of bitterness and spiciness from the hops, though the maltiness is the overall defining character.

Mouthfeel: Nicely medium-bodied and a bit dry. Warming alcohol heat and a bit prickly on the tongue.

Overall: Seems to me a faithful Winter Warmer, reminds me a bit of Jubelale (which is a good thing).

On BeerAdvocate, it seems to be receiving a lukewarm reception; it scores 80 out of 100 with 85% approval. On RateBeer, it scores 3.21 out of 5 and is in their 62nd percentile.

I received this in email from the folks at Anheuser-Busch:

Winter’s Bourbon Cask Ale is back for the third year and will be available next week! A fact sheet including the taste profile, ingredients, serving suggestions and food parings, is attached along with images.

For a new twist on this barrel-aged favorite, we’ve created the “Snow Drift” – Winter’s Bourbon layered with Bare Knuckle Stout. The combination of the roasted, dark malty notes of Bare Knuckle and the vanilla, hoppiness of Winter’s Bourbon Cask Ale create a great-tasting, festive mix. See image attached.

The “Snow Drift” is part of the ongoing Bare Knuckle Stout Mix-It-Up program, which features a different beer layered with Bare Knuckle Stout each month.

The fact sheet mentioned can also be found in this PDF here.

The Winter's Bourbon is A-B's answer to barrel-aged beers: it's aged on bourbon oak cask staves (which sounds like barrel-aging, but since it doesn't actually say "aged in barrels" I have my doubts) with vanilla beans. It's one I'll try if I get the chance.

What's interesting is the beer cocktail slant here; I hadn't heard of this "Mix-It-Up" program before, and I'm only currently able to find some indirect references to it. Apparently they also did a Halloween version, "Black Pumpkin," which was Bare Knuckle Stout mixed with Jack's Pumpkin Spice Ale. I find it intriguing, though. Anyone have a primary source? I can't seem to find one, not even on A-B's own website.

A picture of the Snow Drift concoction is there on the left.

Update: I posted more information—clarifying issues on both the Winter's Bourbon and the Mix-It-Up program—here.

I'm playing catch up on various emails and announcements that came in during Pumpkin Beer Week that I didn't have time to get to...

The Holiday Ale Festival up in Portland (Oregon) starts this week: "the only beer festival in the Northwest to be held outdoors in the dark, cold and often wet month of December."

This has been growing in prominence in recent years and to my mind, it's the winter version of the Oregon Brewers Festival. Sadly, I've never been, nor will I be able to make it this year, which is a shame, because this is one I'd really like to check out sometime.

It starts this Thursday, November 29th, and runs through Sunday, December 2nd. It takes place in Pioneer Courthouse Square, right in the heart of Portland, and the admission/cost details are the same as the Oregon Brewfest: free admission, $5 for the mug, $1 per taster, $4 to fill the mug.

They've got an amazing-looking lineup of beers available, which Jeff has also noticed and commented on.

I'm totally jealous.

Whoops! I forgot to mention two other brewers who had sent me beer in response to my request for pumpkin beer samples—the reason they slipped my mind is because they were out of stock of their pumpkin beer—and they very, very generously sent me alternatives.

Dogfish Head was out of their Punkin Ale, and instead sent me along a bottle of their 90 Minute IPA. It's a great beer—I reviewed it earlier this year, and I'm happy to do so again.

Wild Goose Brewery was also out of their Pumpkin Patch Ale and instead sent me a six-pack of their winter seasonal, Snow Goose Winter Ale. Since this is a beer I can't get anywhere around here, I'll be reviewing/highlighting it in the next couple of weeks here on the blog. (Can you guess how?)

So, special thanks to Dogfish and Wild Goose in addition to the other brewers I mentioned yesterday.

The title says it all: the latest sample package from Flying Dog came today. What I like about Flying Dog—aside from receiving beer from them—is that they're proactive and embracing the grassroots nature of the web and blogs and technology. Reaching out to bloggers, being active on Flickr and Twitter and MySpace and such, launching (and brewing) their own open source beer project—all things which are really, really smart, and doing things that no other brewery (that I know of) is doing. Pioneering.

(The only ding I'd give them offhand is their heavy use of Flash on their website. I pretty much hate Flash-based navigation. It breaks things.)

Anyway, this latest sample package consists of three beers: the open source beer, Collaborator Doppelbock; Wild Dog Barrel-Aged Horn Dog; and K-9 Cruiser Winter Ale. The Collaborator and Horn Dog I'm particularly interested in, the first because of the open source project thing (naturally), and the Horn Dog because as they write:

This is a completely experimental beer. We took our Horn Dog Barley Wine and aged it in used Stranahan's Colorado Whiskey barrels for 13 months to give us a Barley Wine with a very distinctive flavor.

I'm loving the whole barrel-aging movement, so this sounds exciting to me.

I'll write up the reviews as I drink.

My "Pumpkin Beer Week" moved along very well; I wasn't lacking for anything to blog about, and in fact, I may end up doing a bit of a continuation—there may be some additional pumpkin beer samples coming my way, for one thing. Maybe at some point I'll blog a Pumpkin Beer Month.

Special thanks in particular go out to O'Fallon Brewery, Lakefront Brewing, and Southampton Brewing for providing me with samples of their pumpkin beers to review. All were tasty and makes me wish (as I noted) that (any) Oregon brewers would take up the pumpkin.

I'm not sure if I'll be doing a Theme Week next month—December is when I run my daily Advent Beer Calendar feature up until Christmas, which keeps me busy and I have too much fun with. On the other hand, why not? If I can think of a good theme—Winter Warmers/Christmas beers seems too obvious—I may go ahead anyway. Perhaps I should have a poll of what themes people would like to see?

And now, back to our regularly-scheduled blogging...

Southampton Brewing made some news lately with the announcement from Pabst that they (Pabst and Southampton) were entering into a strategic alliance wherein Pabst would market and distribute (presumably nationally) Southampton's beers. Like the Widmer-Redhood deal, my opinion is that it's a good thing—anything that enables an award-winning brewery's beers to reach me more easily is a good thing in my book.

And Southampton is definitely award winning: the Silver and Bronze for their Double White Ale and Saison, respectively, at this year's GABF. And they've pulled down medals for previous years, too.

So I had high hopes for their Pumpkin Ale, which comes in 22-ounce bombers at sits at a warm 6% alcohol. And I really like the label on this one; the packaging just looks good.

(Disclaimer: Southampton is one of the breweries I contacted about sending me a sample, and they very generously sent me 3 bottles of their beer to review.)

Appearance: A bit of a darker-than-amber amber, slight haze but still fairly clear. A nice finger of off-white head. The amber has a slight brown to it.

Smell: There's a soapy aroma here (from the head?)... The predominant aroma is the spices. (Cinnamon, allspice, nutmeg, according to the bottle.) Behind that is a lighter vegetable character—a little green grass too.

Taste: Lighter, toasted malt punctuated with grassy green vegetable notes—like maybe the pumpkin wasn't roasted but raw (or prepared differently)? (Not a bad thing, just observation.) Spices are subtle on the tongue, with a bit of sweetness overlaying a peppery base.

Mouthfeel: It's a bit thin to be considered medium-bodied, and it has a bit of a sharp edge to the carbonation. A puckery film feeling to the mouth is left behind.

Overall: The soapy aroma at first was off-putting, but once I got past that (it disappeared) I warmed up to this beer. Well done, nice presentation and package, an enjoyable example of the style.

On BeerAdvocate, it scores well: 86 out of 100, with 100% approval. On RateBeer, it scores equally well: 3.5 out of 5, and in their 84th percentile.

The Pumpkin Lager from Milwaukee's Lakefront Brewery is the only pumpkin lager brewed (commercially) in the world, and they're old hands at this:

In 1989, Lakefront Brewery owner, Russ Klisch was reading dusty brewing tome, tippling one of our fine lagers and came across a beer recipe that Thomas Jefferson had brewed with pumpkin at his home in Monticello. Barley was scarce and expensive in the early days of the United States, but pumpkins and other squash were readily available. The idea that clicked with Russ’ philosophy of using the best ingredients available locally and incorporating them into the finest ingredients for making beer, and thus a legend was born.

1989 certainly puts them at one of the oldest pumpkin beers being brewed (Buffalo Bill's was in 1986, remember), and as a lager it stands out from the typical pumpkin beer. Using real pumpkin and a "proprietary blend of spices made here in Milwaukee for us by the acclaimed Spice House," they lager this beer for 4 full weeks, which gives it time to clear nicely and develop a clean, rich character.

(Disclaimer: Lakefront was one of the breweries I contacted for a sample of their beer, and they were kind enough to send me a full six-pack of their Pumpkin Lager, as well as a full sampler pack of 8 of their other beers.)

There's no listed alcohol percentage for this beer, but I'd guess in the neighborhood of 5%, which seems pretty typical for a Lakefront brew.

Appearance: Very clear, with a thin head, and fine bubbles rising from the bottom of the pint glass. Color reminds me of a medium-dark honey... a nice golden orange.

Smell: Sweet and spicy—the pumpkin is very pronounced and there's a pie sweet note—caramel and syrup and whipped cream all together. Nutmeg is prominent in the spices—also some cloves, a dash of cinnamon.

Taste: Smooth and clean taste of a lager (well-conditioned), with a mellow-sweet malty squash note—roasted pumpkin, a bit subtle. Spices contribute a tang... kind of a "chai" note. A touch buttery.

Mouthfeel: Crisp and clean, thicker, firmer body than a typical session lager. Perhaps like a bock? A bit of a nice, creamy aftertaste... adds to the "pie" character.

Overall: This is very nice and pleasant to drink... you get the pie aromas (whipped cream, too... how do they do that?) with each sip and warming spices. I find this to be a real pleasure to drink, an excellent pumpkin beer.

On BeerAdvocate, they're not as enthused as I am: it scores 79 out of 100, with only 66% of reviewers giving thumbs up; their loss, that one third that didn't care for it. On RateBeer, it scores 3.13 out of 5, and is in their 54th percentile—which is actually pretty decent for RateBeer.

A few links from around the web today.

First, a plug and a pointer to Magnolia Brewing in San Francisco, courtesy of Erik here in the comments. He says:

[G]otta give a shout out to Magnolia Brewing for their pumpkin ale, Barking Pumpkin. It really is good stuff. A nice dark ale that isn't overly spiced, they also roast the pumpkin seeds and use them to flavor the ale, giving it a spiffy nutty character.

Unfortunately, they only brew it around Halloween and don't bottle, so you'll have to visit San Francisco some fall to try it.

Pumpkin and pumpkin seeds—sounds extremely interesting.

Over on the Beer Bits 2 blog, Adam is contemplating brewing an Old Ale with pumpkin. That's some outside-the-box thinking I like to read about.

Finally, Josh over on A Good Beer Blog reviews several pumpkin ales for Thanksgiving. They're all East Coast beers, and his pick for the best was Cottonwood Pumpkin Spiced Ale. Yum!

Could it really be that there are no Oregon breweries producing a pumpkin beer? I'm sure that can't be entirely the case, but my preliminary investigations (on BeerAdvocate) strongly seem to indicate that. Come on, Oregon, what's up with that? You're at the forefront of the craft brewing movement!

Here's what I've found thus far: going through all the listed entries for the "pumpkin ale" style on BeerAdvocate—as well as checking a good number of breweries specifically—there were only two for Oregon breweries: a "Punkin Pie Ale" for Steelhead Brewing, and a "Pumpkin Patch" for Klamath Basin Brewing.

However, the one review for that Steelhead beer was from 2004, and it indicates the beer was sampled from the Burlingame (California) Steelhead location—not the Eugene one. And in fact, I can't find any evidence of a pumpkin ale on their website.

And the one review for the Klamath Basin beer was from 2006, and the brewery appears to have no website to reference. So I gave them a call, and found out that no, they didn't brew a pumpkin beer this year, part of the reason being it doesn't keep as well as other beers; they opted for a winter spiced seasonal instead.

However, the woman I talked to thought that there are in fact other Oregon brewers producing pumpkin beers, and she would talk to the brewers and get back to me via email. Awesome! So when I find out more, I'll be sure to write it up.

In the meantime, I thought I'd put together a wish list of Oregon brewers that I would love to see brew a pumpkin beer. Perhaps someone at one of them will read this and take pumpkin under consideration?

• Rogue: If ever there was an Oregon brewer who should make a pumpkin beer, Rogue is it.
• Deschutes Brewing: Home town advantage, naturally. They make some really good, tasty beers, and I'd like to see their take on a pumpkin.
• Barley Brown's Brewpub: The remote little brewpub in Eastern Oregon producing some amazing beers, at least the three that I've had (courtesy of my friend Kina). Shake things up in Baker City!
• Hair of the Dog: They just brew some amazing and unique beers, and I'd love to see what they'd come up with.
• Golden Valley Brewing: An interesting little brewery, with one of my favorite beers from the Oregon Brewers Festival this year. They're located in McMinnville, right in the heart of Oregon harvest country (especially for vineyards and hops)—a pumpkin beer seems like a natural fit.
• Roots Organic Brewery: They are brewing some mighty interesting beers—Coconut Porter, a Gruit—so a pumpkin seems like it would fit naturally in with their lineup. Plus, they could totally play up the organic thing with the pumpkins.

The O'Fallon Brewery is located just outside of St. Louis, Missouri, and each year brews a seasonal pumpkin ale. While researching the number of pumpkin beers that are available (in bottles) from various breweries, I sent out a number of emails inquiring if there were bottles of these beers that I could acquire for review. The good folks at O'Fallon were able to send me two bottles of their Pumpkin Ale.

[Disclaimer: Most of these pumpkin beer reviews are from breweries who generously sent me several bottles of their respective pumpkin beer after I contacted them.]

O'Fallon puts the "micro" in microbrewery:

Founded in January, 2000 by Fran and Tony Caradonna, the O'Fallon Brewery currently employs seven full-time and six part-time people.  In 2005 we brewed around 1850 barrels of beer...equivalent to about 25,000 cases.

Our 15-barrel brewhouse produces small batches of beer that take about two weeks from brew-day to packaging-day and makes around 200 cases or 30 kegs. We hand-fill our 50 liter and 1/6 bbl kegs and hand-pack each case of 12 ounce bottles in four 6-packs.

But don't let their size fool you. Their batches of beer are distributed to eight states (outside of Missouri) and have garnered awards at the GABF (2005 Bronze for their Unfiltered Wheat and 2004 Gold for their Smoked Porter). They are clearly a brewery to be reckoned with.

Their Pumpkin Ale is available beginning September 1st—it's their Fall seasonal—and they "add real pumpkin to the mash and then season the finished beer with cinnamon, nutmeg and cloves," yielding a tasty, enjoyable 5.5% alcohol beer.

Appearance: Reasonably clear with a bit of a haze (yeast). Color is amber with a brown note to it. Poured a cream-colored head.

Smell: Pumpkin pie spicy and yeast; spices are less prominent than others I've had. Malty that is both sticky-sweet and fusel-y.

Taste: Rich and caramel-sweet, a touch of custard, creamy cinnamon spice. Spices are very understated, subtle. Definite roast pumpkin/winter vegetable character. Rich and big malty notes, very nice.

Mouthfeel: Medium-bodied and chewy, very nice presence on the tongue. Substantial, satisfying.

Overall: I very much like this, I think it presents an excellent example of the style. I wish I could buy this here in Oregon.

On BeerAdvocate, it scores 83 out of 100, with 83% approval from reviewers. On RateBeer, it scores 3.13 out of 5, and is in their 54th percentile.