Why I Oughta...

As is the tradition, Nat's family has secured a couple of six-packs of Anchor Brewing annual "Our Special Ale" - aka the Anchor Christmas Beer .  I've posted about this beer a number of times over the years, but my interest doesn't really lay in the subtleties of the flavors in the beer.  But, rather in the packaging - and in particular the trees that they feature on the bottle label and six-pack carrier.   The folks at Anchor Brewing typically put up a big holiday beer page each year, but I don't seem to be able find this year's version.  Here's the 2020 page and the full archive of the previous 46 labels over the years .  However, it seems that they've created a new Web experience at a new subdomain:   https://raiseanchor.anchorbrewing.com/ - which seems to totally omit any talk about the Christmas beer for this year and mostly celebrate a new packaging design. The Christmas beer page typically tells the story of the tree they selected, but sin...

On a trip over to the Home Depot, Nat wanted to stop at Binny's for a few things.  I stayed in the car with the kids and she went in and came out with some of this Anchor Steam Christmas Ale.  This six-pack is destined for Naperville and her two brothers who have both drank and collected this annual release over the years.  They're the real beer drinkers in the family - they know their stuff and have their preferences, so it is fun to see this little tradition come alive every year. I've posted these bottles over the years here on the blog. Here's the post from last year . Here's the post with the bottle from 2017 . Here's my post with the bottle fom 2016 . Here's the post with the bottle from 2015 . And here's the post with the bottle from 2010 . So this year marks the sixth year that I've posted photos of the bottles - and every year it features a tree from Northern California.   This year is the Western Arborvitae.   From the Anchor ...

Had this Beach Blonde Golden Lager from the folks at Crystal Lake Brewing when we stopped into the Brat Haus in Richmond on a recent visit to Twin Lakes.  Like a lot of places these days, they have a pretty extensive beer menu with a mix of national and local choices and - much to my dismay - a heavy (as it seems always these days) focus on hoppy-IPAs.  This lager was a natural choice for me - something local, light and crisp.  Beer Advocate gives it a 81 which puts it below the normal range of the beers that Dr. Jeff has us try during his beer education sessions .  Speaking of which...we should do one of those again now that school is getting back in season and we'll be in more on the weekends as the weather cools down.  Ah...Fall is coming! 

A few weeks back, we went to a birthday party at a brewery that I didn't even know existed:  Miskatonic Brewing.  It is located in Darien - on a frontage road, but from Downers Grove, it is pretty easy to travel to for a beer.  The party room is in the back - like a lot of breweries, it seems.  And we had a great time.  I stuck to just one beer:  This Little Gray Belgian Wheat Ale which has a 3.8 from Beer Advocate .  I compare everything I come across to the home team over at Solemn Oath.  I'm sure this beer from Miskatonic is great - and I will be the first to admit that I'm a total craft beer amateur - but with all the craft breweries that have sprung up, they're starting to run together in my mind.  That's ok.  I'm not their target customer.  Since this place is so close, I'm guessing we'll be back.  And maybe then I can grab a coaster to join the online coaster collection here on the blog. 

What's this?  It is a craft beer that combines beer with a little effervescence from sparkling wine.  And Nat discovered it recently and shared a little bit with me earlier this year.  From the Allagash Brewing Company site : Two Lights is an ode to two of the more refreshing drinks of summer: cold beer and sparkling wine. While brewing this beer, we add sauvignon blanc must—the freshly pressed juice of the grapes. Then we ferment it with both lager and champagne yeast to create a tart, crisp, and dry profile. The finished beer’s aromas of pear, grape, and light hops pair with a flavor profile that’s a mix of tropical fruit and the snappy spritz of a freshly picked grape. We suggest sipping Two Lights by a water source too large to see across. BeerAdvocate has it at 3.91 out of 5.00 , but I think that's beer snobbery at play.  Like many of you, my introduction to Allagash Brewing Co was through their White beer - which BA has at 4.16 . 

Over the years, I've posted photos of the bottles of Anchor Brewing's Annual Christmas Ale here on the blog.  Nat's brothers are beer people and they've been seeking this stuff out every Christmas season for as long as I've been a part of it in Naperville.  So, when we arrive for Christmas Day there's always a few six packs of the annual Christmas beer in the basement fridge and every once in a while, there's even a magnum of the stuff.  This year's bottle struck me as different:  much more red in the label.  You can scroll through all the labels here on their site and see if you agree with me on the red.  1982 gives this year a run for its money in terms of the outer red band, but in terms of recent runs, this one clearly has the most red on it.  The tree on this year's label is a Korean Pine Tree.  From the Anchor Brewing site : For the 2018 release, Stitt created a brimming Korean Pine Tree for the label. Native to both North and South...

Here comes #31 in the [coaster collection] on the blog.  This one is from Half Acre Brewery in Chicago and is part of a series of local breweries in the collection.  The first one in the collection from the local brewery collection is the Saugatuck Brewing Company in January of 2016 .   Then one from Solemn Oath Brewery in Naperville , and then most recently Alter Brewing Company in Downers Grove.   I haven't been to Half Acre, but like all of you guys, I've had plenty of their beers including some of their more popular ones like Daisy Cutter.   Glad to add them to the collection here to keep the coaster part of the online archives.

Here comes #29 to the [ Coaster Collection ] here on the blog - and this one is local.  Alter Brewing Company is located in Downers Grove.  And, when we were there...the place was bananas!  We went on a recent Friday night for a party in their upstairs party room 1 and the entire taproom was packed.  I had a few beers, but most of what they had in the party room were super-high alcohol beers.  This is the first local, Downers Grove coaster added to the collection here, but not the first from a local craft brewery.  Back in January of 2017, I posted these photos of a coaster from Solemn Oath Brewery in Naperville .  1  This time, we were in the upstairs party room, but we've also been to a party in the rear, larger room.  I really liked the upstairs room, but it was H-O-T!

There are plenty of Christmas traditions that we participate in (trains, advent calendars, elfs, tree day, Walnut Room, etc), but there's also a beer tradition that I've grown to look forward to:  the opening of the annual Anchor Steam Christmas Ale as done by my brother-in-laws in Naperville. I've chronicled this in the past here on the blog.  Here's a post from last year's version .  Here's the 2015 version .  And here's a post from 2010 with that year's bottle .  And based on those posts, I've been drinking a little bit of this stuff for 10 years now, despite this only being the fourth version that I've documented on the blog here. As for this year's brew, they once again picked a unique tree for the label.  From the Anchor Steam site : This year’s tree is the Santa Lucia fir. Extremely rare, it is native and limited to California’s Santa Lucia Range along the central coast of California. They bought some smaller bottles like nor...

On Black Friday, I popped into the Jewel to pick up a few rations (and get 'cash back' because our bank wasn't close) for our trip to the Christmas Tree Farm (where they only take cash for the trees) and came out with a few of these Goose Island Bourbon County Brand Stouts.  By total accident.  I was making small talk with the cashier and she was telling me about how there people were camping out overnight in hopes of scoring these bottles.  She pointed to them and said that they found two bottles after the crowd left.  I asked if I could buy them and she said "sure".  So...almost $20 later, I came home with proudly with two bottles.  Of stout.  Nat loves a good stout.  And so do her beer nerd brothers, so they'll enjoy them this Christmas season.  I texted a photo to Dr. Jeff - who normally hosts our craft beer dinners and has even had a stout one before - and bragged about getting two of these.  He sent me back a shot of his h...

Now that we're based in Downers Grove, we're A LOT closer to The Bavarian Lodge in Lisle .  We've been a few times when we were out in Naperville with Nat's folks, but it was a hike all the way from Elmhurst.  We took the kids and had a pretty good meal (Schnitzels all around!) with some great pretzels.  The place has a strong reputation for a pretty amazing beer selection.  We're way, way, way out of our element when it comes to appreciating all of the greatness in the ever-changing beer menu. Doesn't mean we don't try things.  If there's a Solemn Oath Brewery offering on the menu, I think that Nat and I will usually go in that direction (Rooting for the home team and all, right??).  But this past time?  No Solemn Oath it seemed, so we had to go elsewhere. Being summer, I ended up with a Radler.  The Pfungstadter Weizen Radler to be exact.  It came in this tall, lean glass and was a delicious treat!  If you're there this summer,...

I tend to do most of my shopping up in Wisconsin at Walmart.  Nat isn't a fan, so most of the time, the trips I make there are with just some of the kids.  We buy fishing gear, groceries (including turkey for grilled turkey and cheeses) and other lakehouse what-have-yous.  On one of my recent trips, I came across this huge pallet of New Glarus Spotted Cow 12 packs of cans right by the 'greeter'.  Interesting to see this craft beer being sold in Walmart, isn't it? Having recently read this piece about New Glarus planned expansion , this got me thinking.  From BrewBound : New Glarus Brewing Co. is adding 16 fermentation tanks that will eventually allow the Wisconsin brewery to double its annual capacity to more than 400,000 barrels.  The German manufactured tanks, each capable of holding about 580 barrels of beer, arrived via boat in Milwaukee earlier this week.  Carey had hoped the tanks would be operational for a busy summer selling season, ...

This past weekend was Oath Day Five out at Solemn Oath Brewery in Naperville.  We weren't able to make it because the Bird's birthday was the same day and we were, ummm, tied up with cake and presents and rainbows.  Yeah...rainbows.  Lots of them.  That's what she wanted, so Nat delivered!  Anyway, I've posted about Oath Day in the past.   Here's a post from 2015 showing off a cool van sticker I scored from the festivities .   If you're wondering what happens at Oath Day, check out this post from Solemn Oath  that details everything or tune into their Instagram feed for a post-event roundup showing some of the sights from the weekend.  It covers all the what-have-yous that go on including how they created a new deck of cards for the event .  But, just because we didn't get to go to Oath Day this year, doesn't mean we aren't fans.  And, we even showed off a little bit of our own craft beer nerd chops by introducing Dr. Jef...

Recently, we had another craft beer education and tasting with Dr. Jeff at our place.  I've covered previous sessions with Dr. Jeff here on the blog .  As usual, Dr. Jeff brought over a batch of beers to share and they tended to be around a theme.  We started with the beer at the top called Galaxy Bowl from Hop Butcher for the World - which he told us was a Chicago beer.  It has an 88 on BeerAdvocate , so it is a strong beer in the craft beer nerd world.   It is the top right corner of the little collage above.   After that, we moved on to this beer from Off Color - another Chicago brew maker.  Called I'm Sorry, it isn't rated on BA just yet .   And the final beer of the evening (well...at least for me...because I went to bed!) was Humulus Terreux With Motueka Hops from Bruery Terreux.  Dr. Jeff brought a different beer from this brewery about a year ago.   Here's that post .

A few days ago, I posted a photo of a cheesesteak that I (sadly) ate at the Philadelphia airport and bemoaned by lack of time/availability to do anything while I was in town for the brief trip.  But, while I didn't get to enjoy a pretzel or a proper cheesesteak @ Steve's, I did get a chance during the delay before boarding my flight home to enjoy one of these:  Walt Wit from Philadelphia Brewing Company.   BeerAdvocate lists it in the 'okay' range with a score of 79 , so don't go out of your way to pick one of these up, but I do like the bottle (cute label, right?) and maybe it was the sour taste in my mouth of having my flight be delayed, but I enjoyed this. Looks like, if you can find it, the Philadelphia Brewing Company beer to get is their Schwarzinger.   Scores a 86 @ BA .

Despite Beer Advocate giving this Asahi Super "Dry" a 'poor' rating , I found it quite drinkable at the various dinners and evening activities that we took on during my stay in Tokyo and Nagoya.  When we weren't drinking sake, I defaulted to beer and more often than not, it seemed that this Asahi Super "Dry" was amongst the beers available.

This is the 3rd or 4th 'craft beer tasting with Dr. Jeff' that I've shared here on the blog.  The rest of them can be found here on the "Dr. Jeff" tag page with the most recent one being an IPA session .  We've had sour sessions and stout sessions, too. This time, we had a combo session.  IPAs, sours, stouts.  It was fun. The first up is that beautiful bottle on the left.  Can't find it on BA.  On the top right is Your Wish is Granted IPA.   Not rated on BA, either .    And on the right is a Transiet Artisan Ale.  Not sure which one, though!  I guess I didn't take too good of photos that night, eh?

Saw these at the taproom of the Solemn Oath Brewery out in Naperville on a recent visit.  Added to the Coaster Collection here on the blog.  By my reckoning, this marks the 14th coaster in the collection that you can see here . This isn't the first time I've written about the fine folks at Solemn Oath Brewery.   You can see all the posts here on the SOB tag page .

Behold, the hard-to-find 2016 Anchor Christmas Ale !  Nat's brothers are *really* into this stuff and they have a big to-do every Christmastime when one of them comes home from LA and the other one migrates to the Suburbs from the city.  And, I have to tell you...when it comes to traditions, this is one of the good ones! Each year, the fine folks at Anchor Steam come up with a new ale and tree on the label.  From their Christmas Ale page: It is sold only from early November to mid–January. The Ale's recipe is different every year—as is the tree on the label—but the intent with which we offer it remains the same: joy and celebration of the newness of life. Since ancient times, trees have symbolized the winter solstice when the earth, with its seasons, appears born anew. With a heavily guarded, secret recipe, Christmas Ale is a highly anticipated seasonal delight, complex and full in flavor with a velvety texture and alluring, yet subtle, spiced aroma. I've covered ...

Another month, another craft beer tasting session with our good friend Dr. Jeff.   Here's the last session he hosted that focused on Sours .  And one from earlier this year where he toured us through various stouts . This time, he took us on a tour of IPAs including a stop at what he called the "OG of West Coast IPAs", this 5th Anniversary Stone Brewing IPA.   This one scored a 93 on Beer Advocate , so he isn't fooling around.   It was interesting to taste a few different versions from Stone being that we were just at the Bavarian Lodge where Stone did a takeover .  Of course, Dr. Jeff was there on opening night as a good craft beer advocate *should* be. Here's the story on the back of the big bottle: After that, he brought out a can of Heady Topper The Alchemist from Vermont.  This one has a score of 100 !  I think that's the first 100 I've ever had.  And, maybe it was the age of this can, but I liked other beers better that night. ...