I love Thanksgiving – more specifically, I love food. Fortunately for me, I get to eat Thanksgiving dinner three times, not including the week’s worth of leftovers that I bring home. Each one is different: I get the old school favorites at my grandparents’ house for lunch on Thursday (sweet potato casserole, fruit & nut jello and cascade salad, etc.), my parents’ house for dinner and a low-carb version, and the in-laws for dinner on Friday for a modern rendition of the classics.
All of them, of course, will be celebrated with lots of craft beer!
Tonight I am in the midst of a beer that sounds like it was made for such a time as this.
Weyerbacher AutumnFest is a 5.4% ABV, amber colored brew with a big three-finger head of off-white lacy foam. The label features a farm scene complete with barn and scarecrow,
The beer smells sweet of toffee and molasses. The first sip is robust and malty with syrupy bubblegum sweetness and earthy maple flavor. Not too thick like some of the Fall/Winter brews out right now, but heavy enough to knock the chill off and retain its flavor. Good stuff!
-Stay Thirsty is a website that posts weekly craft beer reviews and other nonsense. Pushing 800 brews and counting! Check it out at www.staythirstyblog.com or follow on Twitter @staythirstyblog
So after three+ GABFs (one actually spitting only) and many thousand craft brews, I feel I have earned the right to pontificate when I find brew and/or brewer that turns me on. I picked the Wayerbacher Pumpkin Ale as my personal favorite of the show for 2011. It took me three months to try to track it down and unfortunately they were out of it for Christmas. I will buy cases next year.
Soooo…I bought the autumnfest out of respect for the brewer and I am not disappointed. It will be a choice of 20 different brews served on Christmas.
Bill the Beer Sensei
PS: OK, I admit it…I would love to be a beer snob, but I can’t pull it off because my taste buds cannot distinguish all of the nuances of which others speak. Having said that, after spenidng my first 50+ years not liking beer..AKA Miller, Bud and other copy cats, I knew that I did not like beer. That all changed when a local guy introduced me to things like Irish Red, IPA, and more. He was a genius and a friend…I am sorry that he couldn’t get pass his entrepreneurial stages. I thank him every time I try another craft brewer!.